John Pavlovitz

Last updated

John Pavlovitz
Born (1969-06-01) June 1, 1969 (age 54)
Syracuse, New York, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater University of the Arts (Philadelphia)
Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary
Notable workStuff That Needs to Be Said
A Bigger Table
Hope and Other Super Powers
SpouseJennifer
Children2
Website johnpavlovitz.com

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]

Contents

Early life and education

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]

Ministry

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]

Writing

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]

Personal life

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]

Related Research Articles

A megachurch is a church with a very large membership that also offers a variety of educational and social activities. Most megachurches are Protestant, and particularly Evangelical, although the word denotes a type of organization, not a denomination. The Hartford Institute for Religion Research defines a megachurch as any Protestant Christian church that draws 2,000 or more people in a weekend.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth Copeland</span> American gospel preacher

Kenneth Max Copeland is an American televangelist associated with the charismatic movement. He is the founder of Eagle Mountain International Church Inc. (EMIC), which is based in Tarrant County, Texas. Copeland has also written several books and resources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lakewood Church</span> Church in Texas, United States

Lakewood Church is a non-denominational evangelical Christian megachurch located in Houston, Texas. It is among the largest congregations in the United States, averaging about 45,000 attendees per week. The 16,800-seat Lakewood Church building, home to four English-language services and two Spanish-language services per week, is located at the former Compaq Center. Joel Osteen is the senior pastor of Lakewood Church with his wife, Victoria, who serves as co-pastor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joel Osteen</span> American televangelist, businessman, and author (born 1963)

Joel Scott Osteen is an American pastor, televangelist, businessman, and author based in Houston, Texas, United States. Known for his weekly televised services and several best-selling books, Osteen is one of the more prominent figures associated with prosperity theology and the Word of Faith movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rodney Howard-Browne</span> South African preacher (born 1961)

Rodney Morgan Howard-Browne is a South African-born American evangelist and conspiracy theorist. He has resided in Tampa, Florida since the mid-1990s and is pastor of The River Church in Tampa Bay. The River is considered both Pentecostal and Charismatic with revival meetings, led by Howard-Browne, known for those in the audience breaking into "holy laughter" and experiencing other phenomena similar to the Great Awakenings and Azusa Street Revival. Howard-Browne is the head of Revival Ministries International, a ministry he and his wife founded in 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C3 Church Global</span> Church in International

C3 Church Global, formerly known as Christian City Church International (C3i), is a charismatic movement founded by Phil Pringle and Christine Pringle. The first church was started in Dee Why on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia, and is now located in Oxford Falls. As of October 2019, C3 Church Global was a community of over 500 churches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Baptist Church (Hammond, Indiana)</span> Church in Indiana, United States

The First Baptist Church of Hammond is a fundamentalist Independent Baptist megachurch in Hammond, Indiana, a suburb of Chicago. It is the largest church in the state of Indiana, and in 2007 was the 20th largest in the United States. Though founded in 1887 by Allen Hill, it was under Jack Hyles' leadership from 1959–2001 when it became one of the megachurches in the United States and during the 1970s had the highest Sunday school attendance of any church in the world. In 1990, the church had a weekly attendance of 20,000. It also operates Hyles-Anderson College, a non-accredited institution established for the training of pastors and missionaries, and two K-12 schools, called City Baptist Schools and Hammond Baptist Schools. John Wilkerson is the senior pastor at First Baptist Church.

Alfonso R. Bernard, Sr. is the founder, CEO and pastor of the Christian Cultural Center Megachurch in Brooklyn, New York. In the 2020s, the CCC is a 37,000+ member church that sits on an 11+1⁄2-acre campus in Brooklyn, New York.

The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) is a theological belief and movement that combines elements of Pentecostalism, evangelicalism and the Seven Mountain Mandate to advocate for spiritual warfare to bring about Christian dominion over all aspects of society, and end or weaken the separation of church and state. NAR leaders often call themselves apostles and prophets. Long a fringe movement of the American Christian right, it has been referred to as "one of the most significant and controversial movements in late-twentieth-century evangelicalism." The NAR's prominence and power have increased since the 2016 election of Donald Trump as US president. Theology professor André Gagné, author of a 2024 book on the movement, has characterized it as "inherently political" and said it threatens to "subvert democracy." Many notable American Republican politicians such as Mike Johnson, Doug Mastriano, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Lauren Boebert and activists such as Charlie Kirk have aligned with it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paula White</span> American television evangelist

Paula Michelle White-Cain is an American televangelist and a proponent of prosperity theology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Graham (pastor)</span> American Baptist minister (born 1950)

Jack Graham is the pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Baptist Church Dallas</span> House of worship in Texas, USA

First Baptist Dallas is a Baptist megachurch located in Dallas, Texas. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. It was established in 1868. The church is considered influential in Dallas and among evangelical Christians in the United States, because of its community involvement through 21 missions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven Furtick</span> American pastor and musician

Larry Stevens Furtick Jr. is an American Baptist evangelical Christian pastor, author, and composer of Elevation Worship. He is the founder and senior pastor of Elevation Church, based in Charlotte, North Carolina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bethel Church (Redding, California)</span> Church in California, United States

