Tag: brian nietzel

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Andy Stanley’s Upcoming Family Conference Features TWO Gay-Married Speakers

In a little over a month, North Point Community Church will be hosting the controversial Unconditional Conference, a family conference for parents who have LGBTQ children. Notably, nearly all the speakers are gay-affirming and pro-homosexuality, some radically so. This includes not only ONE homosexual man who is ‘married’ to his ‘husband’ but TWO.

The conference is being put on by Embracing the Journey, a radical gay-affirming ministry that partners with North Point to counsel parents of struggling LGBTQ+ children. We’ve cataloged some of North Point Community Church’s and Andy Stanley’s LGBTQ-affirming stances and activities below.

Video: Gay-Affirming North Point Church Leader Cheers As She’s Given Lap Dance by Drag Queen
North Point Leader Recommends All-LGBTQ+ Queer Counselling Collective For Struggling Gay Kids
Dr. Michael Brown Says He’s Spent 8 Years Exchanging Texts and Emails with Andy Stanley, Who Has REFUSED to Condemn Homosexuality

Celebrating Transgenderism?! North Point Church Staffers Rejoice After Man Comes Out as Woman
Audio: Gay North Point Church Leader Says Andy Stanley Affirmed Him in His Homosexuality
Did a Pastor at Andy Stanley’s Church Just Out Him as Gay-Affirming?! Read the Excerpts
Contemporaneous Text Messages from 2019 Support Gay-Affirming Charges Against Andy Stanley Andy

North Point Church Staffers Found ‘Liking’ Pride Parade Celebration
Stanley’s Children Ministry Overrun and Led by Pro-LBGTQ+ Activists
Andy Stanley’s Church Hosts and Promotes Pro-LBGTQ+ Ministry
Surprise Surprise, Another North Point Church Leader is Gay-Affirming and Wildly Liberal

We’ve previously reported that one of the speakers at the conference is Brian Nietzel, an open and unapologetically affirming ‘Gay Christian.’ Brian ‘married’ his partner Dan last year and now lives unrepentantly in a grotesque parody of a one-flesh union. 

Crucially, Nietzel also founded the Renovus Network, a pro-LGBTQ+ advocacy group whose mission is to “Connect LGBTQ+ individuals to reclaim and develop their relationship with Jesus” and envision “a world where no one has to choose between their faith and sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Along with Nietzel, Renovus was co-founded by Gregory Cook, an openly gay man who serves on the board of Directors. Cook has been a leader with the North Point Community Church for the last 13 years. He’s joined on the board by gay-affirming North Point Pastrix Debbie Causey and gay-affirming ‘Embracing the Journey’ founders Greg and Lynn McDonald, also leaders at North Point.

But he’s not the one. Justin Lee, who ‘married’ his ‘fiance’ Michael Bower last year, will also be speaking.

For the last two decades, Lee has been an influential Christian voice for LGBTQ affirmation. He is the founder of the world’s largest LGBTQ Christian advocacy organization, (Gay Christian Network) the author of two books, and an internationally known speaker on faith, sexuality, and dialogue. Justin’s first book, Torn: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs.-Christians Debate, has been widely cited for its role in helping Christian parents understand and accept their LGBTQ kids.

It’s not surprising that North Point Church would have these two same-sex married men speak, it’s only surprising that there’s not more of them.

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Christianity Today Promotes Gay-Affirming Ministry (with Ties to North Point Church)

Next fall, North Point Community Church is hosting the Unconditional Conference, where Andy Stanley will be a keynote speaker. The conference is being put on by Embracing the Journey, a radical gay-affirming ministry that partners with North Point and offers to counsel parents of struggling LGBTQ+ children, all the while telling them that their child cannot change and they need to stop trying to. 

Nearly all the speakers at this conference are gay-affirming, including Brian Nietzel, who is married to a man and has spoken at North Point before. Nietzel co-founded Renovus, an LGBTQ-affirming advocacy network, where leaders and pastors of North Point Community Church sit on the board. 

Nietzel also founded Making Things Right ministries, where he seeks to bridge the gap between Christians and the LGBTQ+ community by moving Christians into the affirming camp. His mission statement is to “help reform the Christian response and responsibility to the LGBTQ+ community” and he does this by trying to get Christians to shift their theology through the power of ‘story.’

He also has a podcast consisting of seven episodes, where all his guests are gay-affirming, including North Point leader Gregory Cook (co-founder of Renovus who recently said Andy Stanley affirmed him in his homosexuality), pastor Debbie Causey of North Point (the gay-affirming Director of Care Networks who likewise said Stanley affirmed her son in his homosexuality, and who sits on the board of Renovus) and Sandi Hardmon-Waldrop, a gay-affirming leader at North Point church who leads a Parent Connect group (and also sits on the board of Renovus)

The premise of the podcast is straightforward: tell stories about why open and unrepentant homosexuals are our Christian brothers and sisters that must be celebrated and accepted wholly in the church. 

Enter Christianity Today (CT).

We’ve rarely been friendly toward CT, and with good reason. Led by Russell Moore, they’re the progressive rag known for virtue-twerking and giving a platform to every weird and liberally insidious bent. 

They carried op-ed’s by Karen Swallow Prior saying it was un-Christlike to call women who killed their babies ‘murderers’ because abortion is not murder, had a lesbian Roman Catholic write about her masturbation habits, comparing masturbation to worship and describing Christianity as a “erotic” religion.

They came swinging against the violence at Capitol Hill on January 6th, laying the responsibility for the mayhem at the feet of the “white American church” and any leaders who voted for and supported the President.

They proclaimed that anyone who voted for the GOP was an inherent racist who was committing “politically motivated spiritual violence” against black folk.

They released editorials calling Trump voters “jobless” and “uneducated,” with former Editor-in-Chief Mark Galli explaining that he didn’t even know any Trump supporters, and the next Editor-in-Chief comparing any churches being open during COVID to engaging in “snake handling.”

Despite their smug pedigree, mere months ago, Christianity Today was rocked by a major scandal, revealing that ‘sexual harassment went unchecked’ at the company for a decade, all the while they preened as our moral betters. 

Given what we know, it’s no surprise that in January of 2022, CT was contacted by Nietzel who wanted to buy advertising space for Making Things Right, despite it being a pro-LGBTQ+ advocacy scheme. Undaunted, CT took the money, helping to launch the marketing campaign.

Christianity Today promoted the show across numerous podcasts and avenues. Nietzel joyfully exclaimed that the ads would reach over 100,000 Christians and church leaders, appearing on shows like Church Politics, Monday Morning Pastor, and Theology Q & A.

He later rejoiced that midway through the month, they’d reached 6000 downloads.

The ad reads in part: “This episode is brought to you in part by Brian Nietzel and his new podcast Making Things Right, which is an invitation for the church to restore faith in the LGBTQ+ community.”

Is there no limit to what Christianity Today will or won’t promote? We haven’t found it yet.

Bonus Nietzel/ Renovus/ North Point/ Andy Stanley content.

Gay Man with a ‘Husband’ Scheduled to Speak with Andy Stanley At His Church’s Family Conference
ALMOST ALL Speakers at Andy Stanley’s Upcoming ‘Christian’ Conference are LGBTQ+ Affirming!
Celebrating Transgenderism?! North Point Church Staffers Rejoice After Man Comes Out as Woman
Audio: Gay North Point Church Leader Says Andy Stanley Affirmed Him in His Homosexuality

Did a Pastor at Andy Stanley’s Church Just Out Him as Gay-Affirming?! Read the Excerpts
North Point Leader Recommends All-LGBTQ+ Queer Counselling Collective For Struggling Gay Kids
Contemporaneous Text Messages from 2019 Support Gay-Affirming Charges Against Andy Stanley Andy Stanley’s Children Ministry Overrun and Led by Pro-LBGTQ+ Activists

