List of Famous Pastors

Billy Graham was an influential evangelical Christian figure known for his preaching style and commitment to the gospel. He was born November 7, 1918, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and grew up on a dairy farm where he developed a strong work ethic. After graduating from Florida Bible Institute and Wheaton College, Graham began a pastoral career. He gained recognition for his powerful sermons and magnetic personality. His ministry expanded beyond church walls when he beg

Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson was an American media mogul, religious broadcaster, and political commentator. He was a presidential candidate and a Southern Baptist minister. Robertson advocated conservative Christian ideology and involved himself in Republican Party politics. He was associated with the Charismatic movement within Protestant evangelicalism. He served as head of Regent University and the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). Robertson founded major organizations over five decades, including CBN, Regent University, and Operatio.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. acted in "King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis," "Berkeley in the Sixties," and "Malcolm X."

Joel Scott Osteen (born March 5, 1963) is an American pastor, televangelist, and author based in Houston, Texas. His televised sermons reach over 7 million viewers weekly and more than 20 million monthly across 100 countries. He wrote ten books that have been ranked number one on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Judah Smith is a pastor and author.

John Stephen Piper was born January 11, 1946. He is an American Reformed Baptist continuationist pastor and author. Piper founded and led desiringGod.org and serves as chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He served as Pastor for Preaching and Vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota for 33 years. His books include ECPA Christian Book Award winners Spectacular Sins, What Jesus Demands from the World, Pierced by the Word, and God's Passion for His Glory. He also wrote the bestsellers Don't Waste Your Life and The Passion of Jesus Christ.

Harold Egbert Camping (July 19, 1921 – December 15, 2013) was an American Christian radio broadcaster, author, and evangelist. Starting in 1958, he served as president of Family Radio, a California-based station group broadcasting to more than 150 markets in the United States. In October 2011, he retired from broadcasting after a stroke but remained involved with Family Radio until his death. Camping issued failed predictions of End Times dates that temporarily gained him a global following and millions of dollars in donations.

Mason Durell Betha, known as Mase (formerly Murda Mase and Ma$e), is an American rapper, songwriter, and minister. He ran for the late 1990s at Bad Boy Records with Sean "Diddy" Combs. From 1996 to 1999, Mase had six Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 singles and five US Rap No. 1 singles. His 1997 album Harlem World received a Grammy nomination and quadruple Platinum certification by RIAA. His albums Double Up and Welcome Back are both certified Double platinum and Gold by RIAA.

Richard Duane Warren was born January 28, 1954. He is an American evangelical Christian pastor and author. Warren founded and serves as senior pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. The church is an evangelical megachurch affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention and is the sixth-largest megachurch in the United States. Warren wrote many Christian books, including his guide to church ministry and evangelism, The Purpose Driven Church. This book started a series of conferences on Christian ministry and evangelism.

Joseph 'Rev Run' Simmons, a founding member of the hip-hop trio Run-D.M.C., is also a rapper, reality TV star, and Pentecostal minister. He achieved solo success with "Run's House" (MTV, 2005-09) and "All About the Washingtons" (Netflix, 2018-). Born in Queens, NY in 1964, Simmons started his music career DJing for MC Kurtis Blow in his teens. Simmons then teamed up with Darryl McDaniels (DMC) and Jason Mizell (Jam Master Jay) to form Run-D.

Ted Arthur Haggard (born June 27, 1956) is an American evangelical pastor. He founded New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado and the Association of Life-Giving Churches. Haggard served as President of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) from 2003 to November 2006. In November 2006, male prostitute Mike Jones alleged that Haggard paid him for sex for three years and used crystal methampheta while advocating against same-sex marriage.

Cornel West acted in many Hollywood films. He appeared in television specials like "The Issue Is Race" (1992-93) and "Firing Line Special Debate (09/19/93)" (PBS, 1993-94). He also appeared in "Firing Line Special Debate (12/17/93)" (PBS, 1993-94) and "Violence: An American Tradition" (HBO, 1995-96). West acted in films such as "A Darker Side of Black" (1995) and the documentary "Black Is... Black Ain't" (1995) with Angela Davis.

Fred Waldron Phelps Sr. (November 13, 1929 – March 19, 2014) was an American minister and civil rights attorney. He served as pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church. Phelps became known for his extreme views on homosexuality and protests at funerals. He protested for gay people, military veterans, and disaster victims who he believed were killed because the U.S. had "bankrupt values" and tolerated gay people. Phelps founded the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, in 1955. The ministry is called "arguably the most obnoxious and rabid".

