Background and career
Lee Patrick Strobel (born January 25, 1952) is an American Christian author, Baptist pastor, professor, and a former investigative journalist. He has written several books, including four that received ECPA Christian Book Awards (1994, 1999, 2001, 2005) and a series which addresses challenges to the veracity of Christianity. He also hosted a television program called Faith Under Fire on PAX TV and runs a video apologetics web site.
Lee Patrick Strobel was born on January 25, 1952, in Arlington Heights, Illinois. He received a journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a Master of Studies in Law degree from Yale Law School.
Lee was a journalist for the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers for 14 years. In 1980, the UPI Illinois Editors Association newspaper award program gave him a first place for public service (the Len H. Small Memorial award) for his coverage of the Ford Pinto crash trial involving a class-action lawsuit against the Ford Motor Company in Winamac, Indiana. Strobel later became assistant managing editor of the Daily Herald, before leaving journalism in 1987. Strobel has said he was an atheist when he began investigating the biblical claims about Jesus Christ after his wife's conversion. Prompted by the results of his investigation, he became a Christian at the age of 29.
Strobel was teaching pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, from 1987 to 2000. In 2000, he became pastor at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. In 2004, he left his post as pastor to host the Christian apologetics show Faith Under Fire. In 2014, he became a teaching pastor at Woodlands Church in The Woodlands, Texas, and a professor of Christian thought at Houston Baptist University. In 2020, he founded the Lee Strobel Center for Evangelism and Applied Apologetics at Colorado Christian University.
In 2007, he was awarded an honorary doctoral degree by Southern Evangelical Seminary in recognition of his contributions to Christian apologetics.
Strobel and his wife Leslie have two children and several grandchildren. His daughter Alison is a novelist, and his son Kyle is an assistant professor of Spiritual Theology and Formation at the Talbot School of Theology.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
