John Pavlovitz | |
---|---|
Born | Syracuse, New York, U.S. | June 1, 1969
Alma mater | University of the Arts (Philadelphia) Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary |
Notable work | Stuff That Needs to Be Said A Bigger Table Hope and Other Super Powers |
Spouse | Jennifer |
Children | 2 |
Website | johnpavlovitz |
John Pavlovitz (born June 1, 1969) is an American former youth pastor and author, known for his social and political writings from a liberal Christian perspective. [1] [2]
Pavlovitz was born in Syracuse, New York, to a middle-class family of Italian and Russian descent, [3] and was raised as a member of the Catholic Church. [1] [2] He studied graphic design at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. [1] [4]
After college, Pavlovitz joined a Methodist church, where he married his wife Jennifer. [1] [5] He attended Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary and became a youth minister at the church. [6] Pavlovitz later worked for nearly a decade as youth pastor, in a program serving several hundred students [4] at the Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, a "megachurch" [4] in Charlotte, North Carolina, before being fired. In 2022, he launched Empathetic People Network, a private paid social media network for "kind humans". [7]
Pavlovitz began a blog Stuff That Needs To Be Said in 2012, [8] and was fired from a Raleigh, North Carolina, church in 2013 in response to "provocative" articles he had posted. [4] [1] [9] He later became a youth minister at North Raleigh Community Church. [1]
His blog has gained a large following [10] and media attention for articles he has written on the subjects of acceptance of homosexuality ("If I Have Gay Children", 2014), [1] [11] [9] [2] attitudes about rape ("To Brock Turner's Father, from Another Father", 2016), [1] [2] [12] [13] the presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton ("Thank You, Hillary", 2016), [14] and the character of Donald Trump ("It's time we stopped calling Donald Trump a Christian", 2017). [15] [16] [17]
In 2017, Westminster John Knox Press published his first book A Bigger Table: Building Messy, Authentic, and Hopeful Spiritual Community, [6] which describes what he sees as the four foundations of the Christian church, and argues for creating a more inclusive society and church community. [2] [18] [19] His second book Hope and Other Superpowers: A Life-Affirming, Love-Defending, Butt-Kicking, World-Saving Manifesto offers advice for individuals seeking to counter "the highly partisan cultural climate", and was published by Simon & Schuster in November 2018. [20]
Pavlovitz and his wife, Jennifer, have two children. [21]
In October 2021, Pavlovitz underwent surgery to have a noncancerous pituitary tumor removed from the base of his brain. [22]
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