Jerry Lamon Falwell Sr. (; August 11, 1933 – May 15, 2007) was an American Southern Baptist pastor, televangelist, and conservative activist. He founded the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, a megachurch. Falwell established Lynchburg Christian Academy in 1967 and Liberty University in 1971. He co-founded the Moral Majority in 1979. On May 15, 2007, Jerry Falwell died suddenly of cardiac arrhythmia at age 73 while in his office at Liberty University. He was buried on the university grounds he founded.

Andrew Jackson Young Jr. (born March 12, 1932) is an American politician, diplomat, and activist. Beginning his career as a pastor, Young was an early leader in the civil rights movement, serving as executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and a close confidant to Martin Luther King Jr. Young later became active in politics, serving first as a U.S. Congressman from Georgia, then United States Ambassador to the United Nations, and finally Mayor of Atlanta. Since leaving political office, Young has founded or served in a large number of organizations working on i

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (German: [ˈdiːtʁɪç ˈboːnhœfɐ]; 4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945) was a German pastor, theologian, anti-Nazi dissident, and key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have become widely influential, and his book The Cost of Discipleship has been described as a modern classic.Apart from his theological writings, Bonhoeffer was known for his staunch resistance to Nazi dictatorship, including vocal opposition to Hitler's euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of the Jews. He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestap

Myles Munroe, OBE was a Bahamian Evangelical Christian evangelist and ordained Pentecostal minister who founded and led the Bahamas Faith Ministries International and Myles Munroe International. He was chief executive officer and chairman of the board of the International Third World Leaders Association and president of the International Leadership Training Institute as well as the author of numerous books. Munroe died with his wife and 7 others in a private plane crash on 9 November 2014.

Thomas Dexter Jakes Sr. (born June 9, 1957), known as T. D. Jakes, is a pastor, author and filmmaker. He is the pastor of The Potter's House, a non-denominational American megachurch. Jakes's church services and evangelistic sermons are broadcast on The Potter's Touch, which airs on Lightsource.com, the Trinity Broadcasting Network, Black Entertainment Television, the Daystar Television Network and The Word Network. Other aspects of Jakes's ministry include the annual festival MegaFest which draws more than 300,000 people, the annual women's conference Woman Thou Art Loosed, and gospel music r

Paula Michelle White-Cain (née Furr; April 20, 1966), better known as Paula White, is an American non-denominational pastor. Prior to May 2019, she was senior pastor of New Destiny Christian Center, in Apopka, Florida, a non-denominational, multicultural megachurch. She hosts a television show, Paula White Today. She was the co-pastor of Without Walls International Church in Tampa, a church she co-founded with pastor and then-husband Randy White. White became chair of the evangelical advisory board in Donald Trump's administration. She delivered the invocation at his inauguration, on January 2

Dwight Lyman Moody (February 5, 1837 – December 22, 1899), also known as D. L. Moody, was an American evangelist and publisher connected with the Holiness Movement, who founded the Moody Church, Northfield School and Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts (now Northfield Mount Hermon School), Moody Bible Institute and Moody Publishers. One of his most famous quotes was “Faith makes all things possible... Love makes all things easy.“

Ralph David Abernathy Sr. (March 11, 1926 – April 17, 1990) was an American civil rights activist and Christian minister. As a leader of the Civil Rights Movement, he was a close friend and mentor of Martin Luther King Jr. He collaborated with King to create the Montgomery Improvement Association which led to the Montgomery bus boycott. He also co-founded and was an executive board member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He became president of the SCLC following the assassination of King in 1968, where he led the Poor People's Campaign in Washington, D.C. among other mar

Norman Vincent Peale (May 31, 1898 – December 24, 1993) was an American minister and author known for his work in popularizing the concept of positive thinking, especially through his best-selling book The Power of Positive Thinking. He served as the pastor of Marble Collegiate Church, New York, from 1932 until his death, leading a Reformed Church in America congregation. Peale was a personal friend of President Richard Nixon. Donald Trump attended Peale's church while growing up, as well as marrying his first wife Ivana there. Peale's ideas and techniques were controversial, and he received f

Charles R. Swindoll is an evangelical Christian pastor, author, educator, and radio preacher. He founded Insight for Living, based in Plano, Texas. This organization airs a radio program with the same name on more than 2,000 stations globally in 15 languages. He currently serves as senior pastor at Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas.

