In a year marked by ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, a historic presidential election, and continuing advancements in artificial intelligence, 2024 also saw the passing of several notable Christian leaders and public figures.
The individuals who passed away this year sometimes made history, sometimes were in the headlines, sometimes sparked controversy, and often had a significant influence on both the Church and society as a whole.
Note this list does not include every notable church or ministry leader who died since the start of the year and primarily focuses on Christian clergy and influencers based in the United States.
Thelma Adair
Thelma Adair, an educator and activist who became the first black woman to be elected moderator of the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church in the United States, died eight days before her 104th birthday.
A native of Iron Station, North Carolina, Adair served as a professor for decades, was president of the advocacy group Church Women United in the 1980s, and served with the Peace Corps. “If we’re going to follow Jesus Christ, we are following a radical,” she told those at the 1976 assembly. “We’re following a man who spoke out, acted and lived in a radical way.”
She died on August 21, 2024, at the age of 103.
E. Anne Henning Byfield
Byfield was a former president of the African Methodist Episcopal Church’s Council of Bishops and a recent social action chair for the denomination.
She helped lead the AME’s response to a massive embezzlement case in which the Rev. Jerome V. Harris, who had been executive director of the Department of Retirement Services for 21 years, was accused of stealing from the denomination’s retirement fund. Harris also died this year, in May of a heart attack.
Byfield was the chancellor of Wilberforce University and a board member of Payne Theological Seminary, both AME-affiliated schools in Ohio. She was also known for mentoring within and beyond the AME Church and for her creativity, having written prayers, poems, and the litany used at the 2005 funeral of civil rights activist Rosa Parks in Detroit.
She died on October 3rd at the age of 74.
Tony Campolo
Campolo was an American Baptist minister and sociologist who sought to have evangelicals and other Christians address racism, poverty and other social ills. The author of 35 books, including “It’s Friday but Sunday’s Comin’,” he was known for inspiring young people to listen to and act on the Christian gospel and for challenging the religious right in his social commentary.
The pastor and professor was once a spiritual adviser to then-President Bill Clinton in the 1990s. Campolo also founded the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education, which worked in Haiti and several other countries from the 1970s to 2014. He was also the founder, with activist and author Shane Claiborne, of the organization Red Letter Christians. This organization highlighted the ethical and social teachings of Jesus—whose words appear in red in some Bibles—and sought to de-emphasize the term “evangelical” as a reference to a conservative voting bloc and elevate its definition as “a people who bring good news to the world.”
He died on November 19, 2024, at the age of 89.
Sandra Crouch
Crouch was the twin sister and collaborator of gospel music legend Andraé Crouch, performing with him in gatherings ranging from the crusades of Billy Graham to a meeting of the National Association of Evangelicals.
She and her brother co-wrote “Jesus Is the Answer” — a 1970s hit on both Black gospel and white gospel radio stations. In the 1980s, she composed, produced and sang the lead on “We Sing Praises,” for which she garnered a Grammy in 1984 for best soul gospel performance by a female, helping keep Light Records out of bankruptcy.
At the time of her death, Crouch was senior pastor of New Christ Memorial Church in San Fernando, California. In 1998, her twin brother controversially ordained her co-pastor of the Pentecostal church their parents started decades earlier.
She died on March 17, 2024, at the age of 81.
Timothy Dudley-Smith
Timothy Dudley-Smith was a former bishop in the Church of England and the prolific hymn writer behind such songs as “Lord, Through the Years” and “Tell all, my Soul.”
A native of Manchester, England, Dudley-Smith served as bishop of Thetford from 1981-1991, general secretary of the Church Pastoral Aid Society from 1965-1973, and director of the Evangelical Alliance from 1987-1992. Dudley-Smith also worked alongside the Rev. Billy Graham when the famed American evangelist held a preaching tour of London in the 1950s.
Dudley-Smith passed away on August 12, 2024, at the age of 97.
Gustavo Gutiérrez
Gutiérrez Gutiérrez was a Peruvian Catholic philosopher known as the father of liberation theology.
Gutiérrez drew from his experiences advising Latin American bishops in Medellín, Colombia, when he wrote “A Theology of Liberation,” his signature book. It explained the theology that began to take over Latin America in the 1960s and focused on social justice for the poor and the “liberation of the oppressed.”
