| John Pavlovitz | |
| Birth Date: | 1 June 1969 |
| Birth Place: | Syracuse, New York, U.S. |
| Alma Mater: | University of the Arts (Philadelphia) |
| Notable Works: | Stuff That Needs to Be Said A Bigger Table Hope and Other Super Powers |
| Spouse: | Jennifer |
| Children: | 2 |
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.
Pavlovitz was born in Syracuse, New York, to a middle-class family of Italian and Russian descent,[1] and was raised as a member of the Catholic Church.[2] [3] He studied graphic design at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.[4]
After college, Pavlovitz joined a Methodist church, where he married his wife Jennifer.[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 at the Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, a "megachurch" 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.[9] He later became a youth minister at North Raleigh Community Church.
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),[11] attitudes about rape ("To Brock Turner's Father, from Another Father", 2016),[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, which describes what he sees as the four foundations of the Christian church, and argues for creating a more inclusive society and church community.[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]