Daryl Lynn Coley was an American Christian singer. He was born on October 30, 1955, and died on March 15, 2016. At age 14, Coley joined the ensemble "Helen Stephens and the Voices of Christ". He began performing with Edwin Hawkins in the Edwin Hawkins Singers and later worked with James Cleveland, Tramaine Hawkins, Sylvester, and Pete Escovedo. His albums include *Just Daryl*, *He's Right On Time: Live From Los Angeles*, and *When The Music Stops*.

John Charles Hagee was born on April 12, 1940. He founded Cornerstone Church, a megachurch in San Antonio, Texas, and serves as its senior pastor. Hagee also founded and served as National Chairman of the Christian-Zionist organization Christians United for Israel. His televangelist message broadcasts nationally across the United States via his non-profit corporation Global Evangelism Television.

Karl Barth was a Swiss Reformed theologian. He lived from May 10, 1886, to December 10, 1968. He gained fame for The Epistle to the Romans, his involvement in the Confessing Church, and authorship of the Barmen Declaration. He also wrote five volumes of the theological summa the Church Dogmatics, published in twelve part-volumes between 1932 and 1967. Pope Pius XII called Barth “the greatest theologian since T”.

Jonathan Edwards was a Protestant preacher, philosopher, and theologian. He is widely acknowledged as America's most important and original philosophical theologian and one of the nation's greatest intellectuals. Edwards rooted his theological work in Reformed theology, the metaphysics of theological determinism, and the Puritan heritage. Studies show Edwards grounded his life's work in conceptions of beauty, harmony, and ethical fittingness, reflecting the influence of the Enlightenment.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon lived from June 19, 1834, to January 31, 1892. He was an English Particular Baptist preacher. Spurgeon remains highly influential among Christians of various denominations and is known as the "Prince of Preachers". He strongly defended the Church according to the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith understanding. Spurgeon opposed liberal and pragmatic theological tendencies in the Church of his day. He pastored the New Park Street Chapel (later the Metropolitan Tabernacle) in London.

Rev. W.R. "Smokie" Norful, Jr. is an American gospel singer and pianist. He released the album *I Need You Now* in 2002 and *Nothing Without You* in 2004. The latter won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards in 2004. Norful received his second Grammy in 2015 for the song "No Greater Love", ten years after his first win.

Anthony "Tony" Campolo is an American sociologist, pastor, author, public speaker, and former spiritual advisor to U.S. President Bill Clinton. He is one of the most influential leaders in the Evangelical left, promoting progressive thought and reform within the evangelical community. Campolo led the Red-Letter Christian movement, which emphasizes the teachings of Jesus. He comments on religious, political, and social issues and has appeared on programs like The Colbert Report and The Charlie Rose Show.

Charles Frazier Stanley was born on September 25, 1932. He is the senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Stanley founded and presided over In Touch Ministries. He also served two one-year terms as president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1984 to 1986. His theology is evangelical and dispensationalist.

Marvin Lawrence Winans was born on March 5, 1958. He is an American pastor and gospel singer, and a member of the musical Winans family. Winans has appeared in the hit television show *Tyler Perry's House of Payne*.

Allen Allensworth was born on April 7, 1842, and died on September 14, 1914. Born into slavery in Kentucky, he escaped during the American Civil War and served as a Union soldier. He became a Baptist minister and educator, serving as a chaplain in the United States Army. Allensworth was the first African American to reach the rank of lieutenant colonel. He founded Allensworth, California, in 1908, which became the only town in the state founded, financed, and governed by African Americans.

Arthur Owen Blessitt was born on October 27, 1940, in Greenville, Mississippi. He is a traveling Christian preacher known for carrying a cross through every nation.

Gerardo is a multifaceted individual whose work spans music, acting, and ministry. He left an impact across many fields, influencing the stage, screen, and pulpit with his energetic performance style and cultural presence.

Cameron Mitchell is a burly, tough-guy leading man and character actor. He was famous as the hard-drinking, hardworking Buck Cannon on the TV series "High Chaparral." Mitchum started appearing in films in 1945. After playing various roles in B action films and Westerns, he gained traction after playing Happy, one of Willy Loman's (Fredric March) sons in a film adaptation of Arthur Miller's "Death of the Salesman" (1951). He broke into big-budget, big-star films when he starred as one of the three male consorts with Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe, and Lauren Bacall in "How to M".

