Eagle's Wings Ministries

Eagles' Wings is an American evangelical Christian ministry based in Clarence, New York. Founded by Robert Stearns, it has been described as a Christian Zionist and pro-Israel organization whose activities include taking Christian pastors and other leaders to Israel and organizing prayer and advocacy initiatives focused on Israel. Tax records list its legal entity as Eagles Wings International Inc. and show it has been tax-exempt since 1995.

History and activities

Eagles' Wings was founded by Stearns in the 1990s and has remained closely identified with his public ministry. In 2004, Stearns and pastor Jack Hayford were among the co-founders of the Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem, an annual pro-Israel prayer initiative.

The ministry is best known for organizing Christian trips to Israel. In 2025, Ynet described one of its signature programs as a “Christian Birthright,” modeled after the Jewish Birthright program