Andy Stanley Will Step Down at North Point. A Good Handoff Is a Gift. What Gets Handed Off Matters More.

Andy Stanley, the founding pastor of one of America's largest churches, told his congregation Sunday that he will step down from leading North Point Ministries next year. "I'm retiring from my job, but I'm not retiring from ministry," he said, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

The facts come first below. My opinion follows in the section marked as opinion.

The plan

Stanley, 68, plans to step down as senior pastor of North Point Ministries in January and as lead pastor of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia, around June, near his 69th birthday, The Christian Post reported. He will remain a church elder and keep preaching from time to time.

He said a major reason was "to be able to say 'yes' to my grandchildren without having to check my schedule." He also spoke about the church's future. "The best thing for this next iteration of what we are going to do together requires a younger leader who can project a vision further out than I could because of my age and season of life," he said, according to the Christian Post. "I am not trying to be the hero. I am not trying to be a martyr."

The decision followed more than four years of conversations with his wife, Sandra, FOX 5 Atlanta reported.

A congregation gets a vote

The board of elders nominated Joel Thomas, North Point Ministries' executive director, to succeed him. Thomas began as the ministry's first intern in 1998, led North Point Community Church from 2011 to 2015, pastored Mission Community Church in Arizona and later led North Point's Buckhead Church, the Christian Post reported. "Joel is absolutely the right person," Stanley said.

About 50,000 people are eligible to vote online through Oct. 30, and results will be announced Nov. 1. If approved, Thomas would become senior pastor of North Point Ministries on Jan. 1, 2027. Under the church's rules, the elders can remove a senior pastor but cannot appoint one without congregational approval, according to FOX 5.

Stanley, the son of the late Atlanta pastor Charles Stanley, founded North Point in 1995 and has been its only senior pastor. The network has eight campuses and ranks as the sixth-largest church in America, with combined weekly attendance of 37,000, according to the Outreach 100 rankings cited by Baptist News Global. That outlet noted his father retired from First Baptist Church of Atlanta in 2020, 12 days short of his 88th birthday.

Not without controversy

Stanley's ministry has drawn criticism from fellow believers. In 2023, North Point hosted the Unconditional Conference for Christian parents of LGBT-identified children, which critics said departed from biblical teaching on sexuality, the Christian Post reported. Stanley defended it and said his church affirms marriage as the union of one man and one woman. In a 2018 sermon he called on Christians to "unhitch" their faith from the Old Testament. He later said he considers the Old Testament divinely inspired.

Opinion: A good handoff is a gift to a church

Whatever one thinks of Stanley's theology, and I have real disagreements with some of it, he deserves credit for this. Baptist News Global listed famous megachurch transitions that went badly, from a founder forced out to a successor who lasted two years. Too many pastors hold on until the church is built around a personality instead of the gospel. Stanley is naming a successor, letting the congregation vote and stepping aside while he still has strength to help.

That is the pattern of Scripture. Moses laid his hands on Joshua (Deuteronomy 34:9). Paul trained Timothy and told him to pass it on: "the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also" (2 Timothy 2:2). Paul wrote that letter knowing "the time of my departure is at hand" (2 Timothy 4:6), at a moment when, as he put it, "Only Luke is with me".

The real test of a handoff is what gets handed off. In that same letter Paul told Timothy, "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine" (2 Timothy 4:2). The voters at North Point should ask whether their next pastor will do exactly that, including on the hard questions where their church has drawn criticism. The rest of us can pray for Stanley's family, for Joel Thomas and for tens of thousands of people who call North Point home.