John Pavlovitz (born June 1, 1969) is an American former youth pastor and author, known for his progressive social and political writings from a

liberal Christian Liberal Christianity, also known as Liberal Theology and historically as Christian Modernism (see Catholic modernism and Fundamentalist–Modernist controversy), is a movement that interprets Christian teaching by taking into consideration m ...

perspective.

Early life and education

Pavlovitz was born in Syracuse, New York to a middle-class family of Italian and Russian Jewish descent, and was raised as a member of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. He studied graphic design at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Ministry

After college, Pavlovitz joined a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

church, where he married his wife Jennifer. He attended

Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary Palmer Theological Seminary is a Baptist seminary in St. Davids. It is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA. It was founded in 1925 as Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Its parent institution is Eastern University. History The ...

and became a youth minister at the church. Pavlovitz later worked for nearly a decade as youth pastor, in a program serving several hundred students at the Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, a "

megachurch A megachurch is a church with an unusually large membership that also offers a variety of educational and social activities, usually Protestant or Evangelical. The Hartford Institute for Religion Research defines a megachurch as any Protestant C ...

" in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

before being fired. In 2022 he launched Empathetic People Network, a private paid social media network for "kind humans".

Writing

Pavlovitz began a blog ''Stuff That Needs To Be Said'' in 2012, and was fired from a Raleigh, NC church in 2013, in response to "provocative" articles he'd posted. He later became a youth minister at North Raleigh Community Church. His blog has gained a large following and media attention for articles he has written on the subjects of acceptance of homosexuality ("If I Have Gay Children", 2014), attitudes about rape ("To Brock Turner's Father, from Another Father", 2016), the presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton ("Thank You, Hillary", 2016), and the character of Donald Trump ("It’s time we stopped calling Donald Trump a Christian", 2017). In 2017,

Westminster John Knox Press Westminster John Knox Press is an American publisher of Christian books located in Louisville, Kentucky and is part of Presbyterian Publishing Corporation, the publishing arm of the Louisville, Kentucky-based Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) The P ...

published his first book ''A Bigger Table: Building Messy, Authentic, and Hopeful Spiritual Community,'' which describes what he sees as the four foundations of the Christian church, and argues for creating a more inclusive society and church community. 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 Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...

in November 2018.

Personal life

Pavlovitz and his wife Jennifer have two children. In October 2021, Pavlovitz underwent surgery to have a noncancerous pituitary tumor removed from the base of his brain.

References

External links

John Pavlovitz's Official Website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pavlovitz, John 1969 births Living people American people of Italian descent American people of Russian-Jewish descent American spiritual writers Former Roman Catholics