Updates About Leadership Changes at North Point Ministries

[If you haven't heard already, maybe you came in late or you tuned in late, today's a little bit different. If it's your first time with us or your first time in a long time, I'm thrilled that you're here for today because, as you may have heard, you're going to get a little inside peek into what's going on and what's about to go on. People keep asking me about today, saying “How do you feel?” And I say, “I feel great because I'm so confident in what I'm going to talk about, that it's the right decision and right time, and we're moving in an amazing direction. So it's a bit of a business meeting, as you may have already heard, and that doesn't mean it's going to be boring. It just means it has to be a little bit different because there's kind of a legal aspect to this that's not important to you, but it's important for the people who care about legal things, and we care about legal things as we move forward.]

[So today, I'm going to share my transition plan for handing off my two positions as senior pastor or point leader for the whole organization and lead pastor of North Point Community Church. These are phrases that you're not familiar with because we don't talk about this too much. We talk about lead pastor from time to time. So here is a very simple, actually simplistic chart of the organization to help you understand exactly what we're talking about for the next few minutes. We have a board of elders or a board of directors, as you probably do in the organizations that you work for or work with. The NPM senior pastor is really the senior leader, and that's one of my roles. Then there are all the campuses. We have eight in the Atlanta area, and then we have all the other things we do.]

[So this is a scaled-down version of our whole organizational chart. So I'm the NPM Senior Pastor, and I also have the role as Lead Pastor of North Point Community Church, where I'm speaking from today at North Point Community Church. So now that that's kind of clear, hopefully before I talk a little bit about why I've made this decision and why now and who, something to consider to frame this up. And this will be super relevant for some of you, but it will be relevant for all of you at some point down the road, especially for those of you who work in the marketplace and have long-term careers. For somebody in my position, there are really only three exit options open to me. 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.]

[So I just want to put that out there as a framework for what we're about to talk about. Here's the backstory. About four and a half years ago, Sandra and I began the conversation around how long I should remain in my current roles as senior pastor or point leader for the whole organization and/or lead pastor for North Point Community Church. Basically, how long do I want to be an employee of the organization? And we knew, based on our experience, broad church experience, and growing up in church as a preacher's kid and hearing all the stories, we knew that what was best for the organization and for our network of churches was for me or for us to set a departure date and then to prepare the organization for that date. And then—this is where sometimes people who do what I do blink at the last moment—stick to it.] 

[But to be honest, it wasn't just the organization's health and my conservative organization that was behind our decision. The other part of this is I want to be able to say yes to my grandchildren without having to check my schedule. So for those of you who are grandparents or are headed in that direction, you get that. And that's super important to me, and I know that you're glad that's important to me. So it's both a professional thing and an organizational thing, and obviously these decisions are personal as well.]

 [So I shared this information several years ago. Of course, when something's four and a half years away, it's like it'll never get here, but it does, doesn't it? Anyway, as we began moving toward that date, I essentially decided that by my 69th birthday, which will be this coming May, I no longer wanted to be, or should be,  an employee of the organization. So, as we began planning for that, I met with a subgroup of our elders. Again, our elders serve as the board of directors, and I'm accountable to them. I began to meet with several of our elders and said, "Hey, this is a decision we've made. We're certain this is what we want to do. So let's begin to back up and plan accordingly." Many of our elders are here today. Our elders attend different NPM campuses, but several of them and their wives have chosen to be with us this morning, which I appreciate so much.]

 [The idea was to plan to ensure that this very important, growing, and expanding network of churches, this organization, was positioned to thrive without my direct involvement, which meant, at some point, replacing myself. Over time, it became evident to me, many of you, and to our elders that the best person to replace me as the senior pastor or senior leader of the organization is, in fact, Joel Thomas.]

[But neither our board of elders nor I have the authority to replace the senior pastor. So let’s back it up a little bit. Thirty-one years ago when we started the organization, I wrote the bylaws and constitution for our church. Then I gave it to some very smart people and some attorneys to make it legal and to make sure we were all buttoned up in the way it needed to be. When we planted the church, we did so as a single-site church. Here in Alpharetta, we just thought there'd be one church, and I'd be the pastor of one church, so the constitution reflected that. Over time, as we grew into a network of churches, we have amended the constitution several times, taking into consideration the different type of organization we have become. But there were two things I insisted on not changing.]