With liberation theology regarded with suspicion during Cold War years for its perceived communist influences, critics described Gutiérrez as a Marxist and he lived under Vatican scrutiny for most of his career, although he and his work were partly rehabilitated under Pope Francis. In 2013, Francis celebrated Mass with Gutiérrez at the papal residence in the Vatican, along with conservative Cardinal Gerhard Müller, an invitation that demonstrated a shift in the Vatican’s attitude toward liberation theology.
He died on October 22, 2024, at the age of 96.
Junior Hill
Junior Hill was an evangelist and popular Southern Baptist who reportedly led approximately 1,800 revival events over the course of his decades-long preaching career.
Born William Junior Hill and the youngest of five children, Hill became a full-time Evangelical preacher in 1967, speaking at revival events, conferences, state conventions and seminaries.
At the 2021 Alabama Baptist Pastors Conference, Hill was honored for his decades of preaching with the inaugural Fred Wolfe Lifetime Pastoral Ministry Award.
Gerald Wolfe, a veteran Christian musician, took to Facebook to give condolences in January, calling Hill “one of the most captivating preachers I’ve ever heard.”
“I always looked forward to being in services with Junior. … He was a genuine, kind-hearted, lover of souls. You couldn’t help but love him. … I certainly did,” Wolfe wrote. “As sad as it is that he’s no longer with us, it’s exciting to think about what he must be experiencing at this very moment, in the presence of The Lord. Rest well, Bro. Junior. We’ll see you soon.”
He passed away on January 3, 2024, at the age of 87.
Beverly LaHaye
Beverly LaHaye was a prominent conservative Christian activist who founded Concerned Women for America and was a pioneering figure for Evangelical political engagement.
Born Beverly Jean Ratcliffe in Detroit, Michigan, she married Tim LaHaye, co-author of the best-selling Left Behind series, while a college student in 1947.
Beverly LaHaye founded Concerned Women for America in 1978 in response to witnessing the liberal political activism of Betty Friedan, the founder of the abortion advocacy group National Organization for Women. “Beverly LaHaye was not born into privilege nor blessed with extraordinary skills and abilities. Her life is a beautiful demonstration of what God can do with a person who is fully devoted to Him,” stated CWA in the announcement of her death. “She was a faithful follower of Jesus Christ all the days of her life and God used her in extraordinary ways to make a difference in the world around her.”
She died on April 14, 2024, at the age of 94.
Paul Pressler
The retired judge was one of the key architects of the Southern Baptist Convention’s “conservative resurgence,” when conservative leaders took control of the denomination from moderates and reshaped it into a distinctly conservative theological organization with ties to the Republican Party.
Pressler, who was a member of the Council for National Policy, a conservative think tank through which he connected the SBC to the GOP, became known in recent years as a symbol of the sexual abuse crisis in the denomination. He was sued by former assistant Gareld Duane Rollins Jr., who claimed Pressler abused him for decades. A settlement was reached seven months before Pressler’s death, with all those accused denying any wrongdoing.
At an earlier stage in his life, Pressler condemned what he viewed as a decline in Christian values in the nation during the Clinton-era White House scandals.
He died June 27, 2024, at the age of 94.
KP Yohannan
K.P. Yohannan, the founder and director of Gospel for Asia and the metropolitan of the Believers Eastern Church, died of a cardiac arrest at age 74, while at a hospital in Dallas, Texas.
Gospel for Asia announced Yohannan’s death in a statement, noting that he had been struck by a car while taking a walk the day before and was at the hospital recovering from the accident when he suffered a sudden cardiac arrest. “We praise God for allowing His servant the strength to run his race faithfully and with much endurance to the very end,” GFA stated in the announcement. “Millions of lives are forever transformed because of his tireless passion and service unto his Savior. May God receive him into the embrace of the saints. Christ is risen! May his memory be eternal!”
A native of India, Yohannan founded Gospel for Asia in 1979 and became metropolitan of the BEC in February 2003. While BEC identifies as Evangelical, it adopts more high church worship practices and attire.
He died on May 8, 2024, at the age of 74.