The Most Influential Pastors, Ranked by Data
Not the most famous. Not the wealthiest. Two measured rankings: pastors by the audience they reach on their own accounts, then pastors by the influence of the church they lead. Updated June 2026.
Bruno Leonardo, Founder & Bishop of Igreja Batista Avivamento Mundial, is the most influential pastor of 2026, with 90.99M followers on personal accounts across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. Jerry Eze (Streams of Joy International) and Joel Osteen (Lakewood Church) rank second and third. Together the top 10 reach 180M people. These rankings come from the Pastor Influence 100, a separate index that scores each pastor on the accounts they run themselves, not the church's accounts.
Ranked by their own accounts
The 10 Most Influential Pastors of 2026
Scored on reach, one-year growth, and platform breadth across the four platforms each pastor runs personally. Click any name for the full profile.
- 1 Bruno Leonardo Founder & Bishop · Igreja Batista Avivamento Mundial 100 score 90.99M followers
- 2 Jerry Eze Founder & Lead Pastor · Streams of Joy International 80.9 score 10.74M followers
- 3 Joel Osteen Lead Pastor · Lakewood Church 79.4 score 41.38M followers
- 4 Mike Signorelli Lead Pastor · V1 Church 79.1 score 3.46M followers
- 5 Bobby Schuller Senior/Lead Pastor · Shepherd's Grove (Hour of Power) 77.6 score 1.66M followers
- 6 Michelle Corral Founder & Pastor · Breath of the Spirit Prophetic Word Center 76.7 score 2.58M followers
- 7 John Anosike President & Senior Pastor · Spirit Revelation Ecclesia 76.3 score 3.56M followers
- 8 David Uche Founder / Prophet · The Righteous and Faithful City (aka City of Truth) 76 score 4.41M followers
- 9 Steven Furtick Lead Pastor · Elevation Church 75.5 score 17.44M followers
- 10 Otoniel Font Pastor · Fuente de Agua Viva 75.4 score 3.49M followers
What changed
Pastors are now measured on their personal accounts in their own index, the Pastor Influence 100. A pastor's own following is a different thing from the church's following, and it deserves its own scoreboard. Both numbers matter, and neither is a trophy. A voice that reaches millions carries the weight that comes with it.
Ranked by their church's influence
The Top 10 Church Leaders
A second view. These pastors are ranked by the measured digital reach of the church they lead, taken from the Church Influence 100.
#1 Steven Furtick
Elevation Church
28.97M
combined reach
#2 Bill Johnson
Bethel Church
14.21M
combined reach
#3 Craig Groeschel
Life.Church
4.12M
combined reach
#4 Josh Howerton
Lakepointe Church
1.54M
combined reach
#5 Kong Hee
City Harvest Church
2.48M
combined reach
#6 Phil and Lucinda Dooley
Hillsong Church
28.87M
combined reach
#7 Henry Seeley
The Belonging Co
889K
combined reach
#8 Paul Enenche
Dunamis International Gospel Centre
2.88M
combined reach
#9 Daniel Floyd
Gateway Church
2.21M
combined reach
P. Satish Kumar
Calvary Temple
2.35M
combined reach
The Top 25 Church Leaders of 2026
Still ranked by their church's Influence Score, not their personal accounts. Click any row for the church's full profile.
| Rank | Pastor | Reach |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steven Furtick Elevation Church | 28.97M |
| 2 | Bill Johnson Bethel Church | 14.21M |
| 3 | Craig Groeschel Life.Church | 4.12M |
| 4 | Josh Howerton Lakepointe Church | 1.54M |
| 5 | Kong Hee City Harvest Church | 2.48M |
| 6 | Phil and Lucinda Dooley Hillsong Church | 28.87M |
| 7 | Henry Seeley The Belonging Co | 889K |
| 8 | Paul Enenche Dunamis International Gospel Centre | 2.88M |
| 9 | Daniel Floyd Gateway Church | 2.21M |
| 10 | P. Satish Kumar Calvary Temple | 2.35M |
| 11 | José Luis Cinalli Iglesia de la Ciudad | 985K |
| 12 | Joby Martin The Church of Eleven22 | 503K |
| 13 | Jack Hibbs Calvary Chapel Chino Hills | 421K |
| 14 | Stephen Chandler Union Church | 1.77M |
| 15 | B. Jeremiah Emmanuel Ministries Hyderabad | 624K |
| 16 | Cash Luna Casa de Dios | 4.84M |
| 17 | Peter Tan-Chi Christ's Commission Fellowship | 4.65M |
| 18 | Guillermo Maldonado Ministerio Internacional El Rey Jesus | 897K |
| 19 | Dag Heward-Mills First Love Church (Lighthouse) | 371K |
| 20 | Ricardo Rodríguez Centro Mundial de Avivamiento | 3.36M |
| 21 | Nicholas Duncan-Williams Action Chapel International | 231K |
| 22 | Andrew Corson El Lugar de Su Presencia | 3.92M |
| 23 | Gary Hamrick Cornerstone Chapel | 662K |
| 24 | James Griffin Crosspoint City Church | 197K |
| 25 | Joel Osteen Lakewood Church | 3.67M |
The Most Influential Pastors in America
By personal reach, Joel Osteen leads the American pastors at #3 in the Pastor Influence 100, with 41.38M followers. By church influence, the picture shifts: 65 of the 99 ranked pastors lead American churches, and part of the global top 10 are American. Here is that US-only top 10, in church-index order.