[From the very beginning, I insisted, number one, that the person in my role, the senior pastor, was accountable to the elders or our board and that the board could fire me for cause if they ever felt like they needed to. In other words, if I went off script theologically, morally, ethically, or for whatever reason. When you're making a big decision like that for senior leadership to move a senior leader, there's usually a lot of complicated information, and it can only be understood and discussed by a small group of people. So I insisted that I could be fired by the elders and so could any senior leader. But at the same time, I insisted that the elders not have the authority to hire and install a new senior pastor without congregational approval, because we're a church, and a church should have the opportunity to choose its next leader.]

[So it was a little bit of a hybrid of a traditional church structure, which means that about 50,000 of you will have an opportunity to vote on whether or not to approve Joel Thomas as the next senior pastor or senior leader for the organization. That's right. There are 50,000. I'm going to explain exactly who those people are in just a minute and tell you how all that will work. Along with that, I'm going to give you some information about my continued involvement. So please don't sign off or leave early. If Joel is elected, and I certainly hope he is, he'll step into the senior pastor role on January 1, 2027. I will continue to serve as the lead pastor of North Point Community Church until May 2027.]

[In May, Joel will step into the lead pastor role at North Point Community Church as well, which will be for the second time, which some of you remember. For some of you, this is new information, so I'll fill you in in just a minute. So about Joel… most of you know if you attend one of our other churches or campuses, and most people in the community know Joel as the guy who draws on the chalkboard. This is all they know about Joel. And he's really, really good at it. Andy has one screen, but Joel has two because he can do that. Joel can write words and say different words at the same time. You should try that at home. It's amazing. But there is a whole lot more to Joel Thomas than preaching, teaching, and writing on chalkboards and communication in general.]

[As you've heard him say before, like me, Joel is a preacher's kid. He's a preacher's kid somewhat like me in that he decided when he was young that he did not want to be a preacher. Joel said, "I didn't want to be a preacher. I wanted to do something successful," which I'm sure his dad appreciated so much. Joel moved to Atlanta in 1996. He had an interview and then a job offer from an organization that was related to the Olympics. When he moved here and found out what it entailed, he decided not to take that job, but he stuck around anyway. Somebody invited him to North Point Community Church, and in his words, he said, "I didn't know church could be like this." You've heard him talk about this. In 1998, we hired Joel as our very first intern at our church.]

[We didn't even have an internship program at the time, and Joel had to go back and finish seminary. He was only going to be here for a short time, so we created a spot, and he became our very first intern. After he finished seminary, we hired him full-time in 1999. In 2000, he launched our very first college ministry and did a great job leading that. Then in 2003, he began overseeing all of our singles ministry and ran point on 7:22, which was an incredible era. Louie Giglio spoke here, and thousands of singles and college students from all over the area drove in. Some of you remember 7:22. Some of you met your spouse at 7:22. So even though Joel wasn't the primary communicator, he worked behind the scenes to facilitate that relationship with Louie and his organization and did a fantastic job once again.]

[In 2003, Joel met Jenn, his wife; she was on our staff. In fact, she served on our staff for 10 years. They were married in 2004. I know some of these descriptions don't mean anything to you, but they add just a little bit more history. In 2008, I promoted Joel to be the NPM Adult Environment Director. Joel oversaw all of our adult ministries, meaning groups, special events, classes, anything that had to do with adult ministry, and once again, did a great job. Then in 2011, we were facilitating this transition into more and more campuses. We became a matrix organization, not like the movies, but matrix organizations. Some of you work in one where there are dotted lines in terms of authority, and then there are solid lines.]

[We were kind of going (almost) to a franchise model on paper, and our systems needed a lot of attention. So I stepped out of the lead pastor role and asked Joel to step in here at North Point Community Church. So in 2011, he became the lead pastor. But here’s a little funny story about that. When some of his friends (I think they were other pastors; I didn't ask him about this, but I know the story's true) found out he was going to follow me as the lead pastor at North Point Community Church, somebody told him, “Joel, that is a body bag job.” Here's what they meant by that. In church world, the narrative goes like this. If a founding pastor or a pastor who's been at a church for many, many years leaves, the person to follow that pastor is generally a sacrificial lamb.]

