Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer was born Pauline Joyce Hutchinson in St. Louis, Missouri. She became a born-again Christian at age nine and later spoke publicly about surviving childhood sexual abuse and finding emotional healing through her faith.

After graduating from O'Fallon Technical High School, Meyer married shortly afterward. The marriage ended in divorce in 1966. She met Dave Meyer that year, and they married on January 7, 1967.

Meyer experienced a spiritual turning point in 1976 while driving to work and soon began leading a Bible study with coworkers. In the early 1980s, she joined Life Christian Church in St. Louis, where pastor Rick Shelton appointed her associate pastor and helped her develop a daily radio program. She became an ordained minister in 1981.

In 1985, Meyer founded the ministry originally known as Life in the Word. Dave Meyer suggested starting a television ministry in 1993, leading to the creation of the program Life in the Word, which later became Enjoying Everyday Life. The program expanded from broadcasts on Chicago's WGN-TV and BET to hundreds of radio and television stations and international cable and satellite networks.

Life in the Word was rebranded as Joyce Meyer Ministries in 2003. Meyer serves as president, while Dave Meyer serves as vice president. Her teaching combines personal testimony with practical discussions of faith, emotional recovery, confidence, negative thinking, and everyday decision-making.

Meyer has authored more than 150 books, many of them in the Christian self-help and devotional categories. Her writing is known for a direct approach to Christian living and frequently addresses emotional struggles, personal confidence, prayer, forgiveness, and developing a positive mindset.

Her best-known titles include Battlefield of the Mind (1995), The Confident Woman (2006), Power Thoughts (2010), Living Beyond Your Feelings (2011), and God Is Not Mad at You (2013). Battlefield of the Mind has sold more than seven million copies worldwide and has been translated into numerous languages.

Meyer's ministry operates humanitarian programs through Hand of Hope, its missions arm. Its work has included feeding programs, medical care, disaster relief, clean-water projects, and assistance for underserved communities. Hand of Hope has also supported efforts involving victims of sex trafficking and storm-resistant housing.

In 2000, Meyer established the St. Louis Dream Center, which combines church services with community outreach. Its programs have included food assistance, an after-school program, services for homeless and disadvantaged people, and a residential program for men affected by addiction and destructive lifestyles.

Meyer also established Project GRL for marginalized women and girls. In 2023, she founded Hope Mountain Ranch, an 800-acre refuge in Mount Pleasant, Utah, intended to provide a setting for hope, healing, and ministry outreach.

Meyer's ministry faced scrutiny over its financial practices and the prosperity-gospel elements of some of her earlier teachings. In 2007, Joyce Meyer Ministries cooperated with a U.S. Senate Finance Committee inquiry into the spending practices and tax-exempt status of several televangelist ministries. The ministry later received accreditation from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability in 2009, and no evidence of wrongdoing was reported in the Senate inquiry.

In 2019, Meyer apologized for earlier teachings that connected faith with guaranteed financial and physical health, acknowledging that the message had become unbalanced. Her ministry was also involved in a wrongful-death lawsuit connected to the 2009 murders of the family of Christopher Coleman, a former ministry security chief. The lawsuit against Joyce Meyer Ministries was dismissed in 2013.