About Joel Simpson
Pastor. Author. Speaker. Christian leader.
Faith, Love, and Justice
Joel believes Christian faith calls us to participate in the work of making the world more loving and just.
In 2017, he co-founded Unity in Community, a nonprofit committed to achieving racial equity in North Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.
His work has brought him into churches, classrooms, community organizing, interfaith relationships, and conversations about how faith can contribute to a more loving and just world. He partners with Red Letter Christians and the Poor People’s Campaign in a variety of ways.
His belief in love and justice has landed him in jail, testifying with church members before Congress, working with immigrants for human dignity, building relationships across communities, and organizing people of faith across North Carolina for a more loving and just society where everyone can thrive.
These experiences have strengthened his conviction that faith becomes most meaningful when it is lived out from a place of love.
Speaking and Teaching
Joel speaks and teaches in churches, conferences, college classrooms, festivals, and other gatherings.
Topics he frequently explores include:
Love and the Christian faith
Faithful action in the world
Love and justice
Christianity in a multifaith world
What Christians can learn from other religions
Christian leadership
Religious diversity
Building beloved community
Writing
Joel’s writing explores the relationship between Christian faith and the world around us, particularly questions of love, justice, compassion, faithful action, and religious diversity.
His first book, Saving Christians: The Gift of a Multifaith World, brings these interests together through stories and encounters with Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Islam.
Education
Joel has a Masters of Divinity from Candler School of Theology at Emory University.
He is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry at Duke University with a focus on Missional Innovation.
A Faith for the World We Actually Live In
Love is the heart of the Christian faith for Joel, and something we must practice and embody in the world. This means asking how our beliefs shape the way we treat our nieghbors, and whether love is at the center.
Joel is interested in a Christianity that is deeply rooted in its own tradition of love, justice, peace, compassion, joy, commitment, forgiveness, and human dignity. He is also open to learning from people of other faiths, and has found a deeper connection to his own faith because of it.
For this reason, Joel takes seriously both the particularity of Christian faith and the gifts that can emerge through relationships with people of other faiths.
With love at the center, we can create a world where everyone is treated with dignity, compassion, and care. A world where everyone thrives - the kingdom of heaven on earth.