lisa harper author biography

Lisa Harper

Lisa harper is a renowned author, bible teacher, and speaker known for her unique blend of humor, vulnerability, and deep biblical insight. she was born in texas in 1963 and grew up in mississippi., stories by lisa harper.

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Lisa Harper

Lisa Harper is a popular inspirational speaker, Bible teacher, and author. She is the former director of the national women’s ministry at Focus on the Family, where she created the popular Renewing the Heart conferences. Among Lisa’s best-selling books are The Sacrament of Happy: What a Smiling God Brings to a Wounded World and Believing Jesus: Are You Willing to Risk Everything? She has also written a children's book with her daughter, Missy, entitled  Who's Your Daddy?  

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Lisa Harper

Author and Speaker

A master storyteller and sought-after Bible teacher and author known for her authenticity, Lisa Harper's writing and speaking overflows with colorful pop culture references that connect the dots between the Bible and modern life. She combines sound scriptural exposition with relatable anecdotes and comedic wit. Lisa is a mother to Missy, who she adopted from Haiti. 

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Lisa Harper

Lisa Harper is a respected Bible teacher and popular public speaker who addresses audiences at events and churches all over the world. She formerly served as the director of Focus on the Family’s Women’s Ministries and created the Renewing the Heart women’s conference. Lisa holds a Masters of Theological Studies from Covenant Seminary in St. Louis and recently completed her doctoral studies at Denver Seminary. She has authored a dozen books including Stumbling into Grace: Confessions of a Sometimes Spiritually Clumsy Woman; A Perfect Mess; Believing Jesus ; and Life: An Obsessively Grateful, Undone by Jesus, Genuinely Happy, and Not Faking it Through the Hard Stuff Kind of 100-Day Devotional ;   Learn more about Lisa by visiting  her website .

Believing God’s Promises Despite Hard Circumstances

Are you waiting for a miracle from God? In this winsome presentation, author and bible teacher Lisa Harper shares how the Lord redeemed gut-wrenching disappointments in her life. She encourages believers to see “waiting on God” as the bold stance of a prayerful warrior, not an attitude of defeated pessimism.

Grief and Loss: Knowing When Kids Need to Talk

Take the time to help your children process worry, grief and loss

Finding Happiness in God (Part 2 of 2)

In a discussion based on her book The Sacrament of Happy, Lisa Harper explains how happiness is a biblical concept and why God desires for us to be happy. She also describes how we can experience happiness in healthy ways and how it’s possible for happiness and sadness to co-exist. (Part 2 of 2)

Finding Happiness in God (Part 1 of 2)

In a discussion based on her book The Sacrament of Happy, Lisa Harper explains how happiness is a biblical concept and why God desires for us to be happy. She also describes how we can experience happiness in healthy ways and how it’s possible for happiness and sadness to co-exist. (Part 1 of 2)

Finding Joy in Pain

Bible teacher and speaker Lisa Harper explains how God used the Book of Job to teach her about finding joy in the midst of challenging life circumstances. She offers the encouraging reminder that God does not abandon us, and has a plan and a purpose for our lives.

Impacting the Culture by Walking With Jesus (Part 2 of 2)

Speaker and author Lisa Harper discusses some of the difficult life challenges she’s experienced through which she’s learned to depend on God, accept His love and live out her faith. (Part 2 of 2)

Impacting the Culture by Walking With Jesus (Part 1 of 2)

Speaker and author Lisa Harper discusses some of the difficult life challenges she’s experienced through which she’s learned to depend on God, accept His love and live out her faith. (Part 1 of 2)

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Redeemed by God’s Grace

Lisa Harper shares how she was redeemed by God's mercy and grace and now lives a life free of guilt and shame.

by Suzan Braun | JBU Editor

At the beginning of her book, Believing Jesus—Are You Willing to Risk Everything? ,   Lisa Harper shares a verse from Acts 2:26, “I’ve pitched my tent in the land of hope.” Lisa has hammered many stakes into the soil of her amazing life journey from a childhood of abuse and shame to speaking and teaching platforms where, today, she shares her passion for helping women discover the power of God’s Word and how it can be applied to their lives in relevant and exciting ways. A hilarious storyteller and one who repeatedly shatters stereotypes, Lisa recently adopted a little girl named Missy from Haiti, who keeps her joyfully exhausted and focused on the love of God. 

For six years, Lisa was the National Women’s Ministry Director at Focus on the Family, followed by a stint as the women’s ministry director at a large church. The author of eleven books, with a Masters of Theological Studies from Covenant Seminary, she is a gifted communicator who talks about pop culture next to biblical parables and teaches truths about the Bible with a warmth and wit that keeps her in demand and on the go around the world.  

“I’m learning to become a much bolder believer,” says Lisa. “I’m starting to live with more radical trust, believing God will do the impossible not simply that He can. It’s been a blast to kick safe, comfortable Christianity to the curb and embrace a wilder walk of faith. Because of this Jesus, this gospel really is worth risking everything for!”

Just Between Us (JBU)  had the privilege of speaking with Lisa about her experiences, her walk of faith, and what it’s like to be a never-married, single mother at age 50.

Lisa Harper

Tell us about your journey to faith. 

