Joel Hunter

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Joel Carl Hunter (born April 18, 1948 in Shelby, Ohio), is the senior pastor of Northland, A Church Distributed, a congregation of 12,000 that worships at four sites in Central Florida and at more than 1,000 sites worldwide via interactive webcast. He is the author of numerous books, including A New Kind of Conservative (Regal 2008), Church Distributed (Distributed Press 2008) and Inner State 80 -Your Journey on the High Way (Higher Life 2009). A leading^{[citation needed]} evangelical voice for compassion issues, Hunter, accepted the presidency of the Christian Coalition in 2006, and then resigned before formally acting in that role because the CC board felt that a broadening of agenda to include topics like poverty, justice and other compassion issues would alienate its base.^[1] He delivered the closing benediction on the final day of the 2008 Democratic National Convention,^[2] prayed with Senator Obama on the day of the 2008 presidential election^[2] and offered a blessing for President-elect Obama at the Pre-Inaugural Worship Service at St. John's Church on January 22, 2009.^[3] On February 5, 2009, he was appointed to the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, which is purposed to advise Mr. Obama on substantive policy issues.^[4]

Contents 1 Background 2 Hunter and Northland Church 3 The Distributed Church 4 Creation Care 5 Hunter and the Christian Coalition 6 Democratic National Convention 2008, Closing Benediction 7 Pre-Inaugural Worship Service, Blessing for President-elect Barack Obama 8 President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships 9 Family Life 10 Advisory Councils 11 Advisory Boards 12 Boards of Directors 13 Guest lecturer in practical theology 14 International Forums 15 Organizing Director 16 White House Appointments 17 Notes

[edit] Background

Joel Carl Hunter was born April 18, 1948 about 75 miles north of Columbus, Ohio, in the town of Shelby. His parents were Wilbur Hunter, a decorated World War II veteran, and Jean Hunter, a homemaker. When his father died in 1952 from bronchogenic carcinoma of the lungs, Jean went to school to become a beautician and then opened a salon in a room built onto the back of the house. From there she was able to work and keep a close eye on her two children, Joel and older sister Michele. For the next several years as his mother developed an alcoholism that would later claim her life, Joel spent much of his time with his maternal grandparents, Lena and Carl Bashore. It was from his grandmother that he was introduced to Christian life as she made him attend church each Sunday where he first heard from pastor Stanley Shoemaker, "Nothing will ever come right in the world until you take care of the sin in your own heart."^[5] In 1957, Jean married Herb Ovens, a factory worker in a carbon paper mill. For the remainder of his youth, Joel had a stable home life, doing well in school and excelling in sports. He graduated from Shelby High School in 1966 the president of his class and captain of the football team.

After high school, he attended Ohio University and majored in history and government. While there, he became involved in many of the movements on campus. More substantially, he put much of his energy into the civil rights movement after he was impassioned for the cause by the words and actions of Martin Luther King, Jr.. In fact, it was in April 1968, after the assassination of King, that he had a crisis of faith and one night, wandered into Galbraith Chapel on campus. It was there that he knelt at the altar and dedicated his life to Jesus, remembering the words of his childhood pastor. From that point onward, he felt called into ministry.^[6] He graduated from Ohio University with a Bachelor of Science degree in education.

From college, he pursued his calling in the ministry by going to Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1970. He chose the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) seminary because his childhood friend Mike Armstrong was planning to study there. Joel received his Master of Divinity in 1973. After starting towards his Doctor of Ministry degree, he took his first church appointment as a youth minister at Bradley United Methodist Church in Greenfield, Indiana. It was there that he met his wife, Becky. He stayed at Bradley for one year, but was let go after the church board could find room in the budget only for new carpet or a youth minister and opted for the former. Hunter then became a minister at Southport United Methodist and remained there until obtaining his Doctor of Ministry degree in 1974. His thesis, in the field of culture and personality, was about equipping people for ministry. After graduation he moved to Princeton, Indiana, to serve as the pastor at Faith United Methodist.

[edit] Hunter and Northland Church

In 1985, Hunter awoke from sleep several nights in a row due to a feeling he described with the comment, "My heart is just all disturbed."^[7] In concert with this feeling was the notion that God was calling him to move into a new phase of ministry. Not knowing what action he was supposed to take with new idea, he sought the counsel of a venerable nearby church pastor, saying that he was aware God wanted him to move, but he had never taken a job in a church that was not appointed for him by a bishop. It was there that he found out, through a letter sent to several church overseers across the United States, that there was a church called Northland Community Church in Orlando, Florida, that was looking for a senior pastor. With that he flew to Orlando and underwent an exhaustive interview process at Northland.