[It's that you want to follow the person that followed the person. You don't want to be the one that followed the person. And that was kind of a general narrative. Even as a preacher's kid growing up, I just remember hearing my dad say, “Yep, the person that follows somebody that's successful, that doesn't ever go well, then it's a bad situation. That person leaves, and they're so glad to get the next...” So when somebody said that to Joel, that's what they were referring to: you don't want to follow Andy, you don't want to follow the founding pastor. Well, Joel did, and he did a fantastic job once again for four years. And for some of you who've been here a long time, that was really your first introduction to Joel as he began preaching more and began leading on Sunday morning. Then after four years, there was a little hiccup in all of our plans.]

[Joel took me out to lunch one day and said, "Hey, there's this church in Phoenix or outside of Phoenix, southeast of Phoenix in Gilbert, Arizona." He said, "And as you know, I've been out there a couple times to preach for them because they had to ask their pastor to leave. It was a terrible situation. The church is kind of spinning. It was a large church, large campus." He said, "Andy, they've asked me to come and be the senior pastor. And honestly, I don't want to go, but I kind of feel like I'm supposed to. Can you maybe talk me out of this?" So he didn't want to go. Jenn didn't want to go, and their kids didn't want to go. Mandy, Joel's sister, who has worked for our organization for 25 years (Mandy's absolutely amazing), didn't want him to go. Their families lived close together. Their kids were cousins, and it was just an ideal situation. I definitely didn't want him to go. But after listening to him describe and kind of tell the story, I said, "Joel, I think you're supposed to go." And he's like, "I know." And here's the thing. If you've been a Jesus follower for very long, and if you're not a Jesus follower, this may scare you. I don't know, but if you're somebody who wakes up every day and generally says, "Thy will be done. God, I want your will for my family, finances, time, career, and my friends," every once in a while, not every month, certainly not every week, but every few years maybe, you get this strange kind of nudge like, "I need you to do that, or I need you to quit doing that. I need you to pull away from that or spend more." And you can't explain it. It doesn't make sense on paper, but after a while you sit with it, and it almost feels like a moral imperative, like this is something I have to do. And as I listened to Joel tell the story and listen to him talk about his conversations with Jenn, I said, "I think you're supposed to do this. This really messes me up, but I think you're supposed to do this." And later he told me, "Andy, you were so neutral during that conversation. I began to wonder if maybe you wanted me to go." I'm like, "No, I didn't want you to go, but I didn't want to be selfish. And I've had those moments where you just think this is just something that we need to do." So in 2015, he became the senior pastor and senior leader at Mission Church in Gilbert, Arizona. He was there for seven years.]

[During that time, we stayed in touch. And after about year three or four, his sister Mandy and I would joke about this. Every other time or two, I'd see her in the hallway, and she would say, "Andy, when are you bringing Joel back?" I'd say, "I can't bring Joel back. He's got a job. He's doing a great job." In fact, he turned a very, very difficult church around. And Joel knew going in that there were going to be parts of this that I don't know, but he did something really, really smart. He's such an intuitive leader. Before he said yes to take the job, listen to what he did. He decided, okay, this is something God wants me to do. Andy's kind of like, yeah, so reluctantly. So he asked the entire board of elders, their whole board in Gilbert to fly to Atlanta for a weekend service. He made sure they were hosted, taken around to see all the environments here, and sat through the services. And he said, now, if there's anything about what you just experienced at North Point Community Church you don't like, you need to speak up now because this is what we're going to do. If you hire me, this is what I'm going to lead you toward. And they were like, “Oh no, no, this is perfect. We're in; this is what we need.” And then he bumped into another reality as it relates to people in general. People are all for change until something changes. This is just human nature. It's in me and you. It's like, “Oh, we're all for change. I didn't think you were going to change that!” Anyway, so he had to navigate that. He navigated some really, really tough situations and turned the church around financially. Attendance there went up, as they embraced a completely different model. Anyway, so he was there for seven years.]

