Charles Andy Stanley was born in May 1958. His father is Dr. Charles F. Stanley, who is the senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Atlanta and founder of InTouch Ministries. Stanley received a bachelor's degree of journalism from Georgia State University and later earned a masters degree from Dallas Theological Seminary. After working for several years as Associate Pastor and Minister to Students at First Baptist Atlanta, he and five others founded North Point Community Church in 1995. The church has now grown to three campuses and over 22,000+ attenders each week. North Point Ministries has also helped plant 20 strategic partner churches[1] in the US and Canada. In 2006, he was voted the 13th most influential Christian in America[2] (20th in 2007[3])and North Point Community Church was voted the 3rd most influential church in America[4]. Buckhead Church was featured in a 2006 article in USA Today in regard to its revolutionary use of high definition video in the place of a live speaker [5]. In January, 2009, Stanley was selected to be the fourth speaker at the National Prayer Service following the inauguration of President Barack Obama [6] . Stanley now lives in Alpharetta, Georgia with his wife, Sandra, and his three children: Andrew, Garrett, and Allie. They also have a dog named Shadow. Ok, that's what you would read if you wanted to know his official biographical sketch. But...here's my take. Andy has been one of my best friends for over 10 years. We worked together at the beginning of NPCC and created and hoped and dreamed. When I had cancer, Andy called me every day. He is one of the most gifted leaders and communicators in the world and yet he is humble and kind and creative and just a darn good guy. I am honored to have him in my life. I cried when he dedicated one of his books to me. We've been together through incredible and tragic times. The info above is his bio but his life is much more than that info...it is one that reflects the nature and character of the one he serves. My programmers for this site just finished up this "friends" section and they knew I would put him in here. After they found his bio and printed it, I knew i had to figure out how to add to this section so i could tell you who he really is.