Top Evangelists & Influential Christian Leaders Today

You don’t have to be famous to be a Christian leader, but you do need to be influential. Leadership means being bold and standing for what is right. But leaders need to have a message that resonates and inspires. If you turn around and there isn’t anyone behind you, that’s not effective leadership.

Influence is how you know your leadership is effective. It takes more than just being right. Knowing your audience, knowing the Scripture that serves as the basis for your message, and understanding how to communicate both in person and through other media are all key to being an influential leader.

The ability to influence others to join you in Christ and to live Christian lives is a powerful thing, and comes with a responsibility to serve something much bigger than any one ministry or individual Christian leader.

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1. Rick Warren

Rick Warren is a fourth-generation Southern Baptist pastor and founder of Saddleback Church. With the release of his book, The Purpose-Driven Life (2000), Warren gained international acclaim and a spot among the nation’s most influential Christians. Within six years of its publication, the book sold more than 25 million copies and inspired tens of thousands of congregations across the nation to study it.

His standing as an influential Christian was solidified when he held a church forum in 2008 that was attended by both presidential nominees John McCain and Barack Obama and subsequently delivered the invocation at President Obama’s inauguration.

2. Dr. James Dobson

Evangelist, author, and psychologist Dr. James Dobson earned much of his fame when he founded Family Talk, the Christian conservation organization. Using the radio to spread his evangelical ideology, Dobson gained international fame, and his radio show, “Focus on Family,” was broadcast to more than 164 countries.

Dobson remains a major presence in the conservative movement and is often seen as a successor to evangelical powerhouses Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.

3. Pastor Joel Osteen

Pastor Joel Osteen is probably best known for his televised megachurch sermons that reach an audience of 10 million viewers weekly. Forgoing formal theology and messages of the negatives effects of sin in most of his sermons, Osteen instead delivers upbeat messages that he refers to as the “prosperity gospel.”

His non-denominational sermons, which he delivers out of the Houston-based Lakewood Church (which his father started), the largest church in America with more than 50,000 members, have garnered worldwide attention, largely due to his sunny messages of Christianity. Though his style of preaching has also garnered plenty of criticism, it hasn’t stopped him from being one of the most influential preachers of today.

4. Greg Laurie

From a Bible study group of 30, which he headed at the age of 19, Greg Laurie has gone on to lead the Harvest Christian Fellowship, with a congregation of more than 5,000 and more than 250,000 viewers of services every weekend. It’s rated as the eighth largest church in the United States.

Laurie has hosted the National Prayer Services and has written more than 70 books, reaching millions through these and his speaking at major evangelical events.

5. Billy Graham

You can’t talk about global evangelism today without talking about Billy Graham, which definitely makes him one of the most influential leaders in Christian history despite his passing in 2018. No one, living or dead, in American Christian history could throw a big-tent revival like Graham could.

Starting in the 1940s, Graham engaged in a series of what he called crusades, massive gatherings during which the gospel would be preached, testimony would be heard, and songs sung. Tens of thousands of souls were saved at each of these events. More importantly, Graham inspired a generation of future Christian leaders, who carry on his ministry even today.

Pastor to presidents from Eisenhower to Obama, friend to Queen Elizabeth, and counselor to millions, Billy Graham will always fill a spot in any list of influential leaders in Christianity.

6. Archbishop Timothy Dolan

Cardinal Dolan came from the classic Catholic background: one of five children, Dolan would pretend to celebrate Mass as a boy and could never remember a time when he didn’t want to be a priest. As Archbishop of New York, he presides today over almost 300 parishes, including some of the most historic in the nation, and nearly 3 million American Catholics.

His leadership of those individuals, as well as of hundreds of hospitals, schools, and other church organizations, definitely makes him one of the most influential Christian leaders in the country.

7. Andrew White

Better known as the Vicar of Baghdad for his service at St. George’s Church outside the Green Zone from 2005-2014, when it comes to international ministry, it’s hard to find any Christian with more clout. His service in majority Islam parts of the world commands respect from all denominations.

Though he was ordered by the church to leave Baghdad, his opinion and advice today still carry immense weight.

8. Ronnie Floyd

If the Southern Baptist Convention isn’t on your radar as one of the most influential organizations in Christianity today, then you might not recognize Ronnie Floyd’s name. But if you’ve been paying attention, then this long-time president, now CEO of that organization, and senior pastor of Cross Church, is surely one of the most influential Christian leaders.

As the world’s largest Baptist denomination, SBC has nearly 50,000 congregations and over 14 million worshipers. In the United States, it’s behind only the Roman Catholic church in terms of membership. So when Ronny Floyd has something to say, you can bet there are plenty of people listening.

9. Mary Ann Glendon

If the Pope is an influential Christian leader, then it also follows that people with regular access to him are probably leaders in their own right. Mary Ann Glendon had that and more. As the official Ambassador of the United States to the Holy See, she represented America at the Vatican during the second Bush administration. Glendon also served on the President’s Council on Bioethics, and was later named by the Pope to the Pontifical Commission of inquiry on the Vatican Bank.

As a recipient of the National Humanities Medal and the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture’s Evangelium Vitae Medal, her example is leadership in itself.

