best selling author
What the World Needs Now
Redefine leadership and character.
Discover a path to a more connected and meaningful life with What the World Needs Now. Written by Clay Stauffer, a seasoned pastor, professor, husband, and father, this book explores moral leadership, character, and values that transcend generational and cultural divides.
With 30 concise chapters covering topics such as love, hope, diversity, and joy, Stauffer invites you to reflect on how we can improve our relationships, reshape culture, and build a sustainable future for generations to come. Blending Christian wisdom with universally accessible principles, the book illuminates the importance of virtues, emotional intelligence, and spiritual growth.
What the World Needs Now inspires readers from all walks of life to embody values of decency, civility, and mutual respect.
best selling author
What the World Needs Now
Redefine leadership and character.
Discover a path to a more connected and meaningful life with What the World Needs Now. Written by Clay Stauffer, a seasoned pastor, professor, husband, and father, this book explores moral leadership, character, and values that transcend generational and cultural divides.
With 30 concise chapters covering topics such as love, hope, diversity, and joy, Stauffer invites you to reflect on how we can improve our relationships, reshape culture, and build a sustainable future for generations to come. Blending Christian wisdom with universally accessible principles, the book illuminates the importance of virtues, emotional intelligence, and spiritual growth.
What the World Needs Now inspires readers from all walks of life to embody values of decency, civility, and mutual respect.
Clay Stauffer
Author
About
Clay Stauffer is the Senior Minister of Woodmont Christian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, and teaches moral leadership at Vanderbilt University. He earned a Bachelor’s degree from Texas Christian University (2002), a Master of Divinity from Princeton Seminary (2005), and a Doctor of Ministry from the University of the South at Sewanee (2015). His doctoral work explored the intersection of faith and politics and the growing polarization within American culture. Known for his preaching and leadership ability, Clay is a community leader in Nashville and serves on many nonprofit boards. He is a regular columnist for The Tennessean Newspaper, writing articles about faith, values, spirituality, and culture. Clay is married to Megan, and together they have three children.
My Books
This book addresses the deeper issues that matter most in life: faith, wisdom, values, spirituality, relationships, connection, and self-reflection. As our world becomes more and more secular, people remain restless and hungry to discuss these important topics. What does it mean to grow spiritually? What does it mean to do meaningful soul work? What are the values and priorities that should matter most? What type of culture will our children and grandchildren inherit? Here are a few insights that I believe to be true.
-All human beings long for meaning and deeper purpose in their lives.
-Jesus Christ continues to speak to and challenge our culture.
-Issues of character and integrity are very important.
-Growth in the spiritual life has become much more challenging in this busy age of technology, multi- tasking, and over-commitment.
Religion, politics, and money. Three things you’re never supposed to discuss in polite company. But what if you’re a pastor? Forget red state/blue state divisions, what happens when your church members disagree about politics? In this age of prosperity preaching, how do you preach, “You cannot serve God and money?” Clay Stauffer addresses the challenges that preachers face when serving a politically diverse congregation in Preaching Politics. Money, materialism, and their effects on modern-day faith and spirituality are viewed through the teachings of Jesus, as well as the work of Methodist minister Adam Hamilton and Duke University ethicist Stanley Hauerwas.
Posts from Clay
Coronavirus update
LATEST UPDATE: TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 10:55 AM Woodmont Family, In our ongoing effort to help “flatten the curve” as it relates to containing cases of the coronavirus, Woodmont will not hold live worship services on Sunday, March 22 or programming on Wednesday night,...
The Final Words of Jesus
Presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham has just published a new book titled The Hope of Glory. It is a reflection on the Seven Last words of Christ and our staff is currently reading it during the Season of Lent. In the Prologue of the...
Five Serious Challenges In Need of Spiritual Solutions
I recently gave a presentation to a group of attorneys in downtown Nashville. I began the talk by identifying five significant challenges facing American Culture at this particular point in history. First, we continue to see high levels of emptiness, meaninglessness,...
Mainliners, Evangelicals Can Learn From Each Other
Within Protestant Christianity, we find both mainline and evangelical traditions. Mainline churches were much more dominant in the middle of the 20th century after World World II, and despite notable exceptions, have experienced significant declines in membership and...
Construction Progress
Thank you for supporting the “Building for Our Future” Capital Campaign! It is very exciting to now see the walls of our new chapel going up. We spent most of the fall digging into rock, excavating, and getting the site ready to build. This involved a significant...
Will Christianity Remain Relevant?
American scholar Sam Pascoe once said that, “Christianity was born in Israel, only to be taken to Greece and morphed into a philosophy. From there it was taken to Rome and made into an institution of civil power. Eventually, it migrated into Europe where it was...
Nominating Church Leaders for 2020
Between now and the end of January, we are accepting nominations for church leadership at woodmontchristian.org/nominate. LA Galyon will chair this year’s nominating committee which will begin meeting in February. This year, we will receive nominations for 1...
Envy, Gratitude, and Contentment
The Thanksgiving season is a time to acknowledge the fundamental difference between envy and gratitude, coveting and contentment. We live in a culture with an economic system that, to some degree, fuels itself on coveting, desire, and wanting what others already have....
Should More Christians Meet Jesus?
British New Testament scholar N.T. Wright has published numerous books over the years and lectured around the world. One of his best books is titled Simply Jesus. Wright opens the book by posing a series of questions about Jesus of Nazareth: “Who exactly was he? What...