Famous Female Pastors

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Updated July 3, 2024 427.9K views 25 items

 

This list of famous female pastors is ranked by their level of prominence, with photos when available. This greatest female pastors list contains the most prominent and famous women preachers. These female pastors are also featured on famous female evangelists and famous televangelists. There are thousands of females working as pastors in the world, but this list highlights only the most notable ones. Famous female preachers and pastors have worked hard to become the best that they can be for their parishioners, inspiring and motivating them through their faith.

This list is made up both Black women preachers and famous female ministers of many other races as well. Among the top woman preachers below, you'll find Victoria Osteen and Paula White. You might have seen these popular lady preachers on TV, so many names will be familiar.  

While this isn't a list of all famous women pastors, it does feature many great women preachers who are powerful speakers and inspiring thinkers. Who are the most famous female pastors? Who are the best female pastors? Take a look below!

 

  • Paula White
    Paula Michelle White-Cain (née Furr; April 20, 1966), better known as Paula White, is an American non-denominational pastor. Prior to May 2019, she was senior pastor of New Destiny Christian Center, in Apopka, Florida, a non-denominational, multicultural megachurch. She hosts a television show, Paula White Today. She was the co-pastor of Without Walls International Church in Tampa, a church she co-founded with pastor and then-husband Randy White. White became chair of the evangelical advisory board in Donald Trump's administration. She delivered the invocation at his inauguration, on January 20, 2017. She was listed number three on the "50 Most Powerful 2017: Philanthropy & Community Voices" list in the Orlando Magazine July 2017 issue.
    • Age: 58
    • Birthplace: Tupelo, Mississippi, USA
  • Juanita Bynum is an American Pentecostal televangelist, author, actress and gospel singer.
    • Age: 66
    • Birthplace: USA, Chicago, Illinois
  • Bimbo Odukoya
    Abimbola Rosemary "Bimbo" Odukoya (née Abimbola Rosemary Segun-Williams) (September 12, 1960 – December 11, 2005) was a Nigerian pastor and televangelist who was married to the founder of the Fountain of Life Church, Taiwo Odukoya. Odukoya, often called "Pastor Bims," was a receiver of over 60 national and international awards for her contributions to nation building, the development of her country, Nigeria, and the West Africa sub region, and for leadership as a woman of high moral standards and a role model to many. A writer, popular televangelist, highly sought conference speaker, youth mentor and marriage counsellor, she was one of several individuals chosen by Samsung to represent Nigeria in carrying the Olympic Torch in Athens, Greece at the 2004 Olympic Games. She died as a result of the Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145 crash.
    • Age: Dec. at 45 (1960-2005)
  • Ida B. Robinson
    Ida B. Robinson (August 3, 1891 – April 20, 1946) was an American Pentecostal-Holiness and Charismatic denominational leader. She was the founder, first Senior Bishop and President of the Mount Sinai Holy Church of America, Inc. Robinson formed the organization in response to her vision and Divine Call to secure an organizational home where women preachers would be welcomed and encouraged. Mount Sinai Holy Church of America is the only organization founded by an African-American woman that held consistent female leadership from its founding in 1924 until February 2001.
    • Age: Dec. at 54 (1891-1946)
    • Birthplace: Hazlehurst, Georgia
  • Darlene Zschech
    Darlene Joyce Zschech (; née Steinhardt on 8 September 1965) is an Australian Pentecostal Christian worship leader and singer-songwriter who primarily writes praise and worship songs. Described as a "pioneer of the modern worship movement", she is the former worship pastor of Hillsong Church and is currently a member of Compassionart, a charity founded by Martin Smith.
    • Age: 59
    • Birthplace: Brisbane, Australia
  • Nicole Lamarche

