Joyce Meyer

==Conversion and ministry==
Meyer also reports that during an intense prayer while driving to work one morning in 1976, she heard God call her name. She was [[Born again (Christianity)|born again]] at age nine, but unhappiness drove her deeper into her faith. She got home later that day from a beauty appointment "full of liquid love" and was "drunk with the Spirit of God" that night while at the local bowling alley.<ref name="P-D1"/>

{{blockquote|text=... I didn't have any knowledge. I didn't go to church. And I had a lot of problems, and I needed somebody to kind of help me along. And I think sometimes even people who want to serve God, if they have got so many problems that they don't think right and they don't act right and they don't behave right, they almost need somebody to take them by the hand and help lead them through the early years ...<ref name="CNN">{{cite web | publisher = CNN | work = [[Larry King Live]] | title = Transcript: Interview with Joyce Meyer | date = May 19, 2005 | url = http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0505/19/lkl.01.html}}</ref>}}

Meyer was briefly a member of Our Savior's Lutheran Church in St. Louis, a congregation of the [[Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod]].<ref name="P-D1"/><ref>{{cite news |title=Meyer's $57 million evangelism empire |first=Heather |last=Cole |url=http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2003/06/23/story2.html |work=St. Louis Business Journal |publisher=[[American City Business Journals]] |date=June 22, 2003}}</ref> She began leading an early-morning [[Bible]] class at a local cafeteria and became active in Life Christian Center, a [[Charismatic Movement|charismatic church]] in Fenton. Within a few years, Meyer was the church's associate pastor. The church became one of the leading charismatic churches in the area, largely because of her popularity as a Bible teacher.<ref name="P-D1"/> She also began airing a daily 15-minute radio broadcast on a St. Louis radio station.

In 1985, Meyer resigned as associate pastor and founded her own ministry, initially called "Life in the Word." She began airing her radio show on six other stations from [[Chicago]] to [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]].

In 1993, her husband, Dave, suggested starting a television ministry.<ref name="P-D1"/> Under the name "Life in the Word", it initially aired on [[superstation]] [[WGN-TV]] in Chicago and Black Entertainment Television ([[BET]]). In 1998, it was one of the first religious programs airing on [[KTBU]] which at that time was owned by [[Lakewood Church]] and Humanity Interested Media, Inc.<ref>{{cite news |last1=McDaniel |first1=Mike |title=New TV station takes careful aim at family - Channel 55 Launches with Vintage Shows, Fresh Attitude |work=Houston Chronicle |date=15 July 1998 |location=Houston section |page=1}}</ref> Her program, now called ''[[Enjoying Everyday Life]]'', is still on the air today.

In 2002, mainstream publisher [[Hachette Book Group]] paid Meyer over $10 million for the rights to her backlist catalog of independently released books.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/religion/article/64475-mining-a-rich-backlist-pw-talks-with-joyce-meyer.html | work = Publishers Weekly | title = Mining a Rich Backlist: PW Talks with Joyce Meyer | date = October 21, 2014}}</ref>

In 2004, St. Louis Christian television station [[KNLC]], operated by the Rev. Larry Rice of New Life Evangelistic Center, dropped Meyer's programming. According to Rice, a longstanding Meyer supporter, Meyer's "excessive lifestyle" and her teachings "often going beyond Scripture" were the impetus for canceling the program.<ref>{{cite news |title=Meyer's ministry withdraws program from channel 24 |first=Bill |last=Smith |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SL&p_theme=sl&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_dispstring=Joyce%20Meyer&p_field_date-0=YMD_date&p_params_date-0=date:B,E&p_text_date-0=2004&p_field_advanced-0=&p_text_advanced-0=%28%22Joyce%20Meyer%22%29&xcal_numdocs=20&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:A&xcal_useweights=no |work=St. Louis Post-Dispatch |publisher=Pulitzer, Inc. |date=January 3, 2004 |access-date=March 27, 2010}}</ref>

In 2005, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine's "25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America" ranked Meyer as 17th.<ref>{{cite magazine | url=http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1993235_1993243_1993303,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100611083335/http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1993235_1993243_1993303,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=June 11, 2010 | magazine = Time | title = 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America | date = February 7, 2005}}</ref>