greg mcdonald – Protestia

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”

Days ago, audio from North Point Community Church (NPCC) pastor Andy Stanley was released, featuring him lauding the faith of gay Christians as exemplary over and above that of straight ones. The video was viewed over a million times and was enough to make the impastor trend, even though it’s hardly the worse thing he’s ever said.

You’ll recall that Stanley previously said that it doesn’t matter if the bible is true, so long as it’s ‘mostly reliable, and that the “foundation of our faith is not the whole bible. In 2018, he got shellacked from all sides for saying that Christians needed to unhitch themselves from the Old Testament and in a recent sermon told Christians not to follow Jesus through the Old Testament, but only through the Gospels. In the last year, he also said he preached in a way that gave pagans permission not to believe, went all in on Critical Race Theory by saying ‘it’s not enough to be ‘not racist.’ you must be ‘anti-Racist’+ you’re all racists, and then argued that white people fear black men.

Worse than Stanley’s troubling views on the faith of gay Christians, however, are the entanglements his church has with two pro-LBGTQ+ ministries.

These are organizations that don’t have a biblical view of homosexuality and the way the gospel relates to it, but rather are utterly and completely heretical.

The Bible says that homosexuality is a sin that Christ died for, and through the power of the Holy Spirit those who struggle with it can mortify their flesh. The work of the Spirit is not kneecapped by the presence of homosexual desires, where God can transform every part of a man or woman’s life except for their orientation. Far from it. The Bible teaches that both homosexual actions AND attractions are sinful and must be repented of, and as a result of the process of sanctification, one’s orientation and attractions will necessarily be reordered and conformed to the image of Christ.

This is a far cry from what is being taught at North Point Community Church.

Debbie Causey is a pastrix at NPCC, where she’s been employed for over two decades. She spent the first twelve years as the megachurch’s ‘Mentoring Director’ and then another ten as the ‘Care Director’, tasked with overseeing several programs and subordinates within her role.

Years ago, after her son came out as gay, she wrote the book The Big Reveal: Loving Your LGBTQ+ Child While Strengthening Your Faith, which details her experiences handling her son’s revelations. Prominent LBGTQ activist Justin Lee wrote the forward of her book, and she has his endorsement on her website.

With her experience and position within the church, Causey has championed and partnered with Embracing the Journey ministry, making it an integral part of her curriculum at NPCC. The church recommends it as a trusted resource for congregants wishing to find answers and advice when their child comes out as LBGTQ+, along with navigating the emotional and spiritual complexeties that the news brings. North Point Community Church has hosted Embracing the Journey conferences in the past, and currently has planned future events with the organization.

Embracing the Journey ministry is run by Greg and Lynn McDonald. They are a husband and wife team who are both long-term members and leaders in North Point Community Church. Similar to Causey, after their child came out as gay, they wrote the book Embracing the Journey: A Christian Parents’ Blueprint to Loving Your LGBTQ Child and created a ministry with the same name. Their mission is to “build bridges between LGBTQ+ individuals, their families, and the church, not in spite of the bible but because of the bible…” and Stanley has personally endorsed them and their ministry.

In her role as Director of Care, Causey leads Parent Connect, a key ministry at NPCC whose mission statement explains that the groups are not “about theology, but about parents loving their LGBTQ+ loved ones well.” Greg and Lynn are leaders in Parent Connect who lead groups of LBGTQ+ kids’ parents on a regular basis, and the couple has NPCC’s unreserved support. Causey explains in an endorsement video:

“We partner with them, (Embracing the Journey) by sending many couples that cannot attend locally a Parent Connect group. And I trust them completely what they teach these parents, and how they care for these parents, and it has become a ministry that is crucial to supporting parents of LBGTQ folks like myself
….Greg and Lynn are fantastic, empathic, safe people that will lead you towards a better relationship with God…They are a support, and their ministry is life-saving and life-changing. So just wanted to let you know that we are big fans of Greg and Lynn and Embracing the Journey and we hope that you will experience that as well.

Here’s the problem;

Embracing the Journey ministries is an openly “affirming” pro-LBGTQ+ ministry and Pastrix Debbie Causey is a board member of another openly-affirming ministry.

On ETJ’s Recommended Reading page, they give the disclaimer that “These are curated resources that we believe will help you on your journey. Please know that we only endorse the works listed below.“

What is endorsed by them? Along with listing Debbie Causey’s book, three others stand out.

Changing Our Mind, a book by pro-LBGTQ+ activists and authors David Gushee and Matthew Vines, which argues for full acceptance and inclusion of homosexuality in the church.
Matthew Vines’ God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships. This book offers a full-throated progressive apologetic on why the Bible is pro-LBGTQ+ and why any verses which speak against homosexuality don’t really mean that.
Justin Lee’s Torn: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs.-Christians Debate. Lee is the founder of the Gay Christian Network, and the book is a memoir of his life growing up gay. In the book, he argues that the church should accept both ‘Side A’ and ‘Side B’ Gay Christians.

There are no books that present homosexuality as a sin to be repented of, but rather all them point to it as a blessing to be celebrated for.

If this weren’t enough, Embracing the Journey has also repeatedly partnered with The Reformation Project, an organization overseen by activist Matthew Vines that is dedicated to advancing LGBTQ+ inclusion in the church. Greg and Lynn McDonald have been keynote speakers at Reformation Project conferences and have acted as facilitators for their gatherings.

It only gets worse, much worse, and we’ll tell you why tomorrow.

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