Lee Strobel

Atheist-turned-Christian Lee Strobel, the former award-winning legal editor of The Chicago Tribune, is a New York Times best-selling author of more than twenty books and serves as Professor of Christian Thought at Houston Baptist University. Described in the Washington Post as "one of the evangelical community's most popular apologists," Lee shared the Christian Book of the Year award in 2005 for a curriculum he co-authored with Garry Poole about the movie The Passion of the Christ. He also won Gold Medallions for The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, and The Case for a Creator, all of which have been made into documentaries distributed by Lionsgate. His latest works include his first novel, The Ambition, and The Case for Christ Study Bible, which features hundreds of notes and articles. His free e-newsletter, Investigating Faith, is available at www.LeeStrobel.com. Lee was educated at the University of Missouri (Bachelor of Journalism degree) and Yale Law School (Master of Studies in Law degree). He was a journalist for 14 years at The Chicago Tribune and other newspapers, winning Illinois' highest honor for public service journalism from United Press International. He also led a team that won UPI’s top award for investigative reporting in Illinois. After investigating the evidence for Jesus, Lee became a Christian in 1981. He joined the staff of Willow Creek Community Church in 1987 and later became a teaching pastor. He joined Saddleback Valley Community Church as a teaching pastor in 2000. He left Saddleback to write books and host the national network TV program Faith Under Fire. In addition, Lee taught First Amendment Law at Roosevelt University. In recognition of the extensive research for his books, he was honored by Southern Evangelical Seminary with the conferring of a Doctor of Divinity degree in 2007. Lee's other books include The Case for the Real Jesus, Finding the Real Jesus, God's Outrageous Claims, The Case for Christmas, The Case for Easter, The Unexpected Adventure (co-authored with Mark Mittelberg), and Surviving a Spiritual Mismatch in Marriage, which he wrote with his wife, Leslie. Lee also co-authored the Becoming a Contagious Christian course, which has trained more than a million Christians on how to naturally and effectively talk with others about Jesus. He has been interviewed on such national TV networks as ABC, Fox, PBS and CNN, and his articles have appeared in a variety of periodicals, including the online editions of the Wall Street Journal and Newsweek. He has been a recurring guest on The Bible Answer Man and Focus on the Family radio programs. He is a member of the Evangelical Philosophical Society. Lee and Leslie have been married for 40 years and live in Colorado. Their daughter, Alison, is the author of six novels and co-author of two books for children. Their son, Kyle, has written several books on Jonathan Edwards and on spiritual formation. With a PhD in theology from the University of Aberdeen and two master's degrees, he is a professor at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona.