It saddens me to write this review. For over 15 years this was our church home.
While I still admire Andy Stanley in certain ways, and love the people at Gwinnett Church (a proxy of NPCC), I lament the direction of the church.
NPCC experienced fast growth in the 2000s at a time when it spoke God’s Word in truth and Andy made scripture plainly known. NPCC fostered a community where believers freely lived out the gospel together.
Unfortunately, Andy has changed and the church is heading in the wrong direction. NPCC now offers scripture as something like an à la carte menu. The notion of being Jesus’ disciple has been whittled down to believing in Jesus’ resurrection and loving others as He loved us. It seems Andy disintegrates the Bible in an effort to make the gospel easier to digest. He isn’t looking back, either, claiming to be “more confident than ever” in his newfound mission.
The Bible is God’s Word spoken to us over the centuries. It is the epic & cohesive story of our beginning and subsequent fall, God’s sovereignty and love for us — who are made in His image — and our redemption through Jesus Christ. Andy knows all of this.
Yet, instead of cultivating God’s Word in the church to mature us in Christ, Andy now governs God’s Word, reshaping it to influence the so-called “unchurched” and to make room for “Christians” who prefer to stay in sin. Among other things, he does this by ignoring scripture, scriptural context, and the Holy Spirit’s role. I raised my concerns to NPCC / Gwinnett leaders who acknowledged them as legitimate, yet justified Andy’s shift in direction.
In truth, Andy invites the spirit of Cain into Gwinnett Church by lowering the bar to be Jesus’ follower, undermining the true cost of discipleship. As with Cain, God won’t stop Andy from getting his way, but the outcome is unfortunate.
Jesus died that we may live. Our salvation is free yet came at the ultimate cost. We were made righteous by Christ without doing a thing to earn it. It is good news that Jesus’ death reconciled us to God with the promise of eternal life. Those who accept Jesus’ invitation are called by Him to also die to ourselves (i.e., be in the world but not of it) to allow the Holy Spirit to inhabit us. He equips us to put God’s Word into practice, leave our life of sin, and walk in the fruit of His Spirit. This is what it means to walk with God, as Abel did. Things didn’t go well for Abel in his earthly life, yet God received him as a proud Father. In the end, that’s what matters.
The “Cain & Abel” comparison is crucial. It is the difference between a church being accepted by Jesus or spit out of His mouth (Rev 2:8, Rev 3:14). We left Gwinnett Church in 2024 to join a church unashamed of the gospel, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, our hearts are revived & reignited in desire to serve Jesus, with better awareness of the sin in our lives.
I believe Andy — and his pastors — are doing what they think is right. I clearly disagree. It seems the spirit of self-sufficiency has crept into American megachurches, blinding us to the reality that our spiritual condition is as depraved as anyone. We must repent to rely on Jesus. I pray Andy’s heart awakens to the truth of the gospel. We live in critical times. All signs point in the same direction. Jesus is coming soon.
If you don’t go to church and want to meet some great Christians, then Gwinnett Church is a soft place to land. It might get your toes wet. If you want to hear the gospel in a way that it washes over you, and you want to receive Jesus’ invitation to be His disciple, then I strongly suggest that you look elsewhere.
“…All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…” (2 Timothy 3:16).
“The most dangerous thing you can do is to take any one impulse of your own nature and set it up as the thing you ought to follow at all costs. There is not one of them — even the love of humanity — which will not make us into devils if we set it up as an absolute guide” (C.S. Lewis, Mere...
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