[Then in 2021, the lead pastor at Buckhead Church resigned, and he resigned to me. After he did, it was very difficult for me not to immediately pull out my phone and call Joel. I thought, “No, Andy, don't do that. That's not smart.” So I waited a few days, because I wanted Joel to come back. If I was going to try to bring him back, it needed to be something big; he needed a big responsibility. He was out there leading a big church. So I called him and said, “Joel, here's a situation I would love for you and Jenn to pray about and think about whether or not this would be a good time to come back. You'll make your sister's dreams come true for sure.” Through those seven years that he had been away, he and I stayed in touch. We had great conversations as he navigated some of those things. So here's what happened. A few days later I said, “It's a big ask, and it's a big change. You guys think about it and pray about it.” So a few days later, we talked again. I'm going to put a quote on the screen. And the reason I know this is exactly what he said is not because my memory is that good, but as he and Jenn prayed about it and talked about it, they came up with this statement. They said they felt like this is the time, this is the right thing, this is what is best for our family and what we need to do. But they wrote out a statement that he read to me. I asked if I could share it with all of you today because I just think it goes right to the heart of his commitment to you and to us and to what we're doing.]

[So this is what he said to me over the phone. It’s actually something we wrote down. Here it is. He said, “Jenn and I feel called to help North Point become the next version of the church God wants it to be, and that the community needs it to be, regardless of what our role is.” I thought one of our staff behaviors, one of the things we teach all the time on our staff, is to remain open-handed, and that was the spirit of his response. So in the fall of 2021, he accepted the job to be lead pastor at Buckhead Church. Jenn immediately moved the kids here at the very end of the summer to get them settled in school. Joel stayed long enough to make sure that it was a good transition for Mission Church because he'd spent so much time developing new staff and a different approach to ministry there.]

[And I told him, hey, take your time. That needs to be a good transition. Since his return, Joel’s passion for and his commitment to our mission and our network of churches has been so evident. So much so that in 2023, I promoted him to become the executive director of North Point Ministries. Here's what this means, and this is significant for all of you at our different campuses. Basically, I put Joel in charge of the whole organization. He answered to me, and I answered to the board. Joel began to attend board meetings and elders’ meetings at that time. And I began to sit in on the NPM directors’ meetings that Joel was leading and just watched and listened and participated.]

[Again, I wasn't a bit surprised watching him lead. Joel's an extraordinary leader, not just an extraordinary communicator. So I guess the takeaway is this: for those of you who attend any of our churches, if you've been happy with your church over the past three years, you have experienced the leadership of Joel Thomas because he's 100%. So you have nothing to worry about. Along with our elders who were unanimous in their support, I'm convinced Joel is the right choice to take my place as senior pastor and senior leader of this organization. And just another little aside, I've been confident, and I've felt that way for a long time. Here’s another little interesting story. So about three or four years in, probably right around the time actually we went multi-site, whenever that was initially, people would say to me, not just about me, but to me, "Hey Andy, what happens to your church if something happens to you?”]

[“What happens to your church if something happens to you? It all seems to rise and fall on you if something happens to you." But the story was worse, and in almost every case it went like this. I don't know who came up with this. “Andy, if you got hit by a bus…” I was always getting hit by a bus over and over, not a truck, not a car. I'm thinking, why do I always have to die in these scenarios? Why couldn't it be, “Andy, if you won the lottery and you had so much money…" No, I died in every scenario if I got hit by a bus… anyway... But the question was, what happens to the organization if something happened to you? So a few years in, I decided that I would address that.]

[So what I did, and I don't know if this was a good idea, I wrote a letter to our elders that was only to be opened if I got hit by a bus, if something happened to me. And I made two copies, and I gave one to Diane Grant, who's been my administrative assistant for 30 years. Yeah, she deserves more than she deserves. Yeah, that’s a long time. If there were any secrets, she knows them. And then I gave the other envelope to Darcy Dickerson. Darcy is why the words are spelled correctly, and the quotes are really who said them, and all those kinds of things. In fact, I found out today that neither of them knew they had the other envelope. I didn't know that until today because I told them not to tell anybody. Darcy is amazing. So I gave it to these two ladies. I said, "If something happens to me, just take this envelope and don't open it; just give it to the elders." And the letter in the envelope said, "Dear Elders, if you're reading this, it's because I got hit by a bus." That's not what I said. “I'm not here any longer, and you have a big responsibility on your hands. You have to figure out what to do immediately and ultimately.” I said, "So I can't tell you what to do ultimately about the next senior pastor, but if I were you, based on what I know about the staff, here is the staff member that I think you should immediately appoint to lead the staff while you work through the process of replacing a new senior pastor." The first time I just looked around, because we were all in our 30s, maybe late 20s, and I guess by that time I was 40, but I chose the most senior responsible person on our staff.]

