Who are the most influential Evangelicals in America?
TIME Magazine took a guess at The Top 25 Evangelicals a few years back, but I think things have shifted just a tad since then. I made one of these lists just a year or so ago, and I’ve changed several names.
Previously listed were: James Dobson, Charles Colson, Kirk Cameron & Sarah Palin.
Here is my current subjective list of who I think the top 10 most influential Evangelical leaders (for better or worse) may be (in no particular order of importance):
1. Dave Ramsey
In our failing economy, everyone is looking for answers, and the man who has been ready with them is Dave Ramsey. He has used his platform to reach millions of people, even outside of the Christian community who are looking for financial advice.
2. Joel Osteen
He has become a rallying point for many in the Charismatic movement because of his positive message and the fact that he has avoided scandal.
Brian is, in my view, the father of the modern “Emerging Church” movement, which is one of the most influential movements in America right now. There are others more popular, but none that are more influential.
4. Rob Bell
Of all of the really hip preacher guys in America, Rob is arguably the hippest. No one has brought Starbucks and Christianity closer than Rob. His new book, “Love Wins” is the most chattered about book in the Christian world right now, and he is young enough to be around for quite some time yet.
5. John Piper
Piper has become a rather “hip” face for the Reformed theology crowd and has a tremendous influence on people who don’t even know what a TULIP is.
Mark has filled gap between Rob Bell and John Piper. He’s young and hip, but is increasingly leaning on a more historic version of Christianity than most of the pop-preachers. He definitely has the ear of a large segment of young adult Christians in America.
7. Rick Warren
Rick is sort of a magnet that attracts support (and criticism) from both the far right and the far left. The fact that he is as controversial as he is reveals his influence. If you don’t matter, people don’t care what you do.
8. Louie Giglio
Louie may be the most influential evangelical that you DON’T KNOW. He is the founder of the Passion Conferences and is a personal mentor to Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin and many other contemporary worship leaders and songwriters. He is influencing influencers in a similar (although different) vein as Francis Schaeffer several decades ago. As a refreshing side note, if you visit the Passion City Church site, or the Passion Conferences site, you will find little about Louie on either site. He seems to like to work behind the scenes and promote Jesus, rather than his own personality.
9. T.D. Jakes
I don’t think there is anyone who has more influence over African-American church-goers than Bishop Jakes.
10. Ken Ham
There is still a large segment of those who identify themselves as Fundamentalist Christians, and Ken represents the “funnest” of these. He leads the charge of the Creationist movement, and has the ear of the ever-growing homeschooling movement as well. For these reasons, I think he is a leader among the most theologically conservative elements of Evangelicalism.
Please do not interpret my listing of these leaders as an endorsement of them or their ministries.
So what do you think? Agree, or disagree? I’d love to hear your feedback.
Israel Wayne is an Author and Conference Speaker. He is the Director of Family Renewal, LLC and Site Editor for www.ChristianWorldview.net.
We enjoyed your list and found that we appreciated most of these, but don’t agree with a few of them 😀
You are probably right on target with the majority with this list, but we have some that influence us more, but most of them are dead now.
Pretty good list IMO.
Of the ones you list that I know or have heard of or heard, we do NOT listen to/read Joel Olsteen, Rob Bell, or Rick Warren (unsure about McLaren and Driscoll off the top of my head).
Thanks for posting this Israel.
John Piper is the only one on the list I listen to. I have tuned in to Dave Ramsey from time to time, and he was helpful to me a few years back. 3-4 of the others are scary when identified as evangelical. There is no gospel in their teaching. I’ll leave it at that.
I simply do not understand any of you Evangelicals! First of all, Mitt Romney’s church is “Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints”, therefore, since he worships Jesus Christ, he very definitely IS A CHRISTIAN! He has belong to the same church for most of his adult life and has been with the same woman for 42 years and has 5 children…so what is the problem with you accepting him as a moral and decent man of God???? Then, what really baffels me is that you can accept Newt Gingrich, who is no his third wife…after leaving the first 2 when they were battling serious illness, and just because he turns Catholic and trys to clean up his act…you all embrace him! How easy is that??? If you do not like Mitt, that is your perogative, but to say he is not a Christian is outrageous! I am Catholic and we draw from the New Testament. Jews the Old Testament. Mormons like Mitt draw from both. All religions who believe in Jesus Christ have their own interpretations and that is why we have so many varied denominations…Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints are simply another interpretation. As Men of God….can you not be fair and “Christian”?????
The fact that you do not understand why people reject Romney and the Mormon cult says a lot. The mormon jesus is not Jesus at all. The Mormon cult takes parts of the Gospel and twists it, not unlike Satan. This video about the mormon cult seems ridiculous, but it is what they believe. If this isn’t enough I could tell you other things about them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdCEJISKWHc
There are countless other things. It sickens me that people can post things like you just did and not understand why the mormon cult is not Christian at all. Don’t think people are Christians because they say “I believe in Jesus”. Their Jesus is not the Jesus of Scripture at all. It’s disgusting. A message of morality is damnable and very dangerous. I don’t care if they are a “good” person and Jesus wasn’t concerned about that either. The Gospel is not about morality. This is completely clear in the Scriptures.
I get it that this Man of God is only on few list of the most influential of Christian 20th century. Truth be told that in Southern California and every content on earth has been touched by the ripple effect of this ones mans ministry that started in Orange County CA. The late Chuck Smith.
