Andy Stanley to Step Down as North Point Senior Pastor in 2027, Joel Thomas Nominated to Succeed Him
Andy Stanley, founding pastor of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia, has told his congregation he will step down as senior pastor next year. According to the Christian Post, Stanley, 68, said in a message to his church that he plans to step down as senior pastor of North Point Ministries in January and as lead pastor of North Point Community Church in June, around his 69th birthday.
Stanley said the transition was his own choice, and that a major reason was wanting 'to be able to say yes to my grandchildren without having to check my schedule.' He added that the next phase requires a younger leader who can project a vision further out, given his age and season of life. After stepping down he will remain a church elder and will still preach periodically. North Point Ministries is the Atlanta-area multisite church network, and North Point Community Church is its campus in Alpharetta, Georgia.
The board of elders has nominated Joel Thomas, executive director of North Point Ministries, to succeed Stanley, subject to a congregational vote now open through Friday, October 30, with results to be announced November 1. Thomas began as North Point Ministries' first intern in 1998, served as lead pastor of North Point Community Church from 2011 to 2015, then served as senior pastor of Mission Community Church in Arizona before returning to the Atlanta area in 2021. Andy Stanley, son of the late Southern Baptist pastor Charles Stanley, founded North Point Community Church in 1995; it has grown to eight local campuses and hundreds of global partner churches.
Under the timetable published by North Point Ministries, voting closes at 5 p.m. on October 30; if approved, Joel Thomas will become senior pastor of North Point Ministries on January 1, 2027, and lead pastor of North Point Community Church on June 1, 2027. 'I'm retiring from my job, but I'm not retiring from ministry,' Stanley said; he and his wife, Sandra, began discussing the transition about four and a half years ago. Thomas returned to the Atlanta area in 2021 to lead Buckhead Church and has served as executive director of North Point Ministries since 2023. According to Religion News Service, the North Point network reports about 37,000 weekly in-person worshippers and ranks sixth on Outreach magazine's list of the 100 largest U.S. churches. (GSM, based on reporting by the Christian Post)
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：Andy Stanley 本人（2018年资料图），来源 Wikimedia Commons，CC BY 4.0。Photo: Andy Stanley (2018 file photo), via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.
