Joel Hunter is the senior pastor of Northland, A Church Distributed, a congregation of 15,000 that worships at four sites in Central Florida and at more than 1,000 sites worldwide via interactive webcast, iPhone, and Facebook. 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 evangelical  voice for compassion issues, Hunter prayed with Obama on the day of the 2008 presidential election and offered a blessing for President-elect Obama at the Pre-Inaugural Worship Service at St. John's Church. In 2009, he was appointed to the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, which is purposed to advise Obama on substantive policy issues.