[Many of you know Durwood Sneed. I chose Durwood, and he wasn't a platform person or preacher, but I felt like the staff needs a dad, and he is mature and wonderful. So I said, "Just put Durwood in charge of the whole staff." And I didn't tell Durwood either. Imagine that surprise. It's like, "Hey, you're it." So through the years, there was always that envelope with those two individuals. Well, about nine years ago, I can't remember exactly when, I re-did it. Joel Thomas was the go-to person. He was at Mission Church in Arizona at the time. I said, "If something happens to me, if I were you, I would hire Joel to replace me. He's the person." That's how much confidence I had in him.]

[So anyway, here's how the vote will work. We don't have traditional church membership. In other words, you can't join our church. And it's okay if you tell people “I'm a member of Gwinnett Church, or I'm a member of Woodstock Church, or Decatur City Church.” People use that language loosely, but we don't actually have membership. And the reason we don't is that membership rolls get old in about 20 minutes, and then you just have a list of people. They don't even live there anymore. They passed away. They've gone to another church and didn't let you know. Meanwhile, you've got all these amazing people like all of you who are doing the work and volunteering and serving, and those two lists don't match up in any local church, especially a church that's been around for a long time. So we decided we're not going to do that after the first couple of years. So you can't join our church, but you can participate in our church. And those of you who participate, we feel like, and I feel like you should have the most influence in terms of how we make this decision and who is chosen to be the point leadership person for our organization or in church terms, the senior pastor. Because I feel like, and you would agree, the people who are doing the work, carrying the load, giving, serving, in group, carrying the model, facilitating what we're doing all over the country and all over the world, you should be the ones who make this decision.]

[So late this afternoon, about, as I said, 50,000 of you will receive an email. If we don't have your email address, you'll get a letter, but not this afternoon. You'll get an email with a link to an online ballot. Here’s how we chose who gets to vote. According to our constitution, our elders get to choose who participates as membership, so to speak, in votes. So I suggested, and they agreed, that we need to broaden the criteria to engage as many of you as possible in making this decision. And if I were Joel, I would want to know that the congregation wanted me to serve in this important position. So here's the criteria. Anyone 18 years or older who has participated in any one of the four things in an 18-month period, anybody who has participated in a small group over the past 18 months, anybody who's volunteered on a team, donated financially four times or more in any 12-month period, or checked in a child with any consistency, you're going to get the email.]

[If we don't have your email address, you'll get a letter, and you'll have an opportunity to vote. It's a very simple ballot. 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. And you're voting not for the lead pastor position, you're simply voting for the senior pastor position. And the ballot, basically, this is the ballot. The board of elders has recommended Joel Thomas to serve as the senior pastor of North Point Ministries, Inc., effective January 1, 2027. And it's basically, do you agree with the elders’ recommendation? Your name and email address will already be filled in. You can vote yes or no, but I certainly hope you vote yes. And we will announce the results, not next Sunday, but on November 1, in two weeks, which brings me at last to this.]

[And basically, what am I going to do? What am I planning to do? You may not be interested in the answer to this question. Sandra is very interested in the answer to this question. So the term I've used with friends, the core staff, and with the elders who've been on this journey with us, is redeploying. I'm simply going to redeploy. I'm retiring from my job, but I'm not retiring from ministry. So I will continue to be part of the preaching rotation at our local churches. I'll continue to preach, not as much perhaps, but I'll continue to be part of the preaching rotation. I'm already on the schedule for next fall. I've asked if I could do the Be Rich message again next fall. Everybody's like, "Please do it. We don't want to do that." I'm also planning to use some of my spare time, my extra time, to continue to be an ambassador for our church network, both nationally and internationally. Next fall, I'll be in Scotland, Ireland, and the UK working with church leaders because... I'm going to do a deep dive on this next weekend. Please don't miss next weekend, even if you just have to watch online if you're traveling. But what is happening is so significant and moving so fast internationally, and it's because of what you do day in and day out, week in and week out, with your generosity and with your service. It's incredible! So I want to be wind in the sail of that endeavor. And then two weeks ago at our elders meeting, Joel and the elders said… okay, because I was going through this whole presentation… and they said, "Well, would you be willing to continue serving on the board of elders?" And I'm like, "Absolutely. If you elect me, I would love to continue to serve as an elder, but again, that will be up to you." So I'm planning to continue to be involved.]

