Reverend Joe Albright

Teacher, investment counselor, and deck hand on a fishing boat: The Reverend Joe Albright’s journey had taken many roads before he heard the calling that would lead him to Dial Hope, where, as our lead pastor, he has been writing and delivering our daily inspiration messages since 2011.

It’s these diverse experiences that have given him a unique insight into the human heart. It’s that, and his empathy, that make his daily messages so profound and meaningful to so many.

Rediscovering His Faith

Though he is the great-grandson and grandson of Presbyterian ministers, it took Joe awhile to receive his calling. He had drifted away from the church while in high school and stayed away while he earned his Bachelor’s degree at Flager College in St. Augustine.

The kindness of a Methodist minister who offered Joe a place to stay when he was between jobs began his awakening. Soon Joe found himself beginning to reconnect with his roots, and finding his way back to church.

“I started feeling God had more in store for me.”

After a couple of years of discernment, including a year of teaching high school Spanish in Jamaica, Joe returned to school and earned his Master of Divinity degree at Columbia Theological Seminary. After graduating in 2001, Joe was called to Sarasota, FL where he worked as an Associate Pastor alongside Dial Hope’s founder, the Reverend Roger Kunkel Our Founder – Dial Hope.

Like Joe, Roger had chosen paths less traveled and so he soon became both mentor and trusted friend. On those occasions when Roger couldn’t deliver the daily message of hope, Joe would, even after he was called to Jacksonville to be Head of Staff at Hodges Blvd. Presbyterian Church and then to Geneva Presbyterian as that church’s Pastor. www.genevapresbyterian.org.

When Roger passed, it was only natural that Joe take over and continue spreading Roger’s message of understanding, encouragement, and insight, sending hope rippling through the world.

Finding Hope in Family

Joe and his wife Robbie, with whom he shares five daughters, live in Saint Augustine, Florida. When he’s not working on his Dial Hope messages or tending to his parishioners, Joe is an avid outdoorsman surfing, fishing, kayaking and generally, as he describes it, “enjoying God’s creation. There’s so much to enjoy.”