Lisa: My mom was a committed believer, and I became a believer when I was five years old. However, my parents divorced that same year. I was devastated and desperate for my dad to stay. I thought it was my fault, something I did that caused him to leave. I watched my mom marry her second husband, Angel, two years later. Both marriages were difficult, but I watched how my mom’s faith carried her, spending every morning in the living room on her knees praying.

I was blessed throughout high school. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t love Jesus. But I felt covered in shame—I loved Jesus, but thought He tolerated me. 

Eventually, God redeemed my relationship with my dad in amazing ways. But because he left when I was a little girl, abandonment issues affected my relationship with God early on. I thought, I’d better be a good girl or He might leave me. 

Today, God’s immutability brings me so much comfort. God does not change. Even when the Israelites were such stinkers and He disciplined them, He never abandoned them. I can’t tell you how much that means to me as a woman. God won’t leave me, even on my worst days.   

How did you overcome the pain and disappointments from your past?

Lisa: My dad walked away and my sister and I were sexually molested by men growing up. For me, it underscored the feeling of “less than.” My dad walked away; men sexually molested me. So I became a performer, but I lived shrouded by shame. Guilt says you’ve done something wrong. Shame says you are wrong. It’s very hard to speak the gospel into shame.

The enemy knows the Achilles heel of women is shame. Shame has been a huge issue in my life, and is for women especially. Every single group of women I work with deal with shame. When you peel back the veneer and get to the core of their ache they’re asking, “Does God really love me? Do I have value?”

I had actually started working in the ministry so I could preach grace to everyone else. It was very hard to hang onto myself, like wet soap. At one point, I ended up going away to the beach by myself with my Bible and all of these commentaries on the Song of Songs. And I was undone by the intimacy in this book. When you study Song of Solomon from a Christ-centered perspective, it’s about the intimacy available to us in Jesus. We tend to forget that the gospel is about a supernatural, mind-blowing relationship with the Lord. Most of us are more comfortable appeasing this Darth Vader image we have of God because we read the Bible as a religious rulebook rather than as an amazing love story. Yet in Song of Solomon 4:9, God says through Solomon, “You have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes.” 

Think about what that verse says: The God of the Universe is enamored with us . That’s huge. We wouldn’t say this in a Bible study, but somewhere in our crooked human hearts we assume God loves us because it’s His job . That He’s compelled to because He’s the Creator and we’re the created. But God delights in us. God’s behavior toward us isn’t reserved, rigid, or formal. He makes Himself available to us. He runs toward us. He longs for us to come to Him with affection and abandon. And He wants us to find our satisfaction in Him. I think the more time we spend in His presence, the more we become wonderfully aware of His love.  

How have you seen God take the messy parts of your life and use them for good?

Lisa: The messy places are where we connect with Christ most because we don’t have it all together. That’s the point of the gospel. I’ve sat in one too many conferences as a kid where whoever had the microphone basically said, “Now that I’m a believer, my life is perfect.” And it never resonated with me. I thought they were lying for sure because they didn’t even look happy while spewing their mess.

Women identify with authenticity. This is the message I always come back to: the love of Christ. If I could leave women with one thing, it would be that Christ loves them. Even on my worst day, He says, “She’s my girl!”  

Can you share with us your darkest days and what God has taught you during those times of sadness and despair?

Lisa: Six years ago, I lost my relationship with my longtime best friend and my stepfather died. My mom and little brother fell apart too. I had never suffered from depression and had always been a half-full type of person. This was all new. I could barely limp through this season. But when you get to the end of your own strength, you do find that Jesus is enough. I prayed and wept for four months. I was grateful to be able to grieve. I came to understand the intimacy and kindness of Christ. I don’t want to ever be that sad again, but when you feel like you’re a mess emotionally, the triage of Jesus became so much sweeter than I knew. I’ll never regret it.

How did you get through your hardest times spiritually?

Lisa: The greatest grief came from my father’s abandonment. I had to be honest enough to say I’ve always wanted a dad, and never really had one. In that place of hurt, I became grateful to be weak and really broken. The things I had preached and written about God—He’s our peace, He’s our strength, He’s our sustenance started to become personal. I began to revel in the affection of Jesus, not just salvation and justification. Moving toward the mercy of God changed everything for me.

I look at Moses, and it used to bug me that he didn’t get to go to the Promised Land. But it hit me that Moses made it, just not in his body. He made it in at the most scenic point next to Jesus because His mercy isn’t bound by time and space. That’s always the part of the gospel I resonate with.  

Because women feel they have to hide their internal struggles, how can we become more real with each other? 

Lisa: Not long ago, I had a woman come up to me at a Bible study and say, “I never went to Bible studies until you started teaching because I never felt like I fit. The women were all so perfect, so blond and thin, but then you came.” As soon as she said it, she realized how it sounded. But I thought, It’s true . 

I said, “I know what you’re saying, I’m brunette and chunky.” But really what she was saying is, “You don’t seem to have it altogether; you make me feel welcome.” That’s the whole point of the gospel: we need a Messiah. I think that’s what women identify with. 

We women are so hard on ourselves. We get so sucked into our culture’s standards that we don’t have the time to realize that God isn’t more pleased with us if we’re a size two. He sees us through the rose-colored glasses of Jesus—and thinks we’re absolutely beautiful. 

We need to look at the truth of who God is and how He feels about us. In becoming real with one another, we admit we’re all a mess. I engage women in narrative, usually the stories of my life where God has redeemed and they respond by saying, “Oh, yes, me too” –and then Jesus becomes the hero for all of us!  