    Nicole Lamarche

    Nicole Lamarche is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ (UCC) and a beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss California 2003. Competing in the Miss San Francisco Pageant in 2003, she won the title and went on to win Miss California 2003 and became the Fourth runner up to the title of Miss America 2004. She was the swimsuit winner and although she decided to wear high heels during this segment of the competition it was erroneously reported by an ESPN columnist that she competed barefoot. This is most likely due to pictures of her competing in the Miss California swimsuit segment not wearing high heels, as the contestants normally do. She earned over $26,000 in scholarships. She earned an MA in theology from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, and a Master of Divinity from the Pacific School of Religion.Lamarche spoke publicly about Miss California USA Carrie Prejean's controversial answer regarding gay marriage. Lamarche was featured on Larry King Live to discuss the topic.Lamarche served as pastor for the Cotuit Federated Church on Cape Cod from 2007 until 2010. She subsequently relocated to Northern California, where she founded a new UCC congregation, the Silicon Valley Progressive Faith Community, in San Jose, now called Urban Sanctuary. She served as the congregation's Founding Pastor until 2018. In 2019 she became minister of Community UCC in Boulder, Colorado. In 2008, Lamarche married Jeremy Nickel, whom she had met in divinity school. In July, 2011, the couple had their first child, a baby daughter.
    • Age: 47
    • Birthplace: California
  • Victoria Osteen

    Victoria Osteen (born March 28, 1961) is an American author and the co-pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. She is the wife of Joel Osteen and the daughter-in-law of John Osteen.
    • Age: 63
    • Birthplace: Huntsville, Alabama
  • Åsa Waldau

    Åsa Waldau

    Åsa M. Waldau [ˈoːsa maˈriːa ˈvaldau] is the leader of a Christian sect in Knutby, Sweden. She was born October 26, 1965. She is one of originally four sisters, the youngest of whom was the victim of the Knutby murder on January 10, 2004.
    • Age: 59
    • Birthplace: Örebro, Sweden
  • Bobbie Houston

    Bobbie Houston

    Roberta Lee Houston (born 16 January 1957), better known as Bobbie Houston, is a New Zealand-born Australian Pentecostal pastor in the Australian Christian Churches. Houston and her husband, Brian, founded and are the Senior Pastors of the Hillsong Church in Baulkham Hills, Sydney, Australia.
    • Age: 68
    • Birthplace: New Zealand
  • Linda Livingston

    Linda Livingston

    Linda Livingston is the mother of Ron Livingston.
  • Heidi Neumark

    Heidi Neumark

    Heidi Neumark (born March 9, 1954) is the author of the book Breathing Space: A Spiritual Journey in the South Bronx (Beacon Press).
    • Age: 71
  • Becky Fischer

    Becky Fischer

    Becky Fischer (born May 31, 1951) is a Pentecostal children's pastor best known for her role in the 2006 documentary Jesus Camp.
    • Age: 73
    • Birthplace: Mandan, North Dakota, USA
  • Pat Bumgardner

    Pat Bumgardner

  • Beverly Yvonne
    • Photo:

    Beverly Yvonne

    Beverly Yvonne is a pastor.
  • Anita C. Hill

    Anita C. Hill

    Anita Carol Hill (born 1951) is a LGBT American minister in the Lutheran Church. She is one of the first ordained lesbian women in the church and became a pastor before the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) changed its policy on LGBT ministers.
    • Age: 74
  • Nadia Bolz-Weber

    Nadia Bolz-Weber

    Nadia Bolz-Weber is a Lutheran minister who founded and is the pastor at the House for All Sinners and Saints, a mission congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in Denver, Colorado.
    • Age: 48
  • Shirley Ann Caesar-Williams, known professionally as Shirley Caesar (born October 13, 1938 in Durham, North Carolina), is an American Gospel music singer, songwriter and recording artist whose career has spanned over six decades. A multi-award-winning artist, with twelve Grammy Awards along with Dove Awards and Stellar Awards to her credit, she is known as the "First Lady of Gospel Music" and "The Queen of Gospel Music." She began recording at the age of 12 in 1951 on the Federal recording label Shirley Caesar has released over forty albums. She has participated in over 16 compilations and three gospel musicals, Mama I Want to Sing, Sing: Mama 2 and Born to sing: Mama 3. She is also the creator of the #unameit challenge, which occurred during one of her song sermonettes. She opened her eponymous store and plans on using the profits to help others during the holiday season. Caesar's credits also include a series of commercials for MCI Communications and numerous awards for her recordings. She has won 11 Grammy Awards (plus honored with The Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award), 14 Stellar Awards, 18 Doves, 1 RIAA gold certification, an Essence Award, McDonald's Golden Circle Lifetime Achievement Award, NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award, SESAC Lifetime Achievement Award, Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from the National Museum of African American Music, as well as induction into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. According to Soundscan, she has sold 2.2 million albums since 1991. She has made several notable appearances, including the televised Live from Disney World Night of Joy, the Gospel According to VH1, a White House performance for George Bush, and a speech on the Evolution of Gospel Music to the US Treasury Department. In 2017, Caesar was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award from The Recording Academy.
    • Age: 86
    • Birthplace: USA, North Carolina, Durham
  • Laura Lentz