[I'm not going to disappear. This is the part of my script that, every time I read it at home, makes me emotional. So I'm going to try to power through this. But here's the thing: this is our church. It's our children's church, and it's our grandchildren's church. So we're not going anywhere. We love this church, but I am absolutely convinced that the best thing for this next iteration of what we're going to do together is a younger leader who can project a vision further out than I can because of my age and season of life. And I'm not trying to be the hero. I'm not trying to be a martyr. I just believe in what we do. And that's one of the reasons I'm confident this is the right time, and Joel is absolutely the right person. So quick story and I'll wrap this up.]

[About a year and a half after we started the church, late 1996, maybe early ’97, I was 38 years old. We had purchased this property. I'm again in Alpharetta today for those of you watching. We purchased 52 acres and people are like, "What are you going to do with 52 acres?" I'm like, "No, I just think we should buy as much land as we can." We'd hired an architect, but we didn't hit go because we didn't know what we wanted to build. And the challenge was we didn't know how big to build the main auditorium because once you choose the size of the auditorium, then you know how much children's space and middle school space and high school space and office, everything kind of goes ratio-determined. The ratios are determined by the size of the auditorium. And we had about two and a half million dollars of debt, and we had scraped every dollar together to buy the land. We were just kind of dreaming at that point. But we were trying to decide how big to build this auditorium.]

[So John Maxwell had just moved to Atlanta not too long previous to that with his whole team, moved to Atlanta. And it's kind of funny how I met John. I've been listening to his tapes. You remember cassette tapes? Anyway so I'm at a restaurant with Randy Pope, who was the pastor at Perimeter Church. Some of you know Randy, I love Randy. And we're having lunch, and I hear this deep voice somewhere, and it's John Maxwell's voice. I'm like, Randy, John Maxwell is in this restaurant. I recognized his voice, stood up, looked around, and there he was. And I did the very thing I always hated that people did when I was having lunch or breakfast or dinner with my dad when I was a kid growing up. I just got up out of my chair, and I ran over there, and I said the very thing that always bugged me when people would say it when I was a kid, I said, "I don't want to interrupt..." Well, then, why did you walk over here and interrupt? Did somebody make you? That's what I would always think. People say, “Dr. Stanley, I hate to interrupt...” I'm like, I don't think you hate it. Okay, that's just the kid. So if you see me at a restaurant with Sandra, please interrupt. You're going to go, "Oh, no." Anyway, so I ran over there, and I'm fangirling like crazy. It's John Maxwell. Anyway, that's how I met John. So I'm surprised he took my call later. So I asked John to go to lunch because, if he didn't know, he's the leadership guru who's written a gazillion wonderful books on leadership, but he was a pastor for many, many years and in a difficult environment in terms of facilitating construction in California a long time ago. So I thought, I'm going to ask John what we should build.]

[So I had a lunch appointment at a restaurant not too far from here, and he gets there, and I'm kind of nervous. And because I was going to ask him about the size of the auditorium, I brought all this information. I was sure he was going to want to know our P&L, how many members were trying to figure that out, how much debt we had, just all the stuff. I'm ready for all his detailed questions. He sat down. A waitress came and took our drink order and left. I said, "John, I know you're so busy.” Because I didn't tell him what I wanted to talk about. I said, "I just have one agenda item.” I said, “How big should we build? How big should we build our auditorium?” And he immediately shot back, “Well, Andy, how long do you plan to stay?” Yeah, you laugh. I thought, what does that have to do with how big of a building we build? How long do I plan to stay? I remember I wrote down what I said. I said, "Well, I planned to be at the church for my whole career." I remember I used the phrase, "I want this to be my life's work." I don't know where that came from. And he shrugged and said, "Well, then build it as big as you can.” And we hadn't even ordered our lunch yet.]