Where did your passion for ministry for women start?

Lisa: The love of Christ. I’m wired as a shepherd. If you get people all fired up and they’re charging up the hill, but they aren’t compelled by the love of Christ, then it’s no different from anything else. Then it’s just activism. If an activist is compelled by mercy, that’s powerful; that changes the world. We don’t have just one message, but if I had to play one note, it would always be the love and compassion of Christ. That’s what I come back to. 

Tell us about the Next Door Ministry you’re involved in.

Lisa: It’s a six-month, faith-based rehabilitation facility/recovery center. Most of our girls come straight from Tennessee Prison for Women. All of them have some type of addictions. Some of them are there because they want to be, and some are there on conditions of parole; it’s either this or go back to prison. They don’t necessarily love coming to Bible study. Wild things happen all the time. 

Sometimes I take those girls to church. One time, I was going to a church downtown. I think the people there thought I was wild. Most of them smoke and I can’t stand cigarette smoke, so I told them if they had to smoke, they’d have to hang out the windows. So we’ve got smoke trailing us in the car to the church parking lot, we’re listening to the Commodores. You can just tell people are thinking, “Who is that girl?”

We go into church, and our pastor is talking about the unlikeliness of the disciples. How they were not guys who had it altogether and how they were not as clean as you would think. One of my kids, Lindsey, is sitting on my left. She leans back and she elbows me really hard and says, “Jesus had a thing for losers, didn’t He?” And I said, “Yes, He sure did.” That’s Theology 101. It really is all about His righteousness.

Tell us about your newest role: becoming a single mother at age 50.

Lisa: When I was 17, my friend and I were leading a Bible study on adoption. We knew when we grew up and got married, we would adopt internationally. I never married, but Cindy eventually did and adopted a bi-racial child.

My adoption process has been a journey. I was in the process of adopting a prostitute’s baby, but I lost her. It was heart-wrenching. Three weeks later, I got a phone call out of the blue from a woman I hadn’t heard from in 20 years. She said she had just returned from Haiti and told me about a little girl, who has HIV and tuberculosis. She was going to die in three or four months, if she wasn’t adopted. She stressed that there was no pressure. I said, “I won’t pray about this, I’ve been praying about it for 20 years.” 

When Missy’s picture came up, I knew I had been searching for her since I was 17. Six weeks later, I was on a plane and started the adoption process. It ended up taking two years. In April of 2014, I brought Missy home.

What is God teaching you through motherhood?

Lisa: I can’t believe I can love this much. She’s my kid–the sweetest thing I could ever imagine. She’s not my hope, Jesus is. I always go back to Psalm 84:11 “…No good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.” 

Yet as an older single mom who travels for a living, every day is a massive stretch. Every month we go to the pharmacy to get her HIV meds. I never thought in a million years that I’d be in a community with gay men who have AIDS. I wouldn’t have that connection without Missy. It’s one more step in God proving Himself as so kind. I didn’t see this side of God until becoming a mom. I’m learning how truly desperate I am for the sufficiency of His grace every single moment of every day.

I shouldn’t have a kid. I’m going through motherhood and menopause at the same time. How merciful of God! It’s far more joyful and fulfilling than I dared to dream. It’s the most glorious, exhausting thing I’ve ever experienced!

Has your perception of who God is as your heavenly Father changed since becoming a mom?

Lisa: Becoming Missy’s mama has radically changed the topography of my heart and given me eyes to see beautiful facets of the fatherhood of God that I was previously blind to. I’m so discombobulated by His compassion and kindness!

What is the one best thing about living for Jesus these days?

Lisa: Because of the way He has tangibly redeemed my story and restored unto me the years the locusts ate away in my life (due to my own sinful choices and fears), I find myself in an almost constant state of gratitude. It’s hard to wipe the grin off my face these days! The God of the Universe loves me.

What do you most desire in your relationship with God and those you minister to?

Lisa: To focus more on our relationship with God than with being appropriately religious. Author Francis Shaeffer once said, “Our calling is to be not only a faithful bride but also a bride in love.” That’s what I want—to be the bride in love. I don’t want to be faithful only because I’ve mentioned a bunch of facts about the Lord. I want to be so absolutely in love with Jesus that it permeates every facet of my being. I want to reflect the gospel as best I can in this crooked jar of clay.  

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Christian Author and Sexual Assault Survivor Lisa Harper Reveals What’s Missing from #MeToo Movement

Lisa Harper has built her career around ministering to women, guiding them through unimaginable circumstances and seemingly insurmountable pain. Now, in this #MeToo era, she sees herself as a “big sister” to those coming to terms with the sexual abuse they may have endured.

Harper’s story isn’t clear cut and her journey to where she is today could never have predicted the success her ministry now boasts. As a young woman, she endured consistent sexual abuse, lived in a home with an absent father and was raped as a college student.

The well-known Christian author and speaker told Faithwire she “can identify with the heart cry” of the women speaking out about the abuse they’ve faced, adding her “heart breaks for women who are just beginning to deal with their own pain.”

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As the “big sister in the house,” Harper cautioned the women coming forward in this season of reckoning from turning toward human repentance to “heal the deepest wounds in our soul.”