  • Kim Burrell
    Kimberly "Kim" Burrell (born August 26, 1965) is an American gospel singer from Houston, Texas.
    • Age: 52
    • Birthplace: Houston, Texas, USA
  • Faith Abiola Oyedepo

    Abiola Oyedepo is the wife of David O. Oyedepo.
  • Serita Jakes
    • Photo:

    Serita Jakes

    Serita Jakes is an actress.
  • Judith Babirye
    • Photo:

    Judith Babirye

  • Susan Norris Fitkin

    Susan Norris Fitkin was a Canadian ordained minister, who served successively in the Society of Friends, the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America, and finally in the Church of the Nazarene. Fitkin was the founder and first president of the Church of the Nazarene's Women's Foreign Missionary Society from September 1915 until her retirement in June 1948. Fitkin served twenty-four years on the General Board of the Church of the Nazarene. In 1924 Fitkin and her husband Abram Fitkin funded and founded the Fitkin Memorial Hospital in Manzini, Swaziland, and also funded and founded Nazarene Bible Training Schools in China, and Beirut, Lebanon,
    • Age: Dec. at 81 (1870-1951)
    • Birthplace: Shefford, Quebec, Canada
  • Bernice Albertine King (born March 28, 1963) is an American minister and the youngest child of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. She was five years old when her father was assassinated. In her adolescence, King chose to work towards becoming a minister after having a breakdown from watching a documentary about her father. King was 17 when she was invited to speak at the United Nations. Twenty years after her father was assassinated, she preached her trial sermon. Inspired by her parents' activism, she was arrested multiple times during her early adulthood. Her mother suffered a stroke in 2005 and, after she died the following year, King delivered the eulogy at her funeral. A turning point in her life, King experienced conflict within her family when her sister Yolanda and brother Dexter supported the sale of the King Center. After her sister died in 2007, she delivered the eulogy for her as well. She supported the presidential campaign of Barack Obama in 2008 and called his nomination as part of her father's dream. King was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 2009. Her elder brother Martin III and her father had previously held the position. She was the first woman elected to the presidency in the organization's history, amidst the SCLC holding two separate conventions. King became upset with the actions of the SCLC, amid feeling that the organization was ignoring her suggestions and declined the presidency in January 2010. King became CEO of the King Center only months afterward. King's primary focus as CEO of The King Center and in life is to ensure that her father's nonviolent philosophy and methodology (which The King Center calls Nonviolence 365) is integrated in various sects of society, including education, government, business, media, arts and entertainment and sports. King believes that Nonviolence 365 is the answer to society's problems and promotes it being embraced as a way of life. King is also the CEO of First Kingdom Management, a Christian consulting firm based in Atlanta, Georgia.
    • Age: 61
    • Birthplace: Atlanta, Georgia
  • Joyce Meyer (born Pauline Joyce Hutchison; June 4, 1943) is an American Charismatic Christian author and speaker and president of Joyce Meyer Ministries. Joyce and her husband Dave have four grown children, and live outside St. Louis, Missouri. Her ministry is headquartered near the St. Louis suburb of Fenton, Missouri.
    • Age: 81
    • Birthplace: St. Louis, Missouri, USA