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Posted on 10/21/2026 5:09:14 PM PDT by Morgana
(RNS) — The pastor of one of the nation’s largest churches announced Sunday (Oct 18.) that he plans to resign early next year.
Andy Stanley, the 68-year-old pastor of North Point Community Church, a non-denominational church based in Alpharetta, Georgia, told worshippers he would step down as the congregation’s pastor and no longer be a church employee when he turns 69 in May 2027. He said it was important to him to leave that role when things were going well, rather than in a crisis.
“For somebody in my position, there are really only three exit options open to me,” he said in a video update posted by the church. “Here they are — death, being asked to leave, or choosing to leave. So, I feel like, though you may disagree, I feel like I’m choosing the best of the three options.”
Stanley will also step down in January as leader of North Point Ministries, a network of eight churches in the Atlanta area that provides resources, such as video sermons, small group studies and worship music, to other churches.
Elders at North Point have nominated Joel Thomas, currently the executive director of North Point Ministries, to become the new senior pastor of the network. If approved by the congregation, Thomas would become leader of the network in January and the the new pastor of North Point Community Church in May.
Stanley said he had started planning toward retirement four and a half years ago. Retiring next year, he told worshippers, is the right time for the church’s long-term health. There is also a personal reason for his resignation.
“The other part of this is I want to be able to say yes to my grandchildren without having to check my schedule,” he said. “So, for those of you who are grandparents or are headed in that direction, you get that.”
Founded in 1995, North Point and its network claim 37,000 weekly in-person worshippers, making it the 6th largest church in Outreach magazine’s list of the nation’s 100 largest churches.
Stanley’s approach to stepping down differs from that taken by his father, the famed megachurch pastor and radio and television preacher Charles Stanley. The elder Stanley was 87 when he retired as pastor at First Baptist Church in Atlanta in 2020. He died three years later.
Unlike his father, who was a founding member of the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition and was president of the Southern Baptist Convention when conservatives took over the denomination, the younger Stanley has avoided both national and denominational politics.
“I grew up in a family that was very, very right-leaning,” Stanley told The Atlantic in 2020. “I saw the hypocrisy there.”
Megachurch pastoral transitions are often complicated and rocky, especially for long-term pastors like Stanley, who either founded the church or who oversaw large-scale growth.
Some preachers, like Bill Hybels, former pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, and James MacDonald, former pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel, have left during scandals. There was controversy over Andy Woods, who succeeded Rick Warren as pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California. A pastoral transition at Second Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, led to a lawsuit after church leaders changed the congregation’s bylaws to allow Ben Young, the son of Ed Young, Sr., the church’s longtime pastor, to succeed him without a congregational vote.
In other cases, a planned transition has worked for the church. Southeast Christian Church in Louisville has transitioned to new pastors twice since 2009 and remains one of the largest churches in the country.
James Meeks, the longtime pastor of Salem Baptist Church in Chicago who retired in 2023, told RNS it’s important for a pastor to leave on a high note, rather than in a crisis. That’s better for the church and the pastor.
“Sometimes people stay too long,” Meeks told RNS in an interview a few days before his retirement in 2023. “I always want to be in a position where I am welcomed back here.”
During his announcement, Stanley laid out the process for his departure and for electing Thomas as his a successor.
The church does not have official members but requires the congregation to approve Stanley’s successor. Church leaders planned to email ballots for voting on Thomas to 50,000 congregants on Sunday (Oct. 18), according to the church’s website. Those ballots will go to anyone over 18 who has been part of a church small group, been a volunteer, donated four times a year or has checked in a child with the church’s children’s ministry.
“It’s a very simple ballot,” Stanley said in the update. “You can’t write in anybody’s name, okay? But the good news is you don’t have to stand in a line either or go anywhere. It’s just a yes or no.”
He also told the congregation it was important for the new pastor to get congregational approval. When the church’s bylaws were first written, Stanley said, he insisted the church’s pastor report to the board of elders and that the congregation had to approve a new pastor.
“If I were Joel, I would want to know that the congregation wanted me to serve in this important position,” he said.
Voting will end on Oct. 30, with the results announced Sunday, Nov. 1.
Stanley said he will still be involved at the church and will preach as part of a preaching rotation. But he will no longer be a church employee.
“But here’s the thing,” he said. “This is our church. It’s our children’s church, and it’s our grandchildren’s church. So, we’re not going anywhere.”
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I’ve long suspected that his father was most disappointed in him.
Good riddance
This apostate should resign now!
“I grew up in a family that was very, very right-leaning,” Stanley told The Atlantic in 2020. “I saw the hypocrisy there.”
Well you know what they say. Talent skips a generation so who knows Andy’s kids might be sharp as tacks.
It’s interesting he says it’s his, children’s, and grandchildren’s church. Does he speak for all? None followed great grandpa?
I couldn’t agree more.
It’s Christ’s church. He is a nepo dope. Like the prophets Samuels’ sons. Next stop Millstone overlook.
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