Andy Stanley, a pastor widely discredited by orthodox, Bible-believing Christians as a false teacher, has ignited a raging controversy with his latest remarks on homosexuality and faith. Stanley’s “seeker-sensitive” approach prioritizes attracting non-believers to church over upholding traditional doctrine, diluting the essence of Christianity to appease a wider audience. This has drawn fierce criticism from those who see Stanley’s views as a deviation from the true teachings of Christianity.

In a recent sermon, Stanley proclaimed that homosexuals who “loved Jesus” despite God’s rejection of them have more faith than most Christians and that Christians should learn from them. This asinine assertion, along with Stanley’s disregard for traditional teachings and the authority of the Bible, is a blatant display of his apostasy.

Stanley’s views and approach to ministry have rightfully faced heavy criticism as he is merely promoting his personal aberrant beliefs as gospel. Meanwhile, some homosexuals have praised Stanley for his innovative views on biblical interpretation, theology, and the role of the church, perceiving his approach as more “inclusive.”

However, beneath the surface of the controversy lies a more sinister issue at Stanley’s North Point Church. Not only does Stanley take a lenient, unscriptural approach to sin, but it has recently come to light that he employs an openly lesbian individual who leads the church’s LGBTQ ministry. You can read about that here.

But now, it has come to light that Stanley has been openly promoting open and active homosexual lifestyles within his church and he has been doing so through some very sinister people. Andy Stanley is repeatedly hosting an openly practicing homosexual who is openly living with his homosexual partner. His name is Brian Nietzel.

Brian Nietzel, according to his own biography found on his website, is living in Atlanta with his “partner Dan.” A look at photos on Nietzel’s Facebook page confirmed that he is still openly and actively in a homosexual relationship.

These homosexuals, as you can see from the image above, were “married” in 2021 with the wedding being performed by Amy Hayes, a former staff member for Charles Stanley’s In Touch Ministries.

Brian is the founder of Renovus—which we’ve written about in several previous articles—a ministry dedicated to advancing queer theology and homosexual affirmation within the Church. According to Brian’s website, he says he has known two things all of his life: “Jesus is my hero,” and “And I’m gay.” Brian says that for much of his life faith and sexuality were divided, but that “through a season of new conversations with God, I came out knowing my peace as a gay Christian man.”

We can all rest assured that whoever Brian was having “conversations” with, it certainly wasn’t God and what he teaches and believes certainly did not come from God’s word.

In this video clip below, Nietzel says that he spent most of his adult life “really feeling like the best way to honor God with my sexuality was to not act on it. And that was the best decision I could make with the information that I had. I didn’t do it out of fear, I did it out of fidelity for my relationship with God. But Chapter Two was in my late 30’s and I met a guy, and I fell in love, and I didn’t really plan on that. And so it forced me to have to really put on my big boy pants with God…and have new conversations, and I had to wrestle with that. Because I didn’t just want his tolerance, I wanted his blessing.”

“Chapter Three is when that wrestling match concluded, and I came out of that hearing and believing, deep in my being, that, we’re good.”

Nietzel also hosted a seminar for an LGBTQ organization called LoveBoldly which has a stated purpose of “We discern with middle Christians, pastors, and their communities as they navigate the inclusion and affirmation of LGBTQIA+ people.”

On the board and staff of LoveBoldly sites the infamous “gay pastor” Brandan Robertson who says the story of Jesus calling Lazarus to “come out” was actually about coming out of the closet as a homosexual, who says that Christians should not worship Jesus, who says people who don’t believe that God has feminine and gender-neutral pronouns are heretics, who says the Bible does not forbid premarital sex, who advocates for taxpayer-funded gay sex pills, who says that Jesus sinned, and who says the Holy Spirit told him that the Bible is wrong about homosexuality.

Last October, just a few months ago, Nietzel spoke at an LGBTQ conference for parents of queer kids at North Point Church:

And it isn’t just a one-time event. Nietzel is also speaking again at an upcoming conference called Unconditional later this year which is also being hosted at Andy Stanley’s church. This is the same conference that an associate pastor from Saddleback, a Southern Baptist megachurch formerly led by Rick Warren, will be speaking at.

Taking a look at the resources on Nietzel’s website, it looks like he is one of the driving forces behind this “gay Christianity” movement. Not only is an integral part of Andy Stanley’s pro-homosexual theology, but Nietzel is also part of several of these organizations that we’ve written about over the last few weeks, including Embracing the Journey, a program being used at Saddleback for parents of LGBTQ children that is designed to teach parents to become affirming of sexual sin.