Second Baptist Church, a Houston megachurch which counts Lit. Gov. Dan Patrick among its 90,000 members, has become embroiled in a massive scandal as of late.
As former pastor Ed Young retired mid-sermon back in 2024, he named his son, Ben Young, his successor – without putting it up to a vote. Since then, a group calling themselves the Jeremiah Counsel have fought against the transition of power, leading to a lawsuit that continues to this day.
Andrea Ball, an investigative reporter with the Houston Chronicle who wrote about the legal battle, sat down with Texas Standard to discuss the schism and its consequences. Listen to the story above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: Let’s start with these members suing the church. They call themselves the Jeremiah Counsel. Who are these folks, and why are they so upset?
Andrea Ball: The people behind the lawsuit are current and former members. This all started back in 2023.
Ed Young had spoken several times to the people involved, about, “hey, we need to change these bylaws. They’re from 2005, the world has changed, we’ve gotten bigger. We really want to keep the ‘woke agenda’ away from us, and we’ll put things in there that will allow that to happen.”
There were very few people who attended this bylaws meeting to change all that stuff, and it was fine for a year. People didn’t really pay attention. The board of directors was pretty hands off. Then, in 2024, Ed Young decides he’s going to step down.
And did Ben Young take over? Is that what happened?
Yes. Yeah, and so it shows up one day in a church service. Ed is talking, and then he announces that he will be leaving the position of senior pastor. He says, “Following me will be someone you’ve known for decades who’s worked here, and it’s my son, Ben,” and people came and prayed over him on the stage.
Some people thought it was a very beautiful ceremony, and they were like, okay, we might have picked him, we might not have picked them, but we trust Ed Young.
And then things just fell apart from there.
What happened? Did they not like the way Ben was preaching?
Ben didn’t even have a chance to start preaching as senior pastor before the problem started.
According to the lawsuit filed by the Jeremiah Counsel, the day after Ben was appointed, he got rid of his dad. There were a lot of changes. People were upset.
Finally, they realized, okay, it’s been almost two years. If we’re going to sue, the statute of limitations is running out. So in April of 2025, these people, the Jeremiah Counsel, sued.
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Is this just a quarrel over bylaws and transition, or is there something bigger going on in this church?
I think what’s happening is that Baptist churches vote. It’s not just a nice-to-have, it’s not just a “hey, we should.” It’s part of their faith.
Really, I think people were like, hey, we knew Ed Young. We knew what he was going to do. We understood him. We believed in him. How could he be treated so poorly? What’s happened?
People got confused and didn’t understand. And when they felt they weren’t heard, they were like “that’s it, we’re done.”
What made you so interested in this fight? Plenty of churches have arguments over leadership and the like, I would imagine.
Yes, they do. There are lawsuits in other places across the country about this. I think what happened here was this is a 100-year-old church, and so it wasn’t started with a sort of autocracy, if you will. It started with voting.
Plus, we were interested, of course, because this is a huge church. It’s a megachurch in Houston with many power players, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick as a member. Greg Abbott has visited, and Ed Young’s a really well-known guy. People who know him think that he is a magnetic, powerful personality who could make you feel like you are the only person on Earth.
One guy told me that his house burned down, and Ed Young showed up and offered – with his own money – to help him fix things up. So they loved him, and you see a church that has so many campuses, a huge school with many buildings on it; the assets are just tremendous.
