JOYCE MEYER MINISTRIES

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Born Pauline Joyce Hutchison Meyer, on June 4, 1943 she is a charismatic Christian author and speaker. Her television and radio programs air in 25 languages in 200 countries to a potential audience of 3 billion people.

Joyce Meyer Ministries is a proponent of the prosperity gospel. Joyce and her husband, Dave, have four grown children, and live near St. Louis, Missouri.

Joyce Meyer Ministries is headquartered in the St. Louis suburb of Fenton, Missouri and she grew up in the O'Fallon neighborhood in north St. Louis.

Her father went into the Army to fight in World War II soon after she was born. Meyer has said in interviews that he began molesting her upon his return. She often talks about her experience in her meetings.

A graduate of O'Fallon Technical High School in St. Louis, Joyce Meyer married a part-time car salesman shortly after her senior year of high school.

The marriage lasted five years. She maintains that he frequently cheated on her and persuaded her to steal payroll checks from her employer.

They used the money to go on a vacation to California; she claims to have returned the money years later. After her divorce, Meyer frequented local bars before meeting Dave Meyer, an engineering draftsman. They celebrated their 40th anniversary in 2007.

...while driving to work one morning in 1976 when she said she heard God call her name. She had been born-again at age nine, but her unhappiness drove her deeper into her faith.

She says that she came home later that day from a beauty appointment "full of liquid love" and was "drunk with the Spirit of God" (and spoke in tongues) that night while at the local bowling alley.

Joyce Meyer Ministries was in its beginnings when she began leading an early-morning Bible class at a local cafeteria and became active in Life Christian Center, a 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. She also began airing a daily 15-minute radio broadcast on a St. Louis radio station.

In 1985, Joyce 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.

Initially airing on superstation WGN-TV in Chicago and BET, her program, now called "Enjoying Everyday Life," reaches a large audience.

In 2004 St. Louis Christian television station KNLC, operated by the Rev. Larry Rice of New Life Evangelistic Center, dropped Meyer's programming. Rice had been a longstanding Joyce Meyer supporter, but claimed that her "excessive life style" and teachings which often "go beyond Scripture" were the impetus for canceling her program.

In late 2000, she opened "St. Louis Dream Center," a social service outreach and ministry in the O'Fallon Park section of St. Louis.

Meyer's teaching style differs from that of many Christian speakers. She frequently talks about overcoming obstacles and finding strength to deal with difficult circumstances.

She shares her views on how to deal with everyday life situations, often drawing on her own experiences.

Meyer speaks candidly and with a sense of humor, sharing with her audience her own shortcomings and taking playful jabs at stereotypical church behavior.

A particular crowd favorite is the "robot" routine, in which she goes into a stiff-armed imitation of a robot chanting, "What about me? What about me?"

Joyce Meyer discovered the freedom to live victoriously by applying God's Word to her life and in turn desires to help others do the same through the teachings of Joyce Meyer Ministries.

From her battle with breast cancer to the struggles of everyday life, she speaks openly and practically about her experiences so others can apply what she has learned to their lives.

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