Vincent Newfield

{jcomments on}Joyce Meyer has built a global teaching ministry that now reaches two-thirds of the world every day. Yet her greatest legacy may be the massive outreach ministry she leads—and that few know about.

If you know Joyce Meyer, you know her voice—her strong, guttural delivery commands attention. If you’ve followed her teaching, you probably know her testimony of being sexually abused as a child and how God turned her mess into His message. And you may have seen her “What about me?” robot impression, heard her stories of returning grocery carts and been challenged by her candid transparency. Yet even among those who faithfully tune in to her daily Enjoying Everyday Life broadcast, many are unaware of just how far this fiery Fenton, Mo., Bible teacher’s reach extends when the recording lights turn off. 

On the surface, it’s hard to imagine how Joyce’s ministry could expand more. Just a few months shy of 69 years old, she’s already authored more than 90 books, including many New York Times best-sellers. Her TV and radio broadcasts span the globe, reaching a staggering potential audience of 4.5 billion with the gospel—that’s two-thirds of the world—every day. What began more than 36 years ago as a simple Bible study has grown into a ministry that today employs almost 900 people around the world.

But since the beginning, Joyce has always considered her ministry vision to be twofold. “The call on my life is to teach,” she says confidently, adding that her central focus in teaching has always been “to help people mature and grow up so they can have what Jesus died to give them.”