How Pastor Influence Is Measured
Every "most influential pastors" list you have seen was assembled the same way: an editor made a list of names they recognized. These two work differently. The primary ranking scores each pastor on the accounts they run themselves, published as the Pastor Influence 100. The second ranking scores each pastor by the church they lead, using that church's Influence Score from the Church Influence 100.
Both use the same three measured pillars: reach (combined followers across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook), velocity (1-year audience growth), and breadth (consistent presence across platforms). The data is collected from public platform counts each June and verified account by account. Personal accounts never count toward a church's score, and church accounts never count toward a pastor's.
The result is a list nobody can buy their way onto and no editor can play favorites with. The full scoring formula, eligibility rules, and verification process are published on the methodology page.
The takeaway
12 of the top 25 pastors on this list lead churches outside the United States, a share that grows every year. Influence is no longer an American export. If you lead a church and want to know where your own digital reach stands, get your church's Influence Score or compare the churches themselves on the most influential churches in America.
Questions, Answered
Who is the most influential pastor in America?
Joel Osteen, Lead Pastor of Lakewood Church (Houston, TX), is the most influential American pastor in the 2026 REACHRIGHT Pastor Influence 100, with 41.38M followers on personal accounts and an Influence Score of 79.4. Worldwide, Bruno Leonardo of Igreja Batista Avivamento Mundial ranks #1 with 90.99M followers. Rankings measure each pastor's own accounts, not the church's.
How do you measure a pastor’s influence?
Two ways, published separately. The Pastor Influence 100 scores each pastor on the accounts they run themselves across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, using three measured pillars: reach (50 percent), one-year growth velocity (30 percent), and platform breadth (20 percent). The Church Influence 100 scores church-branded accounts, which gives a second ranking of pastors by the church they lead. No panels, no book sales, no fame points, and no net-worth estimates.
What is the Pastor Influence 100?
The Pastor Influence 100 is REACHRIGHT's 2026 ranking of the 100 pastors with the largest measured personal audiences online. It is the primary ranking on this page. The top 10 alone reach 180M followers, and 5 of those 10 lead churches outside the United States. Every profile shows the score, the per-platform numbers, and the church behind the account.
Are these the pastors of the biggest churches by attendance?
Often, but not always. Attendance and digital influence are different measurements. Some churches fill 20,000 seats a weekend with a modest online audience, while others reach millions online from a single campus. This page measures digital reach. For the attendance view, see our ranking of the largest churches in America.
Who are the most famous megachurch pastors?
The largest personal audiences in the 2026 data belong to Bruno Leonardo, Jerry Eze, Joel Osteen, Mike Signorelli, Bobby Schuller. Fame and measured influence travel together at the very top of the list, then diverge quickly after it. The pastors of the five highest-scoring churches are Steven Furtick, Bill Johnson, Craig Groeschel, Josh Howerton, Kong Hee.
Why is a well-known preacher missing from this list?
Usually eligibility. The Pastor Influence 100 ranks pastors who lead a local church or a church-branded network, so standalone media ministries and itinerant speakers are out. A preacher can also rank lower than expected when the audience sits on the church's accounts rather than a personal one, since the two are scored in separate indexes. The full rules are on the methodology page.
Influence like this gets built on purpose.
Every church on this list posts consistently, in formats people actually watch. That's not luck. That's a system. We run that system for churches every week: sermon clips, graphics, carousels, captions, posted for you.