Ed Stetzer

Stetzer in 2017

Edward John Stetzer (born 1966) is an American author, speaker, researcher, pastor, church planter, and Christian missiologist. Stetzer is Billy Graham Distinguished Chair of Church, Mission, and Evangelism at Wheaton College and Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College. He is the North American Regional Director for Lausanne International and serves as interim Teaching Pastor at Moody Church in Chicago, Illinois and Teaching Pastor at Highpoint Church, a multisite church in the western suburbs of Chicago. He is a contributor to the North American discussion on missional church, church planting, church revitalization, and Christian cultural engagement.

Background

Stetzer was born in Long Island and grew up in Levittown, New York, outside New York City.

Stetzer is Billy Graham Distinguished Chair of Church, Mission, and Evangelism at Wheaton College and Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College. Formerly, he worked as Executive Director of LifeWay Research, a division of LifeWay Christian Resources and LifeWay's Missiologist in Residence. Before that, Stetzer served as Director of Research and Missiologist-In-Residence for the North American Mission Board. He is a prolific author, and well-known conference and seminar leader. Stetzer has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches, trained pastors and church planters on six continents, holds two master's degrees and two doctorates, and has written many articles and books.

Stetzer currently serves as Visiting Professor of Research and Missiology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School^[1] and Visiting Research Professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary,^[2] and has taught at many other colleges and seminaries.

Stetzer is a contributing editor for Christianity Today,^[3] a columnist for Outreach magazine,^[4] and is frequently cited or interviewed in national news outlets such as USA Today and CNN.^[5] He is also the Executive Editor of The Gospel Project,^[6] which is used by over one million individuals each week.^[7] Stetzer is Executive Editor of Facts & Trends Magazine,^[8] a Christian leadership magazine circulated to over 70,000 individuals each month.

He holds a bachelor's degree at Shorter University, two master's degrees (from Liberty University School of Divinity and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary), and two earned doctorates (a Doctor of Ministry from Beeson Divinity School and a Doctor of Philosophy from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary).

Missions consulting

Dr. Ed Stetzer is primarily known around the world for his expertise in missiology, and writes and speaks on cultural engagement, church planting and revitalization. Rick Warren has said that Stetzer is "a successful pastor, church planter, researcher, and adviser to thousands of churches, Ed Stetzer speaks from a wealth of experience with all kinds of churches" (from the foreword to Comeback Churches).

Two of Stetzer's recent research books, Lost and Found and Transformational Church, have been named to the Golden Canon Book Awards from Leadership Journal, a publication of Christianity Today.^[9]

Published books

Stetzer's book publications include:

• Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age (B&H Publishing Group, 2003).
• Perimeters of Light: Biblical Boundaries for the Emerging Church (with Elmer Towns, Moody Publishing, 2004)
• Breaking the Missional Code (with David Putman; B&H Publishing Group, 2006)
• Planting Missional Churches (B&H Publishers, 2006)
• Comeback Churches (with Mike Dodson; B&H Publishing Group, 2007)
• 11 Innovations in the Local Church (with Elmer Towns and Warren Bird; Regal Publishing, 2007)
• Compelled by Love: The Most Excellent Way to Missional Living (with Philip Nation; New Hope Publishers, 2008)
• Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches that Reach Them (with Richie Stanley and Jason Hayes; B&H Publishers, 2009)
• MissionShift: Global Mission Issues in the Third Millennium (with David Hesselgrave; B&H Publishing Group, 2010)
• Viral Churches: Helping Church Planters Become Movement Makers (with Warren Bird; Jossey-Bass, 2010)
• Transformational Church: Creating a New Scorecard for Congregations (with Thom S. Rainer, B&H Publishing Group, 2010)
• Subversive Kingdom: Living as Agents of Gospel Transformation (B&H Publishing Group, 2012)
• Compelled: Living the Mission of God (with Philip Nation, New Hope Publishers, 2012)
• The Mission of God Study Bible (with Philip Nation, B&H Publishing Group, 2012)
• Transformational Groups: Creating a New Scorecard for Groups (with Eric Geiger; B&H Publishing Group, 2014)
• (Sent: Living the Missional Nature of the Church, LifeWay Press, 2008)

Articles

References

External links

• Wheaton College
• The Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College
• The Official Website of LifeWay Research
• Ed Stetzer's website
• The Exchange