Paula White

Paula Michelle White-Cain (née Furr; born April 20, 1966) is an American televangelist and a proponent of prosperity theology.

White became chair of the evangelical advisory board in Donald Trump's administration.

While living in Maryland in 1984, she converted to Christianity at the Damascus Church of God.

She later claimed to have received a vision from God shortly after her conversion.

She was formerly the co-pastor of Without Walls International Church in Tampa, Florida, a church she co-founded with pastor and then-husband Randy White in 1991.

White was born Paula Michelle Furr in Tupelo, Mississippi, the daughter of Myra Joanelle and Donald Paul Furr III.

Her parents owned a toy and craft store.

Donald and Myra Furr's marriage began to fail when White was five years old.

White's mother left Tupelo and took her to Memphis; her separation from her husband and his subsequent suicide drove White, her brother, and her mother into poverty.

White's mother became an alcoholic.

While she worked, her daughter was looked after by caregivers.

White has said that she was sexually and physically abused between the ages of six and thirteen by different people on different occasions.

She has said that during that time, she suffered from bulimia.

White's mother remarried to a two-star admiral in the United States Navy when White was nine years old.

Her family moved to the Washington, D.C. area when her stepfather was stationed at the National Naval Medical Center.

White graduated from Seneca Valley High School in Germantown, Maryland.

The Tampa Christian Center was founded in Tampa, Florida, by the then-married Paula and Randy White in 1991.

The church struggled financially, and it could not afford to pay the Whites a salary for the first two years.

The couple lived on government assistance and the handouts of others.

From 1991 to 1998, the church changed locations three times until it secured the property at 2511 North Grady Avenue in Tampa, and changed the name of the church to Without Walls International Church.

While the church was holding services in an outdoor tent in 1999, it reported 5,000 attendees a week and 10,000 ministered to outside of the church by 230 outreach ministries.

Without Walls International Church then purchased the property next door, at 3860 West Columbus Drive, to expand its Tampa campus.

In 2002, Without Walls International Church began to expand by purchasing the defunct Carpenter's Home Church location in Lakeland, Florida.

At the time, the church reported 14,000 members and 200 ministries including job training, evangelism among public housing projects, and a teen club.

Without Walls International Church also began to hold Saturday night services at Carpenter's Home Church in Lakeland renting the property.

In 2004, Without Walls International Church reported a congregation of 20,000, the largest congregation in the area and the seventh-largest church in the United States.

An audit later made public by a United States Senate committee chaired by Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley showed that Without Walls received $150 million from 2004 to 2006.

The Senate report found the church White operated with her now ex-husband spent tax-exempt ministry funds one year to pay nearly $900,000 for the couple's waterfront mansion, over a million dollars in salaries to family members and paid for the Whites' private jet.

White and her church did not cooperate with the investigation.

Carpenter's Home Church would later be purchased by Without Walls International Church in 2005 for $8 million, with the church renamed Without Walls Central Church.

On July 12, 2009, White became the senior pastor of the church that she had co-founded, replacing her former husband, Randy White, who stated that he was stepping down as pastor for health reasons but would remain connected with the church in a different position.

In 2011, Grassley issued a report outlining his committee's findings but took no additional action.

On January 1, 2011, after the resignation of Scott Thomas, White became the senior pastor of the Without Walls Central Church in Lakeland, Florida, church, making her the pastor of both locations.

In August of that year, services ceased when electricity was disconnected after failure to pay over $50,000 in bills.

One year later, on January 1, 2012, she became senior pastor of New Destiny Christian Center as well.

From 2014 until May 2019, she was senior pastor of New Destiny Christian Center, in Apopka, Florida, a non-denominational, multicultural megachurch.

The property acquired was a Canada Dry warehouse, which was remodeled and became the main sanctuary for the church until September 2014.

She delivered the invocation at his inauguration, on January 20, 2017.

She is the first female clergy member to deliver the invocation.

In November 2019, Trump appointed her special advisor to the Faith and Opportunity Initiative at the Office of Public Liaison.