Several days after he accepted the role of Northland's senior pastor, Hunter's wife, Becky, had a conversation with a wife of one of the church elders who told her that the elders' wives had consistently prayed that God would "disturb the heart of the pastor who was supposed to be here." Becky was taken aback and explained to her that it was during that time period that Hunter had awakened night after night due to "a heart disturbed." ^[8]

At the time, Northland Community Church had been in existence for 13 years, started in 1972 by 11 people in the "north land" of Orlando.^[9] As it grew through its infancy, Northland began to meet in local elementary schools. It bought a dilapidated roller skating rink in Longwood, Florida, the year before Hunter became the senior pastor. By 1985, the church had a weekly attendance of 200 people. Over the next two decades the church grew to an average weekly attendance of more than 10,000 people. Eventually transformed from a “community church” into to a “church distributed,”^[9] Northland has been consistently named among Outreach magazine's 100 Largest and Fastest-Growing U.S. Churches.^[10] Ministry Today magazine listed Northland's facilities as one of "The Seven Most Innovative Church Buildings in America."^[11]

[edit] The Distributed Church

In 1996, Hunter began to pursue the idea of a church that could reach many more people than those who gathered inside its walls. He started discussing the idea with the elders of the church and soon Neighborhood Networks of the church began to meet. These were intended to be groups of 30 to 300 Northland churchgoers who would meet during the week in their own neighborhoods to study together, encourage each other and serve the neighborhoods' needs in practical ways. The idea seemed promising at first, but ultimately failed. Hunter later attributed the failure to a disconnectedness of these groups resulting from a lack of a concurrent worship service with the larger church body.

Hunter felt that to allow local manifestations of the church to flourish, it would require a weekly concurrent worship service. This requirement was met years later by an overcrowding at the increasingly cramped renovated roller skating rink in which Northland met. It was the increasing numbers of worshipers shortly after September 11, 2001, that forced Northland to create its first fully interactive multisite location at Lyman High School down the road. Through fiber-optic cable, Northland was able to have a worship service at both the main site and at the high school. Duets were sung between singers half a mile apart, and Scripture read by either congregation was able to be heard in real time at both sites.

Northland replicated the multisite worship service in several different locations to meet the needs of different locations across Central Florida and now holds concurrent worship services with more than a thousand congregants in Mount Dora, West Oaks, and Oviedo, Florida. The same technology has allowed the church to hold concurrent interactive services with partner churches in Windhoek, Namibia; Kiev, Ukraine; and Cairo, Egypt.

In order to more fully realize the potential of a truly distributed church, Northland opened its new facility in August 2007. The $43 million, 3,100-seat building features technology that enables it to be a hub capable of transmitting enormous amounts of data each weekend to sites around the world. Today, a growing segment of Northland’s congregation has never even set foot inside the church building. Approximately 2,000 people worldwide now participate in Northland’s worship services online via InSite, a fully interactive online church application. Online worshipers participate in services via live webcast and have many ways to interact with the church and with one another, including instant access to an online pastor and the ability to chat with other worshipers. In 2009 this live worship tool also became accessible via iPhone.

[edit] Creation Care

Hunter was asked in February 2006 to sign the Evangelical Climate Initiative, a document recognizing global warming based on the findings of the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Fellow signatories included Rick Warren, the presidents of 39 Christian colleges, and the president of the Salvation Army. In the spring of 2006, he was asked to host a TV advertisement by the group .^[12] In the summer of 2006 and 2008, Hunter was invited to symposiums on creation care at Windsor Castle where he heard from, among others: theologian N. T. Wright; former chairman of the IPCC, Sir John Houghton; and Prince Charles. He has since been named by Grist magazine as one of the top 15 religious leaders in creation care, along with Pope Benedict XVI and the Dalai Lama.^[13]

[edit] Hunter and the Christian Coalition

Hunter was asked in July 2006 to become the next president of the Christian Coalition. The group was started in 1988 by Pat Robertson and grew in influence throughout the early 1990s to a base of 1.2 million members and a revenue of $26.5 million in 1996. Hunter accepted the position of president-elect and set to work seeking to broaden the agenda of the group beyond gay marriage and abortion into creation care and the alleviation of poverty.

[edit] Democratic National Convention 2008, Closing Benediction

Hunter provided the closing benediction to the Democratic National Convention in 2008. The transcription of this prayer is as follows:

"Please stand. We are all here to devote ourselves to the improvement of this country we love. In one of the best traditions of our country, would those of you who are people of faith join me in asking for God’s help?

Almighty God, let Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us a reverence for all life. Give us a compassion for the most vulnerable among us: the babies, the children, the poor, the sick, the enslaved, the persecuted … for all of those who have been left out of the advantaged world. Give us a zeal to clean the environment we have polluted while we create an economy where everyone who can work can have a job.

Help us to honor those who defend our country by working harder and smarter for peace. Help us to counter those who incite fear and hatred by becoming people who are informed and respectful, and are known for principles and projects that aim higher than our own group’s benefit.

