Joel Hunter

Who is Joel Hunter?

Joel Carl Hunter, is the senior pastor of Northland, A Church Distributed, a congregation of 20,000 that worships at three sites in Central Florida and at more than 1,000 sites worldwide via interactive webcast, iPhone, and Facebook. He is the author of A New Kind of Conservative, Church Distributed and Inner State 80: Your Journey on the High Way. Hunter accepted the presidency of the Christian Coalition in 2006, and then resigned before formally acting in that role because the CC board felt that a broadening of agenda to include topics like poverty, justice and other compassion issues would alienate its base.

He delivered the closing benediction on the final day of the 2008 Democratic National Convention, prayed with Senator Obama on the day of the 2008 presidential election and offered a blessing for President-elect Obama at the Pre-Inaugural Worship Service at St. John's Church on January 22, 2009. On February 5, 2009, he was appointed to the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. In April 2011, he was named a member of the Commission on Accountability and Policy for Religious Organizations.