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. 

Comments

North Point isn't a Southern Baptist Church. It's non-denominational.

[Nick]

Lane Jones is there, now he is the campus director of Browns Bridge Community Church (a campus of NPCC)

[jeremy z]

You are right. NPCC is not a Southern Baptist Church, but essentially their entire leadership staff has come from the SBC background/theology.

You make the call? Even though the NPCC is non-den, one can still detect some SBC themes.

[John]

Jeremy, I have attended NPCC for many years and it is the absolute furthest thing from the SBC churches that I grew up in...and pretty much all of the SBC's that I know of today. I would expect some themes to be similar, only because they teach from the Bible. While many of the original leaders did come from one church, the idea in starting NP was to do something completely different and to try to model the thought behind the biblical church...not the tradition. There are also many people on staff that did not come from SBC's...or from the south. It's not about comparisons or similarities...it's about leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus.

[Nagesh]

I don't care what denomination the NPCC is one thing I know that the effective teaching and preaching of Andy has changed my entire life. Though I have not seen him so far in my life and I am staying in INDIA but I praise God that friends of mine who come to India give me his literature to read those literature has brought complete change in my preaching and teaching of the word of God. May God continue to use his for the His glory.

[Jon]

NPCC is a seeker sensitive church. It started as a very Biblically based church but has moved away from this. Although effective at brining in unbelievers to introduce the concept of Christianity, it does not do very well in growing Christians. In my opinion as one who attended for 7+ years, the church is now unBiblical and Andy has lost his saltiness. Most messages can be turned into a good life message and you can tune out the Jesus/God themes. Not a place I would recommend you model after.
Music is fantastic though.

[Aubrey]

I have to disagree with the aforementioned person's comment on how NPCC is not a biblically based church. Every week I come with my notebook and I eagerly listen to Andy speak on some life principal that is DIRECTLY guiding me from 1+ scripture(s)from the bible. Furthermore, he believes that people grow their relationship with Jesus Christ not by sitting in pews or rows, but sitting in circles. I can attest to that as well. Every week for the past 3 years I've been involved in a small group. What I've gained through this group is the DESIRE to learn more about my Heavenly Father and in doing so I find that I want to pick up the bible and read it, not because someone says I have to, but because I want to know Him more. I find that I pray more and place my faith in God not to keep up with the person sitting next to me at church, but because I want to be more like Jesus every day! Amen! NPCC helped me sprout and now I can spread some seeds to others who may have doubt in their hearts like I once did.

I pray that even if NPCC isn't the right place for the person who commented before me that he/she has found the place that helps him/her connect and grow with Jesus. I believe that is all Andy Stanley wanted when he created NPCC and I think the environments he's created and the people he encourages us to be has done just that!

The music is absolutely fantastic!