North Point Hosting Conference With Founder of World’s Largest LGBTQ Christian Advocacy Org
Andy Stanley’s Church Hosts and Promotes Pro-LBGTQ+ Ministry
Surprise Surprise, Another North Point Church Leader is Gay-Affirming and Wildly Liberal

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Audio: Gay North Point Church Leader Says Andy Stanley Affirmed Him in His Homosexuality

With the news that Andy Stanley’s North Point Community Church has become a cesspool filled with LGBTQ+ affirming pastors, leaders, ministries, guest speakers, and conferences, it’s unsurprising that as more stones are overturned, more deviant theology emerges.

Gay Man with a ‘Husband’ Scheduled to Speak with Andy Stanley At His Church’s Family Conference
Celebrating Transgenderism?! North Point Church Staffers Rejoice After Man Comes Out as Woman
Did a Pastor at Andy Stanley’s Church Just Out Him as Gay-Affirming?! Read the Excerpts

North Point Leader Recommends All-LGBTQ+ Queer Counselling Collective For Struggling Gay Kids
Contemporaneous Text Messages from 2019 Support Gay-Affirming Charges Against Andy Stanley
Andy Stanley’s Children Ministry Overrun and Led by Pro-LBGTQ+ Activists

ALMOST ALL Speakers at Andy Stanley’s Upcoming ‘Christian’ Conference are LGBTQ+ Affirming!
North Point Hosting Conference With Founder of World’s Largest LGBTQ Christian Advocacy Org
Andy Stanley’s Church Hosts and Promotes Pro-LBGTQ+ Ministry

Surprise Surprise, Another North Point Church Leader is Gay-Affirming and Wildly Liberal

We also learned that almost all the speakers at his upcoming conference are LGBTQ-affirming, including Brian Nietzel, who is married to a man and who co-founded Renovus alongside Gregory ‘Ory’ Cook.

Renovus Network is a pro-LGBTQ+ advocacy group whose mission is to “Connect LGBTQ+ individuals to reclaim and develop their relationship with Jesus” and envision “a world where no one has to choose between their faith and sexual orientation or gender identity.” They believe that homosexuality is not a sin and instead is something to be celebrated and integrated fully into the church. 

Other Renovus board members are gay-affirming North Point ‘pastor’ Debbie Causey, gay-affirming ‘Embracing the Journey’ founder Greg McDonald, who is a ministry partner of North Point Church, and Cortland Russell, an openly unrepentant gay man who North Point church baptized. Cortland says it was Gregory Cook who taught him to be a queer Christian, and it was the three leaders at North Point, Gregory Cook, Debbie Causey, and Sandi Harman-Waldrop, who encouraged him to be baptized.

So who is co-founder Gregory Cook?

Gregory Cook is an openly gay man who serves on the Board of Directors of Renovus. Cook has been a leader with the North Point Community Church for the last 13 years, where he’s been on the Buckhead Church production team, holding creative meetings, recruiting volunteers, and managing set builds. He has also done missions trip throuh North Point Ministries, visiting Kenya in 2017 to lay the groundwork for a future ministry.

Cook considers Andy Stanley to be a friend and “mentor.” Stanley has nearly 600k followers on Twitter but only follows 1430 people, one of which is Cook, who urged Stanley to check out his gay-affirming network.

On social media, Cook can be seen opining that he scared off one his dates, and expressing great joy that a TV show about a gay school boy falling in love with a classmate has been renewed for a second season.

During a recent podcast episode of Making Things Right, a pro-LGBTQ podcast led by Brian Nietzel, several gay-affirming North Point leaders were interviewed. In one segment, Gregory Cook explains that he started attending North Point Chiurch after shunning church for 20 years. He reveals it was the result of a chance meeting with Andy Stanley, who invited him to church and later affirmed his homosexuality, telling him he was ok ‘just the way he was’ which led to him becoming an extablished figure within the congregation.

