Kevin DeYoung is the senior pastor of University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Mich. Prior to serving at URC, Kevin was the associate pastor at First Reformed Church in Orange City, Iowa. He blogs at the Gospel Coalition and has authored or coauthored numerous well-known books such as Just Do Something and The Hole in Our Holiness. His book Why We’re Not Emergent (with Ted Kluck) won the 2009 Christianity Today Book Award in the Church/Pastoral Leadership category and his follow-up title, Why We Love the Church (with Ted Kluck), won the 2010 Christianity Today Book Award as well as the Leadership Journal Golden Canon Book Award.
DeYoung was born in South Holland, Illi., and grew up in Jenison, Mich., where his parents worked in Christian radio. He attended Hope College in Holland, Mich., and went on to earn his MDiv from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts.
In 2012, DeYoung also gained nationwide attention for his article responding to the viral video “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus” after the popular rapper Lecrae posted DeYoung’s article, “Does Jesus hate religion? Kinda, sorta, not really,” on Facebook.
Kevin and his wife, Trisha, have five children.