Good list — BUT! No, I’m not 2nd-guessing the “top 10” influential Evangelicals. Your list is no doubt as good as anyone else’s.
I simply regret that — if, indeed, they are the cream of professing Bible-believers — these influential leaders DID NOT INFLUENCE AMERICA enough (or in the right direction) in the recent election. Of course, it may be that they did, and voter fraud gave it to OBAMA anyway.
In any case, what will their influence be now? I wonder how many of these leaders will have the courage to come out and publicly pray “GOD SAVE AMERICA FROM OBAMA!” Influence is one thing; how it’s used is another.
Jesus does no have a political affiliation. Can you honestly say that voting for a person in a particular party is a person who is actively rejecting God’s authority in their life? Because you would be VERY hard-pressed to fine any scriptural evidence that Jesus had a political affiliation. Both parties support ideas that aren’t particularly pleasing in God’s eyes.
All agree that Jesus was not and is not a member of any one political party. I’m not sure anyone has ever claimed He did.
That, though, does not contradict the fact that in any given election, no two candidates are identical. One is always better than the other — sometimes “by a mile.”
It should be clear from even a cursory study of the New Testament that certain candidates and elected officials are trying to be — and are — more in line with the Bible than others. Now, of course, if that is not important to someone, then that person must use other criteria for his choice in an election.
If the Bible is true, certain politicians are clearly worse than others. Some seem definitely evil.
Again, agreed, no political party or candidate is perfect. No one is — except Jesus Christ. So, it always comes down to deciding which candidate is better — not which is perfect.
A politician who LIES to get into or to stay in office is clearly not good — no matter what his personal “religion” may be. Of course, media seems to ignore or cover up certain politicians’ lies.
Likewise, those who abuse government power to take others’ money and give it to cronies or supporters — or illegal persons or those repeatedly having children out of wedlock — is STEALING. This redistribution of wealth is not biblical.
On the other hand, voluntary giving by those who have more to those who truly have need is biblical. It’s called charity.
There are countless things I could say about your post. Romney and Obama were both horrible candidates with many many things wrong with them and their views. To say that one is more in line with Scripture than the other is a joke.
Truly, there are different strokes for different folks. Likewise, there are different jokes for different folks.
Clearly, your idea of a joke is different from mine. To me, having Obama still in the White House (actually now Hawaii!!) is no joke; instead, it’s a tragedy – for faith, family, and freedom.
You say that neither Obama nor Romney is more in line with Scripture. That idea is – in my opinion – neither logical nor biblical.
Logically, unless these two men absolutely agree on everything, one must be closer to the Bible than the other. Right?
Biblically, allow me to mention just a few ideas where OBAMA is NOT “in line with Scripture.” In fact, he’s actually anti-Bible.
He has not only proven himself to be a political flip-flopper, breaker of promises, and LIAR IN CHIEF (or do you prefer the “disseminator of misinformation”?). He also takes positions that clearly go against God’s Word. For example,
1) Government sponsored and supported (our tax money) contraception and abortion
2) Homosexuality – his involvement in and support of the gay lifestyle
3) Continuing (increasing) support (welfare) for out-of-wedlock (immoral) females having babies
4) Government-enforced “charity” (redistribution of wealth from the makers to the takers)
5) Illegal immigration (even to the extent of preventing such states as Arizona from enforcing existing laws)
Can you not agree that these things are contrary to the Bible? How can anyone even pretend to defend any of these things?
Even one or two of these should be enough to make it clear that there were/are major differences between Obama and Romney. Thus, Bible-believers should have had no trouble knowing for whom to vote.
Of course, regrettably, many who claim to adhere to Scripture have not been properly taught what Scripture teaches. Perhaps you fall into that category. I certainly don’t claim to “know it all” and am daily looking to learn more about God and His Word, so I welcome continued interaction on this all-important subject!!
You don’t have to convince me that Obama’s ideas and decisions are not pleasing to God’s eye. I think he’s horrible. But saying that Romney would be pleasing to God is just as far of a stretch. This is why I said it’s a joke. Romney believes that believers in Christ will become gods when they die, that we’ll each own our own planet, and that Jesus and satan are brothers. Is that in line with Scripture? Ha! No! It’s a joke. Also, we have to take note that there were other candidates on the ballot.
Thanks for clarifying your viewpoint. I agree – to some extent.
First, Romney’s religious opinions are definitely NOT in line with Scripture. However, many had (as it turned out) unfounded fears of having JFK in the White House; he didn’t move us to Rome. So, likewise, I don’t think Romney would have put us under the rule of Salt Lake City. To me, it was/is Obama’s political, economic, and social views that trouble me; from what we know of his religious views they are probably just as bad as (maybe worse than!) Romney’s.
Second, there’s no doubt other candidates would have been more to my liking. It was obviously not God’s plan.
Third, I’m still concerned that many – if not most – of the leading influential Evangelicals in America did not lead. They seemed to hide their lights under bushels. There was so much that could have (yes, should have) been said!!
How do we explain that? How do they excuse that? Maybe they have a skewed view of values – including freedom, morality, and the rule of law (the Constitution) – or maybe they were just scared of “offending” some people.
Just days ago Rick Warren said something about not wanting to be divisive. Certainly he admits that the gospel of God’s grace is divisive, doesn’t he? Thank God for the preachers in colonial America that did not fear speaking out on political matters!!
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