“What your soul’s really longing for isn’t the answers, it’s not even necessarily a punitive reckoning for the men who have been so abusive,” she said. “What your soul’s longing for is presence, it’s the presence of God.”

Though she’s thankful for the conversations taking place in the #MeToo era, Harper said it “grieves” her to see many women “are not running to God” but are instead being fueled by an “embittered” culture.

“You’re still not gonna find peace, even if your abuser is punished, because peace only comes with God,” Harper added.

Harper’s comments about the #MeToo movement come just days before the release of her newest work , “Who’s Your Daddy? Discovering the Awesomest Daddy Ever,” a children’s book she co-wrote with her daughter, Missy, whom she adopted from Haiti in 2014.

In the book, Harper, a single mother, chronicles a conversation she had with her 9-year-old daughter after one of her fellow classmates asked who her father was — a question for which Missy didn’t have an answer.

Harper had for years longed to be a mother, but the right relationship hadn’t worked out. So when she approached her adoption agency, she told her agent she was not interested in adopting a child who had “a good shot at a momma and a daddy, because I still believe … that’s the biblical template.”

But we live in an imperfect world with imperfect solutions.

Though she was uncertain about her decision to adopt earlier on in the process, looking back, Harper said she “totally scored” with Missy, whom she described as “the greatest kid since sliced bread.”

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“The only thing I can rest on is the sovereignty of God, the peace of God, the way God directed me to adopt this child,” Harper said of the criticism she sometimes faces as a single mother. “So stigma at this point just rolls off me like water on a duck’s back because it has been such a joy, such tangible grace, in being her mom, that I go, ‘You know what, I’m gonna walk the path God has for me.’”

“Who’s Your Daddy?” reminds readers that, regardless of the earthly fathers — or “skin daddies,” as Missy calls them — who might fail us or are absent in this life, we have a perfect Heavenly Father who loves us unconditionally.

“I don’t see [being married] as completing us, because of God being so sufficient, and really so accessible, as a father to the fatherless and a husband to the husbandless,” Harper said. “I rarely feel like we are two legs of a three-legged stool. I feel like we are a really wonderfully functioning family because of the presence of God.”

The book is available now for pre-order and releases Monday, Oct. 15.

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'We just fit': How adopting a child from Haiti changed everything for this mom

Christian author and speaker Lisa Harper has made a career out of bringing hope to women, many of whom are mothers. But Harper — a victim of childhood sexual abuse — says when it came to becoming a mom herself, she felt hopeless.

Harper spent much of her adult life struggling with the shame brought on as a result of her abusive childhood, and after finding herself single and in her forties, the Tennessee woman felt the desire to become a mother and began considering adoption .

"A woman at my church told me that, because I had been abused as a child, I would not be a good candidate to become a mother because I might transfer that trauma onto my child," said Harper, adding that the woman's words came as such a blow to her that she put her adoption application in an office drawer and adopted a dog instead.

"It was another seven years before I would start the adoption process because there was just enough of what she said that resonated with me because of the shame I felt," said Harper. "I was scared to death that I wasn't good enough."

Harper says after the death of her step-father, being diagnosed with skin cancer herself, and going through a bout of depression, she began to attend counseling. And, as she recovered and "got braver," she says felt a renewed call to help a child who couldn't help themselves.

Harper began moving through the process of two failed adoptions , the second of which came as a complete shock just one week before the baby was to be born.

"I was devastated by both losses," said Harper. "But I don't really have the words for how eviscerating that second loss was."

But Harper continued to search for the child she was meant to have, giving very specific instructions to her adoption agency.

"I said I wanted a kid nobody was standing in line for," remembered Harper. "I didn't say that because I'm sweet — I said it because I'm single and I believe kids deserve a momma and a daddy. So, I told my adoption agent, 'If there's a kid that doesn't have a shot at getting a mom and a dad and their only other option is dying in a third world orphanage, I'd love — as a fluffy, single mom in middle Tennessee — to be put into that equation.'"

At age 49, just weeks after her devastating adoption loss, Harper received a voicemail from a friend who had just returned from the village of Neply, Haiti.

"She said a young mom in the village had died of AIDS while she was there and left behind a two-and-a-half-year-old girl who was diagnosed with HIV, had cholera and probably had tuberculosis," said Harper. "The doctors in Port-au-Prince had said she would die within the next two months, and she said, 'Lisa, will you pray about this?'"

"I called her back and said, 'Nope. I've been praying about this for 30 years. Sign me up.'"

It was then that Harper learned the little girl's name — Missy.

"She was two-and-a-half and she maybe wasn't going to make it," said Harper. "She was really, really sick and that was all I really knew."

Six weeks later, Harper was in Haiti , meeting her daughter.

"Once Missy wrapped her little hand around my finger and said, 'Hello, Mama Blanc,' which means White Momma, I was ready to do anything for her," Harper recalled. "I just fell in love with her from the beginning but I was so scared because she was so sick."

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It took almost two years of paperwork, visits to Missy's Haitian orphanage and waiting, but in April 2014, when Missy was four years old, Harper traveled to Haiti to bring Missy home to Nashville, Tennessee.

Today, Missy is a thriving, healthy 8 year old, whose HIV is undetectable in her blood. Missy has no scarring on her lungs from her bout with tuberculosis, nor does she have liver damage from having cholera. Missy's doctors tell Harper her daughter's health is a miracle.

