J.D. Greear
Pastor | The Summit Church
J.D. Greear is the pastor of The Summit Church, in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina.
The Summit is characterized by its gospel focus and sending culture. As Pastor J.D. often says, “The gospel is not merely the diving board off of which we jump into the pool of Christianity, it’s also the pool itself.” The deeper we dive into the extravagant love of Christ, the more our lives will be filled with unquenchable joy, reckless generosity, and audacious faith.
Depth in the gospel also leads to width in the mission. Under Pastor J.D.’s leadership, the Summit has grown from a plateaued church of 300 to one of over 10,000, making it one of Outreach magazine’s “top 25 fastest-growing churches in America” for many years running.
Seating capacity, however, is not the church’s primary metric for success. Sending capacity is. Pastor J.D. has led the Summit in a bold vision to plant one thousand new churches by the year 2050. In the last 15 years, the church has sent out more than 1,000 people to live on church planting teams—in North Carolina, across the United States, and around the world.
Pastor J.D. completed his Ph.D. in Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, writing on the correlations between early church presentations of the gospel and Islamic theology. Seeing Muslims come to faith in Christ has long been a burden of his, a burden that led him to serve in Southeast Asia with the International Mission Board.
Life:
Pastor J.D. and his wife Veronica live in Raleigh. Together they are raising four ridiculously cute kids: Kharis, Alethia, Ryah, and Adon.
LINKS
Pastor J.D. Greear has authored several books:
Gaining by Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches That Send (2015)
Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary (2011)
Stop Asking Jesus into Your Heart: How to Know for Sure You Are Saved (2013)
Jesus, Continued … Why the Spirit Inside You Is Better Than Jesus Beside You (2014)
CONTRIBUTIONS TO FAITH DRIVEN ENTREPRENEUR
Join J.D. Greear as he discusses the new Faith Driven Entrepreneur video series and why he believes entrepreneurs are crucial to the mission of the Church.
Many of us entered entrepreneurial work to find a sense of satisfaction, meaning, and significance. Eventually, though, we all realize we can’t find those things there.
JD Greear dives into the connection between the amazing reality of our identity as children of God and how that identity inspires us to love our neighbors through our vocations.
The story of Jacob in the Old Testament is a fascinating tale of pride, humility, success, failure and a man who (quite literally) wrestled with the Lord.
Achieve, work harder, be a go-getter, pursue. These concepts which are so familiar to entrepreneurs are not inherently bad but have the potential to knock us on our backs if not kept in the right context.
We do the work we are called to do, but more important than simply doing the job is how we do it. JD Greear explained that we have a call to excellence, for the sake of honoring the Lord, not simply getting the job done.
Entrepreneurship can be incredibly lonely. Investing for kingdom purposes may confuse peers in the industry and further isolate FDEs and FDIs.
God multiplies our resources to increase our standard of giving, not just our standard of living. Jesus consistently praises the stewards who give it away, who invest it widely, creating more value for everybody.
The thing this week that God has been pressing into my heart is what you began in the spirit you can't finish in the flesh. That's what Paul said to the Galatians.
Join J.D. Greear as he discusses the new Faith Driven Entrepreneur video series and why he believes entrepreneurs are crucial to the mission of the Church.
Announcing the brand-new eight-session video series with J.D. Greear and Henry Kaestner about what it means to be a Faith Driven Entrepreneur.
The Atlantic’s article, Workism Is Making Americans Miserable, is one of those where someone has a brilliant insight the Bible teaches as a core principle: the futility of making work an idol. However, the Bible’s presentation is more complete—man shall not live by work alone, but man was made for work.
HAPPY FRIDAY! We wanted to end the week on a fun note with a parody music video. For those of you familiar with the movie Office Space’s famous video… this is a great cheesy take on it :)
Chris Evans shares more about how we can successfully integrate Christian virtues with business. Co-hosting our conversation is pastor JD Greear, who is currently walking with Chris on his journey as a Faith Driven Entrepreneur.