{"id":295034,"date":"2026-05-15T20:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T20:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/295034\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T20:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T20:48:08","slug":"houstons-second-baptist-church-is-headed-to-trial-over-church-leadership-lawsuit-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/295034\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston\u2019s Second Baptist Church is headed to trial over church leadership lawsuit \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"SecondThe interior of Houston\u2019s Second Baptist Church during a service in 2004.<\/p>\n

A legal battle over the leadership of Second Baptist Church, a historic Houston congregation reaching its centennial next year, will head to a jury trial in July.<\/p>\n

A group of congregants calling themselves the Jeremiah Counsel have sued Second Baptist leaders over a transition of power from father to son after Rev. Ed Young stepped down as senior pastor<\/a> in 2024 and appointed his son, Ben Young, to the role.<\/p>\n

The congregants have accused the Youngs \u2014 as well as other defendants Lee Maxcy and Dennis Brewer, Jr. \u2014 of “self-dealing, deceptive acts, and attempts to seize of control for themselves of Second Baptist\u2019s $1 billion in assets.”<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n

By contrast, the Youngs and their co-defendants at Second Baptist have called this a smear campaign, pointing the finger at the Jeremiah Counsel to try to hold control over the congregation. The megachurch has thousands of members across multiple locations in the Houston region.<\/p>\n

After a lengthy legal battle, the case will head to a jury trial on July 27, court records show. The case had previously been scheduled for a trial in late April, but a judge ordered the case for mediation on April 1. By April 30, attorneys said mediation efforts failed.<\/p>\n

Attorneys for both the Jeremiah Counsel and Second Baptist Church did not immediately return requests for comment Friday.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Second Baptist Church receives blowback over politically charged sermon<\/a><\/p>\n

At the center of the case is a question of the church’s bylaws. The defendants argue the church had grown to a point that by 2023, “it was apparent that [the organizational] structure was not suited to an organization of the size, diversity, and scope of Second Baptist.” At that point, church leaders began to update its bylaws and articles of incorporation.<\/p>\n

On May 31, 2023, the revised laws were presented for a vote to members of the church who showed up to the special meeting. By a vote of 315-2, the bylaws passed, according to court records. A new ministry leadership team was appointed by the pastor, replacing the board of trustees, which included two of the plaintiffs.<\/p>\n

That also set the stage for Ben Young to be appointed as senior pastor by his father, without oversight, the Jeremiah Counsel argued. They’ve criticized the 2023 vote as only reflecting a fraction of the church’s views, with short notice and little transparency, which the defendants have refuted.<\/p>\n

The case has garnered attention both in religious circles and secular news outlets. Court records indicate the church has grown into a congregation of nearly 100,000 members, with multiple campuses and a K-12 school, with financial assets valued at nearly $1 billion.<\/p>\n

The scheduled trial is before Judge Grant Dorfman in the 11th Business Court of Texas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The interior of Houston\u2019s Second Baptist Church during a service in 2004. A legal battle over the leadership…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[107633,2441,107634,56,107635,58,57,107636,66,223,1968,18694,27344],"class_list":["post-295034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-ben-young","tag-court","tag-ed-young","tag-houston","tag-houston-church","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-jeremiah-counsel","tag-local","tag-news","tag-religion","tag-second-baptist-church","tag-texas-business-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}