Unlike his father, Andy Stanley will not hold onto his pulpit into old age.
The younger Stanley, founding pastor of North Point Church in Atlanta, announced Oct. 18 he will step down as senior pastor of North Point Ministries at the end of this year and as senior pastor of North Point Church June 1.
North Point Ministries, the umbrella for the network of eight congregations, ranks as the sixth largest church in America, according to the Outreach 100, with combined weekly attendance of 37,000 people.
Andy Stanley
Andy Stanley is 68. His father, Charles Stanley, retired from the pastorate of First Baptist Church of Atlanta in 2020 just 12 days shy of his 88th birthday.
Andy Stanley said he will remain an elder of the multi-site megachurch and will remain in the preaching rotation, although his first priority will be being available to his grandchildren.
Stanley’s structured retirement is yet another pivotal moment in the modern history of American megachurches. He founded North Point Church in 1995 and has been the church’s only senior pastor.
His decision is similar to that made by Rick Warren, founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California, who retired in 2022 also at age 68. Saddleback was founded in 1980, 15 years before North Point.
Other megachurch pastor transitions have not gone as well. Bill Hybels was forced out of leadership at Willow Creek Church in suburban Chicago, a church he founded in 1975. Joel Gregory lasted a scant two years as successor to W.A. Criswell at First Baptist Dallas. Ed Young named one of his sons his successor at Second Baptist Church in Houston, and that resulted in a lawsuit. Overall, the list of challenging megachurch pastor transitions is longer than the list of successful ones.
Like Warren’s exit at Saddleback, Stanley’s exit at North Point comes with an announcement of his successor. But unlike Saddleback, the North Point congregation will vote on whether to affirm the board of elders’ nomination of Joel Thomas to succeed Stanley in both roles.
Thomas currently serves as executive director of North Point Ministries and is a product of North Point Church. He began his ministry career as the first intern of North Point Ministries in 1998, then served in college, singles, and married adult ministries before becoming lead pastor of North Point Community Church, one of the satellite congregations, in 2011. In 2015, Joel and his family moved to Arizona, where he served as senior pastor of Mission Community Church for nearly seven years.
In 2021, he returned to the Atlanta area to rejoin North Point Ministries and lead Buckhead Church, another North Point satellite, where he served five years.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Thomas earned a master of arts degree in biblical studies from Reformed Theological Seminary in 1999 and a bachelor of arts degree in business administration from Nyack College in 1996. Reformed Theological Seminary is a private seminary committed to historic Reformed theology and the inerrancy of the Bible.
Although Andy Stanley came from a Southern Baptist background, North Point Church bills itself as nondenominational.
Related:
Where does a multi-site megachurch find a new pastor? | Analysis by Mark Wingfield