Bishop Marvin Louis Sapp was born January 28, 1967. He is an American Gospel music singer-songwriter. Sapp recorded with the group Commissioned during the 1990s before starting a solo career. He founded and serves as senior pastor of Lighthouse Full Life Center Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He recorded Perfect Peace in 1995.

Donald James "Don" Moen was born June 29, 1950. He is an American singer, songwriter, pastor, and producer of Christian worship music.

Adrian Pierce Rogers lived from September 12, 1931, to November 15, 2005. He served three terms as president of the Southern Baptist Convention (1979–1980 and 1986–1988). Rogers was a Southern Baptist pastor whose church services aired on television, and he wrote as a conservative author. He was born in West Palm Beach, Florida. Rogers entered Christian ministry at age nineteen. He graduated from Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He was ordained by Northwood Baptist Church (later known as The Village Baptist Church, now operating as Family Church Village).

David Ray Wilkerson (May 19, 1931 – April 27, 2011) was an American Christian evangelist. He wrote the book The Cross and the Switchblade. Wilkerson founded the addiction recovery program Teen Challenge and served as founding pastor of the non-denominational Times Square Church in New York City. His sermons, such as "A Call to Anguish," are known for directness against apostasy. He emphasized God's holiness, righteousness, and love toward humans.

Justin Russell Cannon was born July 9, 1984. He is an American clergyman and the founder of Inclusive Orthodoxy. This ministry affirms lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans Christians. Cannon wrote the booklet The Bible, Christianity, and Homosexuality (ISBN 978-1438249612). The Los Angeles Times called this analysis "an illuminating...analysis that argues the Bible doesn't condemn faithful gay relationships" (Michael McGough, July 18, 2005). He also founded Rainbow Christians, the first gay Christian personal website on the internet.

David Paul Jeremiah (born February 13, 1941) is an American conservative evangelical Christian author, founder of Turning Point Radio and Television Ministries and senior pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church, a Southern Baptist megachurch in El Cajon, California, a suburb of San Diego.

Jeremiah Alvesta Wright Jr. (born 1941) is a pastor emeritus of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, a congregation he led for 36 years, during which its membership grew to over 8,000 parishioners. Following retirement, his beliefs and preaching were scrutinized when segments of his sermons about terrorist attacks on the United States and government dishonesty were publicized in connection with the presidential campaign of Barack Obama.

Nicholas James Vujicic, also known as VOY-chitch, was born December 4, 1982. He is an Australian Christian evangelist and motivational speaker. Vujicic was born with tetra-amelia syndrome, a rare disorder called phocomelia, which means the absence of arms and legs.

Creflo Augustus Dollar, Jr. is an American televangelist, pastor, and the founder of the non-denominational World Changers Church International based in Fulton County, Georgia, Creflo Dollar Ministerial Association, Creflo Dollar Ministries, and Arrow Records. Some sources report that Dollar's real name is Michael Smith, which Dollar has called an "urban legend".

Andrew Murray (9 May 1828 – 18 January 1917) was a South African writer, teacher and Christian pastor. Murray considered missions to be "the chief end of the church".[1]

Earl Pearly Paulk, Jr. (May 30, 1927 – March 29, 2009) was an American televangelist and the founder of the Cathedral at Chapel Hill, a charismatic/Pentecostal megachurch in Decatur, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. Noted as "one of the country’s first great independent megachurches", it gained an international reputation for combining liturgical arts, such as dance and drama, with cutting edge social ministry. He was also known for his lifelong crusade against racism. Paulk's reputation was severely tarnished in his later years by allegations of sexual misconduct, including several illicit relat

Juanita Bynum is an American Pentecostal televangelist, author, actress and gospel singer.

Lars Levi Laestadius (10 January 1800 – 21 February 1861) was a Swedish pastor and administrator of the Swedish state Lutheran church in Lapland who founded the Laestadian pietist revival movement to help his largely Sami congregations, who were being ravaged by alcoholism. Laestadius was also a noted botanist and an author. Laestadius himself became a teetotaller (except for his ongoing use of wine in holy Communion) in the 1840s, when he began successfully awakening his Sami parishioners to the misery and destruction alcohol was causing them.

Robert Holmes "Rob" Bell Jr., born August 23, 1970, is an American author, speaker, and former pastor. Bell founded Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan, where he pastored until 2012. Under his leadership, Mars Hill grew into one of America's fastest-growing churches. He wrote the New York Times bestseller Love Wins and narrated a series of spiritual short films called NOOMA. Time named Bell one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2011. He now works as a freelance writer and speaker.