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Joe Phelps

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Joe Phelps has been Pastor of Louisville’s Highland Baptist Church since March 1997. Over the past 10 years the church has increased its commitments to mission action and is a strong voice for social justice in the community and beyond. At the same time, the church has more than doubled its weekly worship attendance and more than doubled its operating budget.

Phelps also serves as pastor of Highland's "partner congregation," Ridgewood Baptist Church in Southwest Louisville, leading their weekly 1:00 p.m. service.

Phelps is a columnist for LEO, Louisville’s weekly alternative newspaper; a columnist for ethicsdaily.com, where he serves as a board member; founder of No Murders Metro, an inter-denominational, inter-racial group that holds prayer vigils at murder sites throughout Louisville; serves on the Freedom and Justice Commission of the Baptist World Alliance; and is a board member of Kentucky Refugee Ministry.

In December 2006, Phelps appeared in a national television ad campaign for “Wake Up Wal-Mart,” which pointed out the company’s record on child labor issues, gender discrimination, and poor health care plans. The ad concluded, “If these are Wal-Mart’s values, would Jesus shop at Wal-Mart? Should you?” The ad drew national attention, which resulted in Phelps appearing on CNN Headlines News, twice on FOX News (Your World with Neil Cavuto), on radio shows around the country, and to be referred as a “wacko” by Rush Limbaugh in his January 2007 newsletter.

In April, 2005, Louisville was at the center of a controversy surrounding “Justice Sunday: Stopping the Filibuster Against People of Faith,” a national event sponsored by right-wing churches and held at a Louisville Baptist church. Phelps mobilized progressive pastors in the area and, with the help of the Washington D.C.-based Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty, held a national press conference at Highland Baptist to oppose the inappropriate mixing of church and state.

Phelps authored More Light, Less Heat: How Dialogue Can Transform Conflict into Growth, which was published by Jossey-Bass in 1998. He led workshops and conferences for the next year as part of the book’s promotion.

Prior to his Louisville pastorate, Phelps was the founding pastor of Church of the Savior, an American Baptist Church in Austin, Texas, where he served for twelve years. The church took several prophetic stands, including an op-ed by Phelps that called for substantive dialogue on the issue of homosexuality. While at Church of the Savior, Phelps completed his Doctor of Ministry from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Phelps was Associate Pastor at Austin’s Highland Park Baptist from 1979 to 1985. He was founding president of the Capital Area Food Bank-- a new concept at the time-- which was a collaborative effort of private and government organizations. The Foodbank is now a major nonprofit agency in Central Texas.

Phelps, an Ohio native, graduated from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1978, where the school’s motto during his student years was “We’re Out to Change the World.” Phelps was involved in Seminarians United Against Hunger, the Baptist Peacemaker, and the 1976 Jimmy Carter Presidential campaign. Joe and Terri married in 1988 and have four children, ranging in age from 34 to 16. Terri is an environmental attorney.

Joe has degrees from Southern Seminary (M.Div.) and Austin Presbyterian Seminary (D.Min.). Joe is a board member of the Baptist Center for Ethics.

More Information:
Joe's Writings at EthicsDaily.com
Joe's vitae