Creating Community, Revised & Updated Edition

Andy Stanley   Communicator, author, and pastor Andy Stanley founded Atlanta-based North Point Ministries in 1995. Today, NPM consists of six churches in the Atlanta area and a network of more than 90 churches around the globe that collectively serve nearly 185,000 people weekly. A survey of U.S. pastors in Outreach Magazine identified Andy Stanley as one of the ten most influential living pastors in America.   Andy holds an undergraduate degree in journalism from Georgia State University and a master’s degree from Dallas Theological Seminary. He is the author of more than 20 books, including The New Rules for Love, Sex & Dating; Ask It; How to Be Rich; Deep & Wide; Enemies of the Heart; When Work & Family Collide; Visioneering; and Next Generation Leader.   In the digital world, his success reaches well beyond the Atlanta area. Over 1.8 million of Andy’s messages, leadership videos, and podcasts are accessed from North Point’s website monthly.  Your Move with Andy Stanley premiered on NBC after Saturday Night Live in 2012 and on CBS after The Late Late Show with James Corden in 2017, giving him an even wider audience with which to share his culturally relevant, practical insights for life and leadership. Currently, over seven million episodes are consumed each month through television and podcasts, underscoring Stanley’s impact not only as a communicator but also as an influencer of culture.   Nothing is as personal as his passion for engaging with live audiences, which he has pursued for over two decades at leadership events around the world. In high demand, he speaks at various annual events before audiences of both church and organizational leaders.   “I cannot fill their cups,” he often says of the opportunity to impact leaders in business and in ministry, “but I have a responsibility to empty mine.”   Andy and his wife, Sandra, have three grown children and live near Atlanta.

Bill WillitsBill Willitts is the Director of Group Life at North Point Community Church. Bill is a graduate of Florida State University and Dallas Theological Seminary and has previously served on other church staffs in Atlanta and Dallas, Texas. His most important small group consists of his wife, Terry, and their daughter, Bailey.