Rod Parsley

Rodney Lee Parsley (born January 13, 1957) is a prominent American Christian minister, author, television host and evangelist.

He is senior pastor of World Harvest Church, a large nondenominational church in Canal Winchester, Ohio; a suburb of Columbus, which has a sister campus in Elkhart, Indiana.

Parsley is the founder and chancellor of Valor Christian College.

He is the founder and president of The Center for Moral Clarity, a Christian grassroots advocacy organization, as well as the founder of Breakthrough (a media ministry), the Bridge of Hope missions organization, Harvest Preparatory School, World Harvest Ministerial Alliance, The Women's Clinic of Columbus, and RODPARSLEY.TV, a 24/7 online streaming channel.

His television program, Breakthrough with Rod Parsley, airs daily on the Daystar TV Network, and The Word Network.

Parsley was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and was raised primarily in the Columbus area.

His parents had grown up in eastern Kentucky, and his family traveled there often to visit relatives when Parsley was a young boy.

He still speaks with a noticeable Kentucky accent.

Parsley was raised as a Free Will Baptist.

At 8 years old, Parsley had a salvation experience during a revival in a small Pentecostal church outside of Columbus.

As a teenager, Parsley encountered the Baptism of the Holy Spirit at Christian Center Church in Gahanna, Ohio, Giving him a wider perspective of the church and his eventual call to the ministry

After graduating from high school, he worked in real estate and at a pet-food factory.

Through a series of various events, Parsley made the decision go into the work of ministry.

He enrolled at Circleville Bible College (now Ohio Christian University), but dropped out after two years.

As a young pastor, Parsley was strongly influenced by Lester Sumrall, an Indiana-based evangelist, missionary and broadcaster.

Sumrall became Parsley's mentor, and the two traveled together often.

He is married to Joni Parsley.

They have a son, Austin, and a daughter, Ashton, now grown.

They live near Pickerington, a suburb of Columbus.

Parsley founded his church in 1977, after leading a Bible study in his parents' backyard while still a college student.

Seventeen people attended the first meeting.

They soon decided that the Bible study group should become a church.

It originally became known as Sonrise Chapel, and later Word of Life Church.

The church's first permanent facility was built in 1979.

In 1986, ground was broken on 57 acre to begin what is now the church's main campus in Canal Winchester (with a Columbus address).

When it was dedicated, it was renamed as World Harvest Church in honor of Lester Sumrall, who had befriended Parsley years earlier and became the younger pastor's mentor and spiritual father.

World Harvest Church Columbus now includes a 5,200-seat sanctuary, children's and youth ministries, Connect Centers and administrative offices.

Harvest Preparatory School, a private Christian school serving students in preschool through grade 12, and Valor Christian College also operate on the church grounds.

About 10,000 people attend services at World Harvest on a weekly basis.

This is now known as Alpha Hall, one of four buildings on what for many years was the campus of Valor Christian College (the college moved to the main church campus in 2011).

Growth soon required an addition to that building, and several years later the church built a bigger structure adjacent to Alpha Hall, now known as Dominion Hall.

In 2013, World Harvest added a satellite campus in Elkhart.

That church is located near Christian Center Church in South Bend, the church founded by Parsley's mentor, Sumrall.

Breakthrough is an outreach of Bridge of Hope, an international missions organization.

Over the past 20 years, Parsley has led numerous humanitarian projects around the world, supported by gifts from his church members, churches affiliated with the World Harvest Ministerial Alliance and television viewers.

Bridge of Hope has an exhaustive record of work in Sudan, where a civil war has persisted for years.

His involvement with Sudan began with his lobbying for the federal Sudan Peace Act, and has encompassed the purchase of freedom for Sudanese Christian slaves as well as food, medical supplies and equipment for freed slaves.

Bridge of Hope has purchased the freedom of more than 31,000 slaves and provided more than 16,000 "survival kits" — aid packages consisting of a tarp, mosquito netting, a cooking pot and food to sustain a family for a month.

Bridge of Hope has also completed projects in the African nations of Zambia, Uganda, Kenya and Mozambique.

The organization's history also includes projects in Europe, Asia, South America, Central America and the Caribbean.