This revelation tracks with another story we did, where ‘pastor’ Debbie Causey also claimed that years ago, Stanley said he didn’t know whether or not it was a sin to act on homosexual desires and attractions, said the Bible’s description of sodomites in Romans 1 doesn’t mesh with any gay people he knows, and advised her not to tell her son that his same-sex desires were unnatural, because they are natural for him.

Gregory Cook has an openly pro-LGBTQ ministry where several leaders at North Point Community Church sit on the board. This is ostensibly widely known within their circles, and no one at the church does anything about it.

The toleration is telling, to say the least.

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Exclusive. CCM Artist Sara Groves Comes Out as Gay-Affirming

Sara Groves is an award-winning CCM artist. Gaining prominence in the early 2000s, she was nominated for three Dove Awards, including New Artist of the Year in 2002, and was named one of the best Christian music artists of 2005. Her album ‘Add to the Beauty’ with songs like “When it was Over” and “It’s going to be Alright” received critical acclaim and was named Album of the Year by CCM Magazine in 2005.

But like Amy Grant, Jennifer Knapp, Jars of Clay, DC Talk’s Kevin Max, Relient K, Switchfoot, Five Iron Frenzy, and many more, Groves has become gay-affirming, referring to herself as a “baby ally.” 

During a 2020 concert for Renovus, a gay-affirming organization founded by Brian Nietzel* and whose board members include pastors and leaders at Andy Stanley’s North Point Community Church, Groves explains some of her journeys into shifting her view on homosexuality from opposition to allyship. 

Editor’s Note.* Nietzel is a gay man ‘married’ to his husband, and he is set to be a speaker at an upcoming Christian family conference at Andy Stanley’s church. Curiously, almost all the speakers are gay-affirming.

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Gay Man with a ‘Husband’ Scheduled to Speak with Andy Stanley At His Church’s Family Conference

Next fall, North Point Community Church is hosting the Unconditional Conference, where Andy Stanley will be a keynote speaker. The conference is being put on by Embracing the Journey, a radical gay-affirming ministry that partners with North Point and offers to counsel parents of struggling LGBTQ+ children, all the while telling them that their child cannot change and they need to stop trying to.

In recent weeks Protestia has uncovered that not only is Stanley gay-affirming, but rather several ministry heads are as well. We wrote how when parents come to them with concerns and counseling regarding their struggling LGBTQ+ children, North Point recommends an affirming ministry for the parents, and affirming, progressive, all-gay counselors for the children.

We also learned that almost all the speakers at this conference are LGBTQ+-affirming.

One speaker we wanted to highlight is Brian Nietzel, an open and unapologetically affirming ‘Gay Christian.’ Brian ‘married’ his partner Dan last year and now lives unrepentantly in a grotesque parody of a one-flesh union. 

Crucially, Nietzel also founded the Renovus Network, a pro-LGBTQ+ advocacy group whose mission is to “Connect LGBTQ+ individuals to reclaim and develop their relationship with Jesus” and envision “a world where no one has to choose between their faith and sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Along with Nietzel, Renovus was co-founded by Gregory Cook, an openly gay man who serves on the board of Directors. Cook has been a leader with the North Point Community Church for the last 13 years. He’s joined on the board by gay-affirming North Point Pastrix Debbie Causey and gay-affirming ‘Embracing the Journey’ founder Greg McDonald.

Nietzel also founded Making Things Right ministries, where he seeks to bridge the gap between Christians and the LGBTQ+ community by moving Christians into the affirming camp. His mission statement is to “help reform the Christian response and responsibility to the LGBTQ+ community” and he does this by trying to get Christians to shift their theology through the power of ‘story.’