"She needed modern medicine, she needed clean water and she needed a whole lot of love," said Harper. "She is an amazing little warrior and we just fit together like a hand in a glove. She is happy, vibrant and just an amazing kid."

Harper says becoming a mother in her fifties has been easier than she imagined, something she credits to Missy's resilient personality.

"She does not have a shadow of that orphan spirit on her," said Harper. "I grew up in America and I struggled with feeling like an orphan and feeling unwanted for decades. Through adopting her and seeing her grow — I feel like I'm the one who got healed in the process."

"She's like a flower that's bloomed from cement — I added a lot of love to it, but she is just a little survivor and once she tasted joy and love, it's like she just shot up and hasn't stopped growing since."

For Harper, it's an important part of her parenting to teach Missy to speak openly about her health, and being HIV positive.

"When I was a little girl, I thought, 'I can't tell on these men who have sexually abused me,'" said Harper. "It made me quiet for most of my adult life, but I think secrets make you sick and it is not Missy's fault that she has HIV, so I'll be darned if I'm going to saddle her with that."

Harper says she also has open conversations with her daughter about her birth mother and father, and the conditions in the village where she was born. In fact, portions of the proceeds from Harper's latest book, "The Sacrament of Happy," go toward building a four-acre community vegetable garden in Missy's village, where Harper and Missy volunteered their own time earlier this summer.

"Because of Missy, there's not just more love in our family — I feel like I have so many more opportunities to love the world around me."

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Lisa Harper

About the author.

Rarely are the terms hilarious storyteller and theological scholar used in the same sentence, much less used to describe the same person... but then again, Lisa Harper is anything but stereotypical! She has been lauded as a gifted communicator, whose writing and speaking overflows with colorful pop culture references that connect the dots between the Bible era and modern life. Her style combines sound scriptural exposition with easy-to-relate to anecdotes and comedic wit. Best-selling author and pastor Max Lucado calls Lisa on of the "best Bible tour guides around," and speaker Priscilla Evans Shirer adds, "If anyone can help us to hear, understand and receive the truth of Scripture it is Lisa Harper. Her God-given ability to not merely teach the Word but package it in a way that stirs the heart and calls to action is incomparable. When she speaks ears perk up!" Lisa's pastor - Scotty Smith of Christ Community Church of Franklin, TN,​ - sums up her appealing approach with this commendation, "In a day in which people connect with stories and yet too often find the Bible abstract and irrelevant, Lisa shows us that 66 books of the Bible are telling one grand story of personal and cosmic redemption, with Jesus starring as the lead character." Her vocational resume includes six years as the director of Focus on the Family's national women's ministry where she created the popular Renewing the Heart conferences, attended by almost 200,000 women, followed by 6 years as the women's ministry director at a large church in Nashville. Her academic resume includes a Masters of Theological Studies with honors from Covenant Seminary in St. Louis. Now a sought-after Bible teacher and speaker, Lisa is currently featured on the Women of Faith tour and speaks at many other large multi-denominational events - such as Moody Bible, Women of Joy, and Focus on the Family conferences - as well as at hundreds of church retreats all over the world. She's been on numerous syndicated radio and television programs and was featured on the cover of Today's Christian Woman. She's written ten books including Holding Out For a Hero: A New Spin on Hebrews; A Perfect Mess: Why You Don't Have To Worry About Being Good Enough For God and Untamed: How the Wild Side of Jesus Frees Us to Live and Love With Abandon. Lisa's latest book is titled Stumbling Into Grace: Confessions of a Sometimes Spiritually Clumsy Woman. She also served as a key contributor to the Becoming Devotional Bible for Women and as a columnist for Today's Christian Woman magazine. Yet in spite of her credentials, the most noticeable thing about Lisa Harper is her authenticity. When recently asked about her accomplishments she responded with a grin saying, "I'm definitely grateful for the opportunities God's given me; but don't forget, He often uses donkeys and rocks!" For more information about Lisa Harper, please check out lisaharper.net!

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Lisa Sharon Harper

Drawing on her lifelong journey to know her family’s history, leading Christian activist Lisa Sharon Harper recovers the beauty of her heritage, exposes the brokenness that race has wrought in America, and casts a vision for collective repair.

Harper has spent three decades researching ten generations of her family history through DNA research, oral histories, interviews, and genealogy. Fortune, the name of Harper’s first nonindigenous ancestor born on American soil, bore the brunt of the nation’s first race, gender, and citizenship laws. As Harper traces her family’s story through succeeding generations, she shows how American ideas, customs, and laws robbed her ancestors—and the ancestors of so many others—of their humanity and flourishing.

Fortune helps readers understand how America was built upon systems and structures in ways that blessed some and cursed others, allowing Americans of European descent to benefit from the colonization, genocide, enslavement, rape, and exploitation of people of color. As Harper lights a path through national and religious history, she clarifies exactly how and when the world broke and shows the way to redemption for us all. The book culminates with a vision of truth telling, reparation, and forgiveness that leads to beloved community. It includes a foreword by Otis Moss III, illustrations, and a glossy eight-page black and white insert featuring photos of Harper’s family.

What others are saying about Fortune

Scroll down for a list of full endorsements!

