Who is Andy Stanley?

Andy Stanley is known for popularizing video venues, pioneering satellite campuses, speaking and writing on church leadership, being a younger proponent of the seeker-driven approach, and his belief in teaching one simple point with great creativity.  He pastors a huge church in Alpharetta, Georgia, outside Atlanta. 

My students for Program and Curriculum Development are beginning to read Seven Practices of Highly Effective Ministry.  I have prepared this post to help them.

In a photo by James Fitzgerald of Vision Magazine, you see Andy a foot “larger than life” (as Leadership journal put it in its interview entitled “State of the Art” in the Spring 2006 issue pp.26-32).  The high def image in the center make it appear that he is actually there but he is not.  It is a screen. 

The Andy Stanley article at Wikipedia gives some basic information about him which I have pasted below with some revision by me. 

Andy Stanley is the senior pastor of North Point Community Church, Buckhead Church, and Browns Bridge Community Church.

Stanley was born in 1958. His father is Charles Stanley, who is the senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Atlanta and founder of InTouch Ministries.

Stanley received a bachelor’s degree of journalism from Georgia State University and later earned a masters degree from Dallas Theological Seminary. After working for several years as Associate Pastor and Minister to Students at First Baptist Atlanta, he and five others founded North Point Community Church in 1995. The church has now grown to three campuses and over 15,000 attenders each week.

In 2007, he was voted the 20th most influential Christian in America and in 2006 North Point Community Church was voted the 3rd most influential church in America.  Later Note August 2, 2007: the Church Report that does these rankings is probably not a reputable resource for rankings.  See article about founder. 

Key Video, Audio and Text Links for understanding Andy Stanley:

• He has written a number of books that can be viewed at this link at Amazon.com.
• If you would like to hear him preach, you can watch or listen to him at: North Point Messages.  Or at iTunes: Pause series on temptation, Christmas series,
• He has been closely involved with the Catalyst Conference – speaking every year at it.  You can listen to a great interview with him at the Catalyst Podcast page from March 2006.  You can also find the Catalyst Podcast at iTunes.
• You can hear Andy, Lane Jones and Reggie Joiner discuss the seven practices at Practically Speaking.  At iTunes: Practically Speaking.
• Now you can watch the Drive Conference videos from 2006 for free at Video Player for Five Sessions. H/T Todd Rhoades at Monday Morning Insight.
• Also available is the Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast at iTunes.
• Leadership journal’s Out of Ur posts generated lots of comments: Is Ministry Leadership Different? Andy Stanley and Jim Collins in an unexpected point-counterpoint and Is Ministry Leadership Different 2: a response to Andy Stanley  Andy himself commented on my post entitled Andy Stanley Says There is No Such Thing as Distinctively Spiritual Leadership after this barrage. 
• North Point graciously provides a number of their administrative documents for free at Nside Admin
• According to the Barna Group’s survey, you can get an idea of how well-known Andy Stanley is. 
  • Percentage of Awareness Among All Adults, 
    • 5% Andy Stanley
      >> 3% favorable
      >> 2% unfavorable
  • Percentage of Awareness Among Born Again Christians
    • 6% Andy Stanley
      >> 4% favorable
      >> 2% unfavorable
  • I don’t think you should conclude much from the fact that he is not viewed favorably by 2% of people.  Just about everyone on the list has done publicly embarrassing things including Billy Graham (i.e. comments about Jews on Nixon tapes).  Andy hasn’t.  Even if you disagree with video venues or the seeker-driven approach, Andy is still pretty likeable.   
  • H/T Kent Shaffer at Church Relevance post Top American Christian Leaders :: How Likeable Are They?

The bios for the other two authors of Seven Practices of Effective Ministry are at the North Point Ministries website here.  I have pasted that information below. 

Reggie writes the meat of the book.  Andy basically writes the preface and conclusion. 

Reggie Joiner is the executive director of Family Ministries at North Point Community Church.  He leads the staff responsible for programming children, student, and married adult ministries. He is also creator of FamilyWise a non-profit ministry aimed at helping churches and families teach kids character and faith. Reggie lives with his wife Debbie and his four teenagers Reggie Paul, Hannah, Sarah, and Rebekah in Cumming, GA.

Lane writes the parable in the first half of the book. 

Lane Jones is a native of Atlanta, Georgia where he lives with his wife Traci and their three children, Jared, Caitlin and Madison. He is on staff at North Point Community Church where he loves to write and participate in the creative process. Lane holds degrees from Georgia State University and Dallas Theological Seminary.  A commenter, Nick, writes that:

Lane Jones is the campus director of Browns Bridge Community Church (a campus of NPCC). 

Note: I had previously thought that North Point Community Church was a Southern Baptist Convention church but a commenter says it is not.  Thanks for the correction commenter.