The pastors at North Point Community Church have opened their arms to Nietzel, and he was recently a guest speaker at their Parent Connect group. He shares: 

I presented to nearly 200 parents, LGBTQ+ folks, and church staff at Parent Connect, a vital ministry in Atlanta helping parents love their LGBTQ+ kids well. It was an epic experience!⁠

I shared some of my story and struggle to find peace with God as a gay man, and my long yet full-circle experience with my parents. Then my good friend Caleb shared his story. He bravely brought some edges and urgency, as he chronicled disappointments with his parents and more so with the Christian Church.⁠ The response was overwhelmingly positive. 


Nietzel is speaking at the upcoming North Point Conference with Stanley, and he’s overjoyed to be given the opportunity. Given his close ties with other North Point leaders and all the ways they intersect and connect, knowing full well who he is, what he believes, and what his theological proclivities are, he’s likely an integral piece in moving the church in the dark direction it is inevitably barreling toward.

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ALMOST ALL Speakers at Andy Stanley’s Upcoming ‘Christian’ Conference are LGBTQ+ Affirming!

Next fall, North Point Community Church is hosting the Unconventional Conference, where Andy Stanley will be a keynote speaker. The conference is being put on by Embracing the Journey, a radical gay-affirming ministry that partners with North Point that offers counseling to parents of struggling LGBTQ+ children.

In recent weeks Protestia has uncovered that not only is Stanley gay-affirming, but rather several ministry heads are as well. We wrote how when parents come to them with concerns and counseling regarding their struggling LGBTQ+ children, North Point recommends an affirming ministry for the parents, and affirming, progressive, all-gay counselors for the children.

Because much of the leadership at North Point is Gay affirming, the speaker list refects this, with almost all of them being pro-homosexuality in one way or another. 

  • Greg and Lynn Mcdonald are both affirming. Their organization recommends all pro-queer resources and endorses books about why the bible celebrates homosexuality, rather than condemns it.
  • Andy Stanley is affirming, according to testimony by three pastors, as well as the ministries he allows to flourish in his church.
  • Debbie Causey is an affirming, pro-gay pastrix at North Point who celebrates affirming ministries and is a board member of the pro-LGBTQ advocacy group Renovus.
  • Justin Lee is the founder of the world’s biggest pro-LGBTQ advocacy group, and regularly promotes homosexuality as an excellent and normative orientation. 
  • Rev. Dr. David P. Gushee is a pro-LGBTQ affirming author who wrote a book about it Changing Our Mind: Definitive 3rd Edition of the Landmark Call for Inclusion of LGBTQ Christians with Response to Critics
  • Dr Michael Sytsma sits on the board of Directors of Pro-LGBTQ organization Embracing the Journey and has appeared with North Point staffer Ryan Gray on the church’s Care Network several times as a teacher. 
  • Brian Nietzel is a gay man married to his ‘husband’ and is the founder of the pro-LBGTQ advocacy group Renovus, where several members of North Point Church sit on the board.

There are also some speakers who are very suspect, and most are likely affirming, but we were unable to verify completely.

  • David Quinones – a parent of a gay son and a frequent speaker at Embracing the Journey, he builds bridges that foster healing and reconciliation between the church, lgbtq+ individuals, and their families. He recently created a Family Care Group for family members of gay kids. 
  • Al Causey is Debbie’s husband and the Adult Ministries & Ministry Services Director at Gwinnett Church, one of North Point’s satellite churches. We don’t have any record of him being personally affirming, but if not, he’s a wolf and a coward for allowing his wife to have this ministry and not openly rebuking her. 
  • John Ortberg: endorsed the book ‘Embracing the Journey” and was recently let go from Menlo Church after it was revealed he knew his son was a pedophile, but still allowed him to volunteer with the children’s ministry. 
  • Pastor Chris Clark is a leader of a pro-LGBTQ+ Embracing the Journey support group at Saddleback Church, and has a daughter who he refers to as his trans “son”