![]() ![]() ![]() I didn’t feel like he did that.” There’s no father-son preaching duo quite like the Stanleys. I was trying to do the right thing.”Ī new challenge for Andy Stanley. The experience wounded his father as well. “I felt like this was a huge battle, and if Andy had been in a huge battle … you’d have to crawl over me to get to him,” Charles Stanley, now 80, says.” I would have stood by him, no matter what. “I understand drive-by shootings,” he told his wife one day. The experience enraged Andy so much it scared him: Charles Stanley, a Southern Baptist megachurch pastor and founder of In Touch Ministries, a global evangelistic organization. He was swept up in a struggle against another famous televangelist - his father, the Rev. … Things get weird.”Īt 54, Andy knows something about weirdness. “Now they have to control, maintain and protect it. As soon as somebody thinks forever, that’s when they close their hand,” he says, slowly clenching his fist. “One day we’re not going to be the coolest church. ![]() “I tell my staff everything has a season,” he says, leaning back in an office chair while wearing a flannel shirt, faded jeans and tan hiking boots. Fans watch him on television or flock to his leadership seminars pastors study his DVDs for preaching tips his ministries’ website gets at least a million downloads per month. A lanky man with close-cropped hair and an “aw-shucks” demeanor, he is alone as he steps out of his office to greet a visitor to his ministry’s sprawling office complex in suburban Atlanta.Īt least 33,000 people attend one of Andy’s seven churches each Sunday. Today he has found fame, and infamy, on another stage.Īndy Stanley is the founder of North Point Ministries, one of the largest Christian organizations in the nation. Everyone calls him “Andy.” As a teenager, Andy decided he was going to be a rock star after seeing Elton John perform live. There’s no special parking space reserved for him at his church. He won’t wear a suit or a tie in the pulpit. “Andy,” he said, “you have joined my enemies, and I’m your father.” The “unspoken dream” both men shared was over. After Andy finished, the pastor looked at him as tears welled up. ![]() And Andy felt compelled to speak. The minister stared in silence as Andy gave him the news. His secretary scurried out of the office when she saw Andy coming. The pastor had baptized Andy when he was 6, and groomed him to be his successor. He spread his arms across the desk as if he were bracing for battle. “Alpharetta, Georgia (CNN) - Andy Stanley walked into his pastor’s office, filled with dread. The minister sat in a massive chair behind an enormous desk. Still I think this is a redemptive story and I’m glad they gave the access to CNN to write it up. Sadly this sort of implosion seems more like the rule than the exception. I do not think the megachurch model is a healthy model. I cannot imagine what it would be like to live under the weight of all that pressure, scrutiny, and demand. I’m not changing my mind on the megachurch – in fact I cannot help but feel compassion for these two men. I know from experience how leaders can bifurcate their lives so completely that their rhetoric sounds great, but their actions simple don’t match up. I know that there is always another side to every story, and that this article puts these two leaders in the best possible light. It’s a pretty moving story and it’s well worth the read. CNN ran a story yesterday that gives a rare peek inside the relationship between Andy Stanley and his famous father, how it played out, and how they stuck together. ![]()
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