10. Doctor Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

Okay, maybe this one is a bit of a trick answer. But when you think about it, it’s pretty hard to argue that MLK isn’t continuing to have enormous influence over the social justice movement spreading out across the United States today. Both his preaching in support of civil rights and his tactics of protest continue to be used by Christians today.

Maybe even more impressively, he is regularly cited as a major inspiration by Christians of both liberal and conservative political leanings. If that’s not current influence, what is?

11. Jim Winkler

Jim Winkler is another name that many Christians might not recognize, but who has an outsized influence in Christianity nonetheless. If his name doesn’t ring a bell, maybe that of his most recent employer does: the National Council of Churches, which Winkler served as general secretary and president of since 2013. The NCC has been a key voice for Protestantism since 1908, with leaders like Winkler having regular access to the White House and other halls of secular power.

Winkler’s efforts in support of social justice and voting rights have had a lasting impact among Christians and secular Americans alike.

12. Robert George

A member of the United States Convention on Civil Rights and the President’s Council on Bioethics, George is sometimes better known as an influential legal scholar and theorist. But as a devout Catholic, he roots his thinking on the law in the same intellectual strain as Christian philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas.

George has also served as Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, with influence carried around the globe.

13. Bishop Reginald Jackson

Jackson serves as the 132nd elected and consecrated bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. With around 2.5 million members, AME is one of the largest Methodist denominations in the world. As the first independent Protestant denomination founded by Black Americans, AME has strong roots in social justice and racial equality.

Jackson has spurred the church further, with more than 30 ministries developed under his leadership as pastor of St. Matthew alone. Jackson has since lead fights against racial profiling and spurred the state of New Jersey to pass legislation to prevent it.

14. Calvin Butts

As the leader of Abyssinian Baptist Church, historically New York City’s largest Black church and cultural center of Harlem, Reverend Butts has significant influence in New York City, state, and national Christian and political movements.

Appointed to economic development boards by the Governor, Butts has worked to revitalize inner city neighborhoods.

15. John Mark Comer

If there is an example of a Christian leader who is reaching out in every direction today in multiple ministries, Comer is it. One-time member of Christian worship band Telecast, founding pastor of Portland’s Bridgetown Church, and New York Times best-selling author of Live No Lies and other popular books teaching Christian methods for coping with the stresses of modern society.

Reaching out to the next generation through multiple formats and speaking to their needs takes leadership, and Comer is on the cutting edge.

16. Chris Galanos

You definitely have an edge on being influential if you start young. Founding the Experience Life Church in Lubbock, Texas, when he was only 25 put Chris Galanos on track to make a big difference in a lot of lives over a lot of years. With 13,000 converts in the first ten years, he became one of the youngest megachurch pastors in the United States. Now he’s cruised way past megachurch to a new multiplication model, aiming for 1,000,000 disciples in the next ten years.

Chris may already be influential, but if he hits his number, he may well become the most influential Christian pastor of his generation.

17. Paul Crouch

The introduction of broadcast media as a means of delivering the Word of the Lord offered revolutionary access to millions of potential new believers. No ministry has been more successful in reaching those people than Paul Crouch’s Trinity Broadcasting Network. Operating since 1973, it’s often described as the world’s largest religious television network.

But Crouch’s Christian broadcasting career goes back even further, when he started out building an educational AM radio state at the Central Bible Institute and Seminary in the 1950s. Leveraging modern technology to reach people with an ancient message is common in Christian ministry today, but none of it would have happened without Paul Crouch.

18. Pope Francis

With an estimated 1.3 billion Catholics in the world as of 2019, it’s hard to overestimate how influential the Pope is. One of the few Christian leaders who can pick up the phone and get the head of state of pretty much any country in the world on the line is someone with immense power. But the current pontifex maximus also shows restraint, wisdom, and compassion in wielding that power, true signs of a Christian leader.

As the first Pope from the Americas, he has brought a New World perspective to the oldest Catholic establishment.

19. Bishop T.D. Jakes

Preacher, author, filmmaker, and presidential advisor to the last three presidents, Bishop T.D. Jakes has been heralded for his ability to reach Christian audiences of difference races, nationalities, and creeds.

His popularity grew out of 40 years in ministry and recognition as one of the most influential preachers of his time by esteemed publications like Time Magazine and The New York Times. He founded the Potter’s House in 1996 in Dallas, Texas, a non-denominational, multicultural church and humanitarian center which has grown in size to house more than 50 ministries and include more than 30,000 members.

20. Bobby Schuller

It’s true that Bobby Schuller is a Christian leader who is building on top of the successful efforts of his famous and dearly departed grandfather, Robert Schuller. But it’s undeniable that the iconic Hour of Power television show hosted by Bobby today reaches some 2.2 million viewers around the world each week.

Schuller isn’t just riding on the family shoestrings, either. His education from Oral Roberts University and Fuller Theological Seminary is first rate, and he planted his own church in Orange at an American Legion Beer Hall in 2008. When criticized for the location, he pointed out that reaching people who didn’t normally go to church required preaching in places other than churches. If that’s not leadership, we don’t know what is.

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20 of the Most Influential Christian Leaders of the Modern Era