[So we built it as big as we could. And I still remember the floor was tiled back then, all tiled, and there were no chairs yet. I would come almost every weekend. I would drag my kids up here to walk through the building under construction. And I'd stood there, and they had just unloaded the chairs out in the parking lot. And I stood here, and I looked at this giant room and I thought, “Oh no, we've overbuilt. What if nobody comes? It's so big.” And then we added a balcony at the last minute. And people say, “Andy, all this stuff is happening. Was that your vision?” And my standard answer is “No, it's not my vision. We passed my vision at year five.” After that, Sandra and I, in fact, you should come up here. Come up for a second. This is my support wife, emotional support wife. Thank you. Because this is the part I'm like, I’ve got to power through it. Ever since, five years later, we have just been hanging on. In fact, our prayer, I promise I'm not making this up. We would pray, dear heavenly Father, please don't let us mess it up. Yeah. Help us not to mess this up. We were just along for the ride. And so nobody is more grateful. We've never struggled with taking credit for what's happened, not because we're so humble, but because it is so far beyond anything we imagine. Why God chose to supercharge and fuel inject this movement, we'll never know, and it's really none of our business, but we are so, so incredibly grateful that this has been, as I said that day kind of by accident to John, that we've had the privilege of making this our life's work.]

[So I'll wrap up quick. There's an anonymous quote. I thought I'd heard that Dr. Seuss said it, but Darcy Dickerson told me that Dr. Seuss didn't say that. Nobody knows where this came from, but we've sort of been hanging onto this in this season. It says this, "Don't be sad that it's over. Be happy that it happened.” And we are so happy that... Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You can remain standing if you want. I'm done. I've said it three times. That's another preacher thing to say, “last thing.” People who've known about this keep asking me, and it's an appropriate question, are asking us, "How do you feel? How do you feel about this?" And we feel grateful and confident because again, we're confident this is the right decision. It's the right time. And Joel is definitely the right person. And we as a network of churches are so fortunate to have somebody like Joel who has been a part of this journey for so long and has such varied experience and then came back. So I would just ask two favors. Number one, please come back next week or tune in next week as I backfill some of this. It's so important. And then number two, please vote and please vote for Joel. Thank you.]

Andy is not retiring from ministry. He is resigning his roles as an employee of North Point Ministries.

The Board of Elders voted unanimously to nominate Joel Thomas to succeed Andy as the Senior Pastor of North Point Ministries. Pending congregational approval, this change will take place on January 1, 2027.

The plan is for Joel to assume the role as Lead Pastor of North Point Community Church on June 1, 2027.

The Senior Pastor is the “CEO” of the organization, providing spiritual and directional leadership for North Point Ministries, its local campuses, and its national and international network of churches. The Senior Pastor reports to and is accountable to the Board of Elders. 

A Lead Pastor provides point leadership for a specific campus of North Point Ministries.

January 1, 2027: Joel assumes the role of Senior Pastor of North Point Ministries, pending congregational approval.

June 1, 2027: Joel becomes the Lead Pastor of North Point Community Church.

Andy will continue to participate in the preaching rotation and serve on the Board of Elders.

Andy will continue to participate in the preaching rotation.

Please watch Andy’s message from October 18, 2026.

The organization’s constitution outlines a few decisions that require a vote of the church membership. One of those decisions is the appointment of a new Senior Pastor.

On October 18, 2026, church members will receive an email with a link to a ballot page, where they can cast their vote. Voting will continue through October 30, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. The results will be announced on Sunday, November 1, 2026.

The Board of Elders determined an eligible voter is an individual 18 years of age or older who satisfies one or more of the following:

(a) Has been active in a small group at any time in the last 18 months

(b) Is the parent or guardian of a child who has been checked into one of the church’s children’s environments in at least 12 of the last 18 months

(c) Has served on a ministry team at any time in the last 18 months

(d) Has contributed financially to North Point Ministries four times or more in the last 12 months

If you have been identified as an eligible voting member, you will receive an email on Sunday, October 18, 2026, with a link to submit your vote.

The results will be shared during services on Sunday, November 1, 2026. Updates will be posted on this page as well.

The mission and vision of North Point Ministries and its campuses will remain unchanged. We will continue to inspire people to follow Jesus by engaging them in the life and mission of their local church.

Updates and additional details will be posted on this site as they become available. If you have an immediate inquiry, please email update@npm.net.