Bethel Church is an American non-denominational neo-charismatic megachurch in Redding, California, with over 11,000 members. The church was established in 1952, and is currently led by Bill Johnson. Bethel has its own music labels, Bethel Music and Jesus Culture ministries, which have gained popularity for contemporary worship music. The church runs the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry with over 2,000 students annually.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Birth Missionary Baptist Church</span> Church in Woodrow Road at Bishop Eddie L. Long Parkway Stonecrest, United States

New Birth Missionary Baptist Church is a charismatic Christian Baptist megachurch in Stonecrest, DeKalb County, Georgia. Its senior pastor is Jamal Bryant since 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Jeffress</span> Pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas

Robert James Jeffress Jr. is an American Southern Baptist pastor, author, radio host, and televangelist. He is the senior pastor of the 14,000-member First Baptist Church, a megachurch in Dallas, Texas, and is a Fox News Contributor. His sermons are broadcast on the television and radio program Pathway to Victory, which is broadcast on more than 1,200 television stations in the United States and 28 other countries, and is heard on 900 stations and broadcast live in 195 countries.

Harvest Bible Chapel is an evangelical Christian megachurch in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. Founded in 1988, it has grown to seven campuses in the Chicago metropolitan area. In 2008, the church was listed by Outreach magazine as one of the 100 fastest-growing churches in America. In January 2019, it was listed as one of the 50 largest churches in the United States. The church's current ministries include Vertical Worship and Harvest Christian Academy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guillermo Maldonado (pastor)</span> Christian Apostle

Guillermo Maldonado is a Honduran-American evangelical Christian, pastor, televangelist, and author. He is the co-founder and senior pastor of El Rey Jesús, a Nondenominational Christian megachurch located in Miami, Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Walker (North Carolina politician)</span> American politician and pastor (born 1969)

Bradley Mark Walker is an American politician and pastor who served as the U.S. representative for North Carolina's 6th congressional district from 2015 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, he was elected to head the Republican Study Committee in 2017 and vice chair of the House Republican Conference in 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Burns (pastor)</span> American evangelical Christian

John Mark Burns is an American evangelical minister, televangelist and political candidate who is the pastor of the Harvest Praise & Worship Center in South Carolina. He was an early supporter of Donald Trump during the 2016 United States presidential election and by 2023 was a board member of Pastors for Trump. Burns unsuccessfully ran for the United States House of Representatives in South Carolina's 4th congressional district in 2018 and 2022. He is co-founder of the NOW Television Network.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Abrams, Amanda. "How Raleigh's John Pavlovitz Went from Fired Megachurch Pastor to Rising Star of the Religious Left". Indy Week. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "John Pavlovitz, digital pastor of the resistance, pitches a bigger Christian tent". Religion News Service. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  3. ↑ "I'm Italian and Russian". Twitter. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Prentice, George. "John Pavlovitz". Boise Weekly. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
  5. ↑ "John Pavlovitz". The Good Men Project. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  6. 1 2 "John Pavlovitz: Bringing people to the table with honest talk about tough topics". Faith and Leadership. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  7. ↑ Pavlovitz, John. "Empathetic People Network". Empathetic People Network. Mighty Networks. Retrieved May 15, 2022.
  8. ↑ "2012 - Page 15 of 15 - john pavlovitz". john pavlovitz. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  9. 1 2 Stevens, Heidi. "Just in time for Thanksgiving, instructions on building a bigger, more inclusive table". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  10. ↑ "'This is nothing like the faith I entered into': Ex-megachurch pastor explains his path away from conservatism". Raw Story. November 22, 2017. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  11. ↑ "Stuff That Needs to Be Said". OutSmart Magazine. January 10, 2018. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  12. ↑ "You Have to Read This Father's Powerful Response to Brock Turner's Dad". Cosmopolitan. June 7, 2016. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  13. ↑ Kurtz, Jason. "Pastor to Stanford swimmer's father: 'Brock is not the victim'". CNN. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  14. ↑ "North Carolina Christian pastor writes piercing open letter to Hillary Clinton". Daily Kos. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  15. ↑ "North Carolina pastor: 'It's time we stopped calling Donald Trump a Christian'". News Observer. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  16. ↑ "Why This Pastor Is Telling People to Stop Calling Donald Trump a Christian". The Christian Post. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  17. ↑ "Trump Rips Into ESPN as Pastor John Pavlovitz Says He Agrees With Jemele Hill's White Supremacist Claims". The Christian Post. Retrieved April 19, 2018.
  18. ↑ Houle, Zachary (September 9, 2017). "A Review of John Pavlovitz's "A Bigger Table"". Zachary Houle. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  19. ↑ "A Bigger Table: Building Messy, Authentic, and Hopeful Spiritual Community". The Presbyterian Outlook. March 22, 2018. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  20. ↑ "Nonfiction Book Review: Hope and Other Superpowers: A Life-Affirming, Love-Defending, Butt-Kicking, World-Saving Manifesto by John Pavlovitz. Simon & Schuster, $20 trade paper (240p) ISBN 978-1-5011-7965-5". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved December 3, 2018.
  21. ↑ "John Pavlovitz". Yes Very Happy. Retrieved October 3, 2022.
  22. ↑ Pavlovitz, John (October 16, 2021). "Things You Think When You Think You're Dying". john pavlovitz. Retrieved October 3, 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.