Guide Barack Obama and all of our leaders to be agents of Your will and recipients of Your wisdom. And grant that all of us citizens will continually do our part to contribute to the common good by loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.

Now, I interrupt this prayer for a closing instruction: Because we are gathered in a country that continues to welcome people of all faiths, let us personalize this prayer by closing according to our own tradition. On the count of three, end your prayer as you would usually do … one, two, three __________ (”in Jesus’ name”) AMEN!

Let’s go out and change the world for good!"^[14]

[edit] Pre-Inaugural Worship Service, Blessing for President-elect Barack Obama

On January 20, 2009, Hunter offered a blessing over President-Elect Obama during an intimate, pre-inauguration service held at St. John’s Episcopal Church, located on Lafayette Square just across from the White House. The service is a tradition for those about to become President. Speakers included the church’s rector, Luis Leon, as well as prominent evangelical pastor T.D. Jakes.

At the service at St. John’s, Hunter prayed the following blessing over our nation’s 44th President.

“Mr. President-elect, we are gathered in this historic church to convey God’s special blessing to you, your family, and your administration. (In the ancient tradition of laying on of hands, would those of you sitting directly beside and behind the President-elect lean toward him and put your hands on his arms or shoulders as a physical means of communicating a spiritual grace.) These blessings come from scripture*, because as God says to Jeremiah, “I am watching over my word to perform it.” (Jeremiah 1:12)

Barack Hussein Obama, we now commission you with an iteration of God’s blessing to our father Abraham. God said, “I will make [through] you a great nation and I will bless you … so you shall be a blessing … and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” (Genesis 12:2-3)

Next, by faith we call forth the personal qualities of the Holy Spirit that your family and country will need in you: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23)

Finally, we remind you of some of the blessings of your Lord and Savior: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven … blessed are those that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied … blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God … blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me, rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great … ” (Matthew 5:3, 6, 9, 11-12)

Through your leadership, Mr. President-elect, may God bless the United States of America in a way that makes us a blessing to the whole world.^[3] Amen."^[15]

• New American Standard Version

[edit] President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships

Early in 2009, Hunter was appointed to the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.^[4]

The advisory council was introduced Thursday, February 5, to coincide with the National Prayer Breakfast and the appointment of Pastor Joshua DuBois as head of the council.

Hunter serves on a team of 25 leaders who will focus on four key priorities, to be carried out by working closely with the President’s Cabinet Secretaries and each of the 11 agency offices for faith-based and neighborhood partnerships:

1. The Office’s top priority will be making community groups an integral part of our economic recovery and poverty a burden fewer have to bear when recovery is complete.

2. It will be one voice among several in the administration that will look at how we support women and children, address teenage pregnancy, and reduce the need for abortion.

3. The Office will strive to support fathers who stand by their families, which involves working to get young men off the streets and into well-paying jobs, and encouraging responsible fatherhood.

4. Finally, beyond American shores this Office will work with the National Security Council to foster interfaith dialogue with leaders and scholars around the world.

[edit] Family Life

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Joel Hunter met his wife, Becky, at his first church appointment in seminary, Bradley United Methodist Church in Greenfield, Indiana. They were married July 2, 1972. Becky, is a former biology teacher. She served as the president of the Global Pastors' Wives Network (2006-2008) and is the author of Being Good to Your Husband on Purpose. The Hunters have three sons: Josh (1975), Isaac (1977), and Joel (1981). Their eldest, Josh, is married to Lisa and they have two children, Noah and Ava. He is the director of operations at Summit Church, founded by his brother Isaac. Isaac and his wife, Rhonda, started Summit Church in Orlando, Florida in 2002. Isaac serves at senior pastor and the church has grown to a congregation of 3,000. They have three children: Jada, Ella and Lincoln. Hunter's youngest son, Joel, is married to Elizabeth and they have one son, Luke. Joel is an ophthalmologist currently completing his refractive surgery fellowship with Dr. Daniel Durrie. Preparations are underway to open Hunter Vision, a LASIK and Cataract Center in Maitland in 2010.

[edit] Advisory Councils

• Florida's Faith-Based and Community-Based Advisory Council (2008-2012)

[edit] Advisory Boards

• Belhaven College
• Christian HELP
• Man in the Mirror Ministries
• Vision Orlando
• Vernon C Grounds Institute of Public Ethics (Denver Seminary)

[edit] Boards of Directors

• World Evangelical Alliance
• National Association of Evangelicals
• Global Pastors’ Network
• Children's Environmental Health Network
• Christian Peacemaking Resources, Inc.

[edit] Guest lecturer in practical theology

• Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando

[edit] International Forums

• Participant in the Alliance of Civilizations (United Nations) (2008, 2009)
• Participant in the U.S./Islamic World Forum (2007, 2008)

[edit] Organizing Director

• First Green Bank of Florida (2008 - ______)

[edit] White House Appointments

President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (2009 - ______)

[edit] Notes

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