Phone: 502.452.2749
Joe Phelps is a minister in greater Louisville — for 22 years as Pastor of
Highland Baptist Church, and now as Justice Coordinator for the Earth & Spirit
Center. He is also co-chair, with Dr. Kevin Cosby, of EmpowerWest, a
black-white clergy coalition calling for recognition, repentance, and repair
of injustices to black Louisvillians.
Joe earned a Master of Divinity degree from Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary.
Joe came to Louisville, KY, in 1997 after 18 years as a minister in Austin,
Texas. As a young pastor, he founded the Capital Area Food Bank, now called
the Central Texas Food Bank, which provided more than 45 million pounds of
food to families in need in 2017. He served on Kentucky Refugee Ministries’
board; founded No Murders Metro, an interracial group that met weekly at
murder sites in Louisville; and began Friday Church, a lively gathering bent
toward recovery and restoration. Joe’s views are carried regularly by TV and
print media, and in 2019 he received the Joan E. Thompson Lifetime Award for
Peacemaking by the Center for Women and Families, who created a video of
Joe’s work, and the Peacemaker of the Year award from Interfaith Paths to
Peace.