“A fantastic read and an important work in America’s search for her authentic self.”— Mitch Landrieu , former mayor of New Orleans; founder of E Pluribus Unum

“Lisa Sharon Harper is a masterful storyteller.”— Ruby Sales , founder of the Spirithouse Project

“This book is a triumph!” — Joshua DuBois , White House faith-based advisor to President Barack Obama

“Harper makes clear the work we must accomplish to see that our hope for true equality and justice never fades.”— Jen Hatmaker , New York Times bestselling author

“This is a story that will stay with you.”— Sarah Bessey , editor of New York Times bestseller A Rhythm of Prayer ; author of Miracles and Other Reasonable Things

“Harper has the rare gift of speaking honestly in ways that remind you of Tom Skinner, and of speaking intimately in ways that remind you of Maya Angelou.”— Willie James Jennings , Yale Divinity School

“ Fortune is necessary reading for us all.”— Kirsten Powers , CNN senior political analyst

After You Order Fortune : Join us for #BlackFortuneMonth in February 2022

READ DISCUSS ACT

Throughout Black History Month 2022, Lisa Sharon Harper invites you to pilgrimage through the story of her family—which is also the story of race in America—from the colonial era through Inauguration Day 2021.

Watch and understand the impact of racial hierarchy on one family, the role of the church in establishing this hierarchy, and the faith implications of Brown, colonized Jesus.

Join Lisa and a diverse community of thought leaders as they consider how to stop simply talking about race and finally repair what it broke in the world.

Order from a Black-Owned Independent Store

Select retailers listed at:.

Looking to go deeper?

A Free Fortune Video Learning Companion and Journal is available for book clubs, church groups, and individual use!

Endorsements

“‘Whoever saves a life,’ the rabbis teach, ‘saves the whole world.’ In this brilliant story of Fortune, which is also the story of America, Lisa Sharon Harper demonstrates how one who narrates a life also tells the story of the whole world. Take and read how one family and the whole world were broken by the lies of race, and how we might be part of repairing the breach.”— Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II , president, Repairers of the Breach; author of  We Are Called to Be a Movement

“In this powerful and necessary book, Lisa Sharon Harper does something truly unique. By telling the story of her own family, she tells the story of America through a deeply Christian lens. As truthful as it is hopeful, this beautifully written book about resistance, healing, memory, place, history, justice, and identity shows how we are all still shaped by the stories we tell. This is a story that will stay with you.”— Sarah Bessey , editor of New York Times bestseller A Rhythm of Prayer ; author of Miracles and Other Reasonable Things

“Lisa Sharon Harper’s Fortune is a brave and brilliant meditation on the shameful legacy of racial injustice in America. This is a seamless narrative brimming with historical reflection, family lore, and spiritual healing. Highly recommended!”— Douglas Brinkley , Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and professor of history, Rice University; author of Rosa Parks: A Life

“Lisa Sharon Harper is one of the most influential leaders in the US and across the globe. This is her most important book yet. She unifies her own family history with her insightful theology. She names the sinful, demonic force of racism, but she also casts a vision for how we can heal our wounds from it. Pure fire from beginning to end.”— Shane Claiborne , author, activist, and cofounder of Red Letter Christians

“ Fortune by Lisa Sharon Harper is an arresting, moving, and altogether remarkable book. The author—one of the most influential faith leaders in America and around the globe—deftly combines her own story with a broader narrative of race, theology, and our country’s tragic history. This book is a triumph! It should be read in living rooms, classrooms, and anywhere else where people seek passion, purpose, and truth.”— Joshua DuBois , White House faith-based advisor to President Barack Obama; bestselling author of The President’s Devotional

“The magic of Lisa is this: she tells the whole truth of our historical existence as a nation built upon racist structures, ideologies, and laws. In Fortune , Harper lays bare the guttural facts about where America sits in the expanse between the bright promise of ‘I Have a Dream’ and the rayless reality of ‘Make America Great Again.’ In the end, she makes clear the work we must accomplish to see that our hope for true equality and justice never fades.”— Jen Hatmaker , New York Times bestselling author, speaker, and host of the For the Love podcast

“In Fortune , Lisa Sharon Harper helps us imagine how the sterile print of America’s first race laws impacted living, breathing people. Particularly in chapter one, her analysis of the life of Fortune Game Magee and her descendants helps us consider how these laws and the constructs of race that they built shaped the course of our nation. You may not agree with everything, but you must consider this work.”— Paul Heinegg , author of Free African Americans of Maryland and Delaware and Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina

“A beautiful book of great spiritual and emotional depth. Through a mix of memoir and historical excavation, Lisa Sharon Harper conducts a unique, courageous exploration of America’s original sin and its terrible toll on the physical, spiritual, and psychic existence of Black Americans through the struggles of her ancestors. This book will touch your soul.”— Obery M. Hendricks Jr. , visiting scholar, Columbia University; author of Christians Against Christianity: How Right-Wing Evangelicals Are Destroying Our Nation and Our Faith

“It is difficult to write a book on race, faith, family, reparations, and justice in ways that are compelling to people who are either tired of or resistant to thinking about these matters. Lisa Sharon Harper has written just such a book. Harper has the rare gift of speaking honestly in ways that remind you of Tom Skinner, and of speaking intimately in ways that remind you of Maya Angelou. There are few evangelical writers who match the power of her voice. I am very glad we all get to hear it in print.”— Willie James Jennings , Yale Divinity School

“‘How do we repair what race broke in the world?’ This is what Lisa Sharon Harper challenges us to consider in her new book. She takes us on a journey of discovery using her family history as the vessel, and calls us to contemplate not only the cost and pain of racism but the promise of an ‘America yet to be’—should we dare to confront our past, repair the damage, and demand a future that belongs to us all. A fantastic read and an important work in America’s search for her authentic self.”— Mitch Landrieu , former mayor of New Orleans; founder of E Pluribus Unum

“Lisa Sharon Harper gives us a glimpse of her family’s survival, resistance, and resilience through her bold storytelling. In this epic narrative, she reminds us that our stories aren’t entirely lost to racial injustice. We can reclaim the richness and brilliance of our stories, our people, and our faith. Fortune will have your attention on every page and provoke each of us to explore our family history and discover redemptive visions for ourselves and our family lineage.”— Latasha Morrison , New York Times and ECPA bestselling author of Be the Bridge ; president and founder of Be the Bridge

“What is extraordinary about this publication is Lisa’s ability to weave history, family narrative, theology, and creative nonfiction against our contemporary scene. . . . Read from these pages, Beloved, and let this story of family, race, and resistance create anger in your spirit and ultimately inspire your heart to join the work to heal our nation and eventually our world.”— Otis Moss III (from the foreword)

“Lisa Sharon Harper is one of our nation’s most critical voices on the issues of race, gender, faith, and justice. In an era when the world feels unmoored, Harper anchors us in the truth of what brought America to the brink. Through masterful storytelling and deep spiritual reflection, Harper weaves together ten generations of her family story with the story of America. Then she points the way forward to a world where all can flourish. Fortune is necessary reading for us all.”— Kirsten Powers , New York Times bestselling author, CNN senior political analyst, and USA Today columnist

“Lisa Sharon Harper is a masterful storyteller. In Fortune , Harper offers us a front-row seat to the intergenerational story of her family as they moved from being a community of enslaved Africans to free African Americans. With a sociohistorical scalpel and unflinching honesty, she unpacks the sound of her family’s names, an African American family in White America where the bone of racism chokes the breath out of everyone and everything it touches, including democracy itself. Faced with the choice of becoming broken-winged birds from the weight of racism, the men and women in Fortune choose to both fly in it and above it. This is the magnificent breath of fresh air that we inhale from the genius of this African American family.”— Ruby Sales , founder of the Spirithouse Project, long distance runner for justice, social critic, popular educator, and Black folk theologian

With skill and love, Lisa Sharon Harper weaves together nothing less than an epic and true story of race, religion, history, and identity. A small number of books convey such soulfulness and richness with every word, and this is one of them. Fortune recovers the story not just of a single lineage but of whole eras, people groups, and nation-shaping events, and it reads like both memoir and exposé. It rewards the reader with insights and emotion on every page.”— Jemar Tisby , New York Times bestselling author of The Color of Compromise and How to Fight Racism

“Lisa Sharon Harper is a gifted storyteller and one of the voices we need to listen to for America’s future. In telling the story of her ancestors and her personal story, she shows us a deeper way of understanding our nation’s difficult past and offers a way forward toward its diverse and equitable future.”— Rev. Jim Wallis , Endowed Chair in Faith and Justice and founding director of the Georgetown University Center on Faith and Justice; founder and ambassador of Sojourners

“Lisa Sharon Harper is one of our generation’s most important wisdom teachers. Fortune is a compelling invitation to receive the story that has shaped a nation through the story of her family. It makes clear how the stakes in our public conversations about race and justice are both deeply personal and universal: they touch us in the most intimate spaces of our lives.”— Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove , author of Revolution of Values and  Reconstructing the Gospel

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Luke: Audio Bible Studies

• Gut-Level Compassion
• By: Lisa Harper
• Narrated by: Lisa Harper
• Length: 3 hrs and 54 mins
• Original Recording
• Overall 5 out of 5 stars 8
• Performance 5 out of 5 stars 7
• Story 5 out of 5 stars 7

In this audio Bible Study, Bible teacher Lisa Harper exposes the utter humanity and compassion of Jesus shared by Luke. Dive deep into the well of perhaps the most common-man exposition of what a gift Jesus is in this new Beautiful Word Series study....

• 5 out of 5 stars

The reality of life

• By Beautibug on 01-28-24
• Release date: 03-21-23
• Language: English
• 5 out of 5 stars 8 ratings

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Elvis Presley’s Family Tree: How Lisa Marie Presley, Riley Keough, and Others Are Related to the King

The Presley family has experienced its fair share of drama and heartbreak since Elvis’ death in 1977.

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As for his family legacy, it’s a little more complicated. Elvis married Priscilla Presley on May 1, 1967, and the couple had one daughter, Lisa Marie . However, their divorce five years later and Elvis’ untimely death at age 42 would foreshadow the contentious and, at times, tragic history of his descendants.

Here’s what you need to know about the key members of the Elvis Presley family tree, including Priscilla Presley , Lisa Marie Presley , and Riley Keough .

Priscilla Presley

Relation to elvis: ex-wife.

Priscilla Ann Wagner was born May 24, 1945, in Brooklyn, New York. Following the death of her father only months later, her mother, Ann, remarried U.S. Air Force officer Paul Beaulieu in 1948. The family moved several times and was stationed in Germany when Priscilla met Elvis in 1959 and began a relationship with him at age 14. They married in 1967, had daughter Lisa Marie the next year, and were together until their separation and divorce in 1972. Priscilla also has one son, Navarone Garibaldi Garcia , from a separate relationship. (Garcia is the lead singer of synth rock band Them Guns.)

Priscilla became the executor of the Graceland estate in 1979 and is a successful businesswoman. She has acted—appearing on the soap opera Dallas in the 1980s and in the Naked Gun film series—published the best-selling memoir Elvis and Me in 1986, and also started a line of beauty products. Most recently, the 78-year-old has been in the news for the 2023 movie Priscilla about her early life and her now-settled legal challenge against granddaughter Riley Keough for control of Graceland following Lisa Marie’s death.

Lisa Marie Presley

Relation to elvis: daughter.

Lisa Marie Presley was Elvis and Priscilla’s only child; she was born on February 1, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. She moved to Los Angeles with her mother at age 4 when her parents divorced but split time with both of them up until Elvis’ death in 1977 when she was 9.

Lisa Marie dropped out of high school and went to rehab after abusing illegal drugs. There, she met her first of four husbands, musician Danny Keough . The pair married in 1988 and had two children; they divorced in 1994. Lisa Marie was also married to pop superstar Michael Jackson , actor Nicolas Cage , and music producer Michael Lockwood. She had twin daughters with Lockwood.

Like her father, Lisa Marie had a music career. Her first two albums in 2003 and 2005, respectively, debuted in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 and were certified gold. She died at age 54 on January 25, 2023, after suffering cardiac arrest.

Read More about Lisa Marie Presley

Danny Keough

Relation to elvis: former son-in-law.

Danny Keough, born November 6, 1964, is a musician and actor and the first husband of Elvis’ daughter, Lisa Marie. They met in 1985 when Lisa Marie was 20 years old and tied the knot three years later. The 58-year-old is the father of Lisa Marie’s oldest two children, Riley Keough and the late Benjamin Keough.

According to People , Danny and Lisa Marie remained on good terms following their 1994 divorce. He became her bassist during her music career and served as the best man at her wedding to her fourth husband, Michael Lockwood, in 2006. The two were even living together in a rented property at the time of Lisa Marie’s death, according to In Touch Weekly .

Read More about Danny Keough

Riley Keough

Relation to elvis: granddaughter.

Danielle Riley Keough, born May 29, 1989, is the eldest child of Lisa Marie Presley and Danny Keough. A former model for Christian Dior and Dolce and Gabbana, she has transitioned into a successful acting career.

Riley, 34, made her film debut in the 2010 musical biopic The Runaways and has since appeared in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), American Honey (2016), Logan Lucky (2017), and Zola (2020). She also earned an Emmy nomination for playing the title character in the 2023 Amazon Prime Video series Daisy Jones & the Six .

Now the sole trustee of the Presley family estate , Riley is currently fending off an attempt to sell Graceland by a lending company that says its owed millions on an unpaid loan . Onscreen, the actor has recently appeared in the indie flick Sasquatch Sunset and the Hulu true crime series Under the Bridge .

Read More about Riley Keough

Benjamin Keough

Relation to elvis: grandson.

Benjamin Storm Presley Keough, born October 21, 1992, was the second child of Lisa Marie Presley and Danny Keough. A musician, Benjamin signed a record deal with Universal in 2009 for $5 million, according to Variety , but never released any music under the agreement.

Benjamin died by suicide at age 27 on July 12, 2020, and is buried at Graceland. He was known for his physical resemblance to his superstar grandfather. Despite his family’s fame, he stayed relatively clear of the public eye. Following Benjamin’s death, his longtime friend Brandon Howard told People he “wasn’t a spoiled kid. He was very humble, very giving, very loving, especially to his friends.”

Michael Lockwood

Michael Lockwood, born May 21, 1961, is a guitarist and producer who married Lisa Marie Presley on January 22, 2006. He was a member of the band Lions and Ghosts and went on to produce movie soundtracks and collaborate with artists like Aimee Mann, Carly Simon , and Fiona Apple.

Lisa Marie filed for divorce from Michael in June 2016, starting a years-long battle over custody of their twin daughters, Harper and Finley, as well as finances. According to the Daily Mail , Lisa Marie admitted to abusing cocaine over the final year of their marriage. The divorce was finalized in 2021.

Michael, 63, became the twins’ legal guardian in April 2023 following Lisa Marie’s death.

Finley and Harper Lockwood

Relation to elvis: granddaughters.

Finley Aaron Love Lockwood, 15, and Harper Vivienne Anne Lockwood, 15, are the twin daughters of Lisa Marie and Michael Lockwood, born on October 7, 2008.

The two were caught in a vicious custody battle amid their parents’ divorce. They were placed in protective custody with their grandmother Priscilla after Lisa Marie’s legal team alleged Michael had “disturbing” images of children on his computer, according to People . Tennessee investigators closed their inquiry a year later, and the couple’s divorce was complete in 2021.

Along with half-sister Riley Keough, Finley and Harper are beneficiaries of Lisa Marie’s contested trust, which passed down control of the Graceland property.

Tyler Piccotti first joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor in February 2023, and before that worked almost eight years as a newspaper reporter and copy editor. He is a graduate of Syracuse University. When he's not writing and researching his next story, you can find him at the nearest amusement park, catching the latest movie, or cheering on his favorite sports teams.

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