10 famous female pastors in the world

Churches in the world are mostly headed by male pastors. But female pastors are making their impact as well. These women bring hope and inspire us to live Christlike with their preaching.

Female pastors are shaping the church into a more inclusive, bold, accessible, creative, and action-oriented community of believers. As a result, the believers fully understand and honor the rhythms and identities within the family of God. While some of the female pastors are wives of famous male pastors, others are famous gospel singers or run their own churches or ministries.

Below are the top 10 famous female pastors in the world:

Table of Content hide 1Famous female pastors 1.1Paula White 1.2Juanita Bynum 1.3Victoria Osteen 1.4Joyce Meyer 1.5Faith Abiola Oyedepo 1.6Darlene Zschech 1.7Bobbie Houston 1.8Bernice King 1.9Nicole Lamarche 1.10Bimbo Odukoya 2Female pastors in Nigeria

Famous female pastors

Paula White

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Paula Michelle White-Cain is an American televangelist and non-denominational pastor. Born Paula Michelle Furr on April 20, 1966, in Tupelo, Mississippi, her parents separated when she was five years old. This led her father to commit suicide while her mother became an alcoholic. White was subsequently raised by caregivers and became a victim of sexual abuse between the age of six and 13.

After her mother was remarried to a Naval Officer, the family moved to Maryland where she completed high school. White converted to Christianity at the Damascus Church of God in 1984. In 1990, she married her then-husband Randy White and together they founded Tampa Christian Center later named Without Walls International Church in 1991.

White also became chair of the evangelical advisory board in Donald Trump’s administration. She is also the first female clergy member to deliver the invocation at his inauguration, on January 20, 2017. Trump appointed her special advisor to the Faith and Opportunity Initiative at the Office of Public Liaison in November 2019.

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Juanita Bynum

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Juanita Bynum is a famous American Pentecostal televangelist, author, actress and gospel singer. She is the author of The Threshing Floor. The New York Times described her as “the most prominent black female television evangelist in the country”. Her discography includes Gospel Goes Classical (with Jonathan Butler) (2006), Piece of My Passion (2007) and Morning Glory (2010).

Victoria Osteen

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Victoria Osteen is an American author and the co-pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. Her husband is the famous Pastor Joel Osteen. She is also the daughter-in-law of John Osteen.

Victoria Osteen was born Victoria Iloff on March 28, 1961 in Huntsville, Alabama. Growing up, she attended a Church of Christ where her mother, Georgine Iloff, taught Sunday school and her father served as a deacon. Victoria studied Psychology at the University of Houston but did not graduate.

She married Joel Osteen in 1987 and they both pastored at Lakewood Church. In 2003, Osteen founded the Lakewood Church Women’s Ministry. Her sermon can be seen on a one-hour program broadcast on the Daystar Television Network and the internet. She also features regularly on Houston radio station 89.3 KSBJ and supports Feed the Children and The Bridge organisations.

Osteen has published some critically acclaimed books such as Love Your Life: Living Happy, Healthy, and Whole and children books.

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Joyce Meyer

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Joyce Meyer is an American Charismatic Christian author, speaker and president of Joyce Meyer Ministries. Her ministry’s headquarters is located near the St. Louis suburb of Fenton, Missouri. She was born Pauline Joyce Hutchison in south St. Louis in 1943.

Meyer revealed her father sexually abused her when he returned from the army after World War II. After her first marriage crashed, she married Dave Meyer, an engineering draftsman on January 7, 1967. She became an associate pastor at Life Christian Center, a charismatic church in Fenton.

Meyer later resigned in 1985 and founded her own ministry, initially called “Life in the Word.” She started a radio show but in 1993, her husband suggested they start their own television ministry. Enjoying Everyday Life became a program that is airing till today.

Meyer owns several homes and travels in a private jet which has led to a lot of criticisms for her flamboyant lifestyle. But the mother of four doesn’t care because “… there’s no need for us to apologize for being blessed.”

She was ranked 17th in Time magazine’s “25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America” in 2005.

Faith Abiola Oyedepo

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Faith Abiola Oyedepo is a Nigerian pastor, teacher, and role model to millions of Christian women worldwide. She is the wife of David O. Oyedepo, founder of the Living Faith Church Worldwide. The church also known as Winners’ Chapel international, is headquartered at Faith Tabernacle in Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria.

Faith Oyedepo was born Florence Abiola Akano on February 5, 1958. She received her Bachelors degree at the University of Ile-Ife. After graduation, she went into full-time ministry. Today, she is the Vice President (Education) of the Living Faith Church Worldwide and the Vice-Chancellor of Covenant University. She has also authored popular Christian books such as Raising Godly Children, Understanding Womanhood, Success in Marriage, Marriage Covenant and The Healing Scriptures.

Darlene Zschech

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Darlene Zschech is an Australian Pentecostal Christian worship leader and singer-songwriter. She is the former worship pastor of Hillsong Church and is described as a pioneer of the modern worship movement.

Zschech began her career at the age of 10, as part of an Australian children’s show, Happy Go Round. When she was 15, her father began taking her to the church where she met her husband Mark Zschech. After they got married, they moved to a small church in Sydney called Hills Christian Life Centre, which would become Hillsong Church.

Zschech has released several inspiring songs such as Shout to the Lord, Make the Choice, Pearls & Gold, People Just Like Us, For All You’ve Done, Kiss of Heaven. Change Your World, Simply Darlene and You Are Love. She has also authored several books such as Worship, Extravagant Worship, The Kiss of Heaven, The Great Generational Transition and Revealing Jesus: A 365-Day Devotional.

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Bobbie Houston

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Bobbie Houston is a famous New Zealand-born Australian pastor. Houston and her husband, Brian were the Senior Pastors of the Hillsong Church in Baulkham Hills, Sydney, Australia before he left in 2022. In 1997, she started the annual Colour Your World Women’s Conference, a foundation set up by Hillsong Church through Hillsong Women. Hillsong Women is the women’s ministry of the church.

She has written several books such as Heaven is in This House, I’ll Have What She’s Having, The Sisterhood and Stay The Path.

Bernice King

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Bernice Albertine King is a famous American lawyer, minister, and the youngest child of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. Her father was assassinated when she was five years old. She chose to become a gospel minister after having a breakdown from watching a documentary about her father’s assassination.

At 17, she was invited to speak at the United Nations. 20 years after her father’s death, King gave an inspiring trial sermon from her parents’ activism. In 2008, she supported the presidential campaign of Barack Obama and called his nomination part of her father’s dream.

King became the first woman to be elected President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 2009. However, she resigned in January 2010 and became CEO of the King Center to ensure that her father’s nonviolent philosophy and methodology are integrated into various sectors of the society which include education, government, business, media, arts and entertainment, and sports.

She is also the CEO of First Kingdom Management, a Christian consulting firm based in Atlanta, Georgia.

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Nicole Lamarche

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Nicole Lamarche is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ (UCC) and a former beauty pageant titleholder. She was crowned Miss California 2003 and finished as the fourth runner up to the title of Miss America 2004.

Nicole Lamarche holds an MA in theology from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, and a Master of Divinity from the Pacific School of Religion. She served as pastor for the Cotuit Federated Church on Cape Cod from 2007 to 2010 before relocating to Northern California, where she founded a new UCC congregation called Urban Sanctuary.

In 2019, she became minister of Community UCC in Boulder, Colorado.

Bimbo Odukoya

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Abimbola Rosemary “Bimbo” Odukoya was a famous Nigerian pastor, televangelist, writer, conference speaker, youth mentor and marriage counsellor. She was married to the founder of the Fountain of Life Church, Taiwo Odukoya. Pastor Bimbor Odukoya received about 60 national and international awards for her contributions to nation-building in Nigeria and for leadership as a woman of high moral standards.

She died on December 11, 2005, in the Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145 crash. But her teachings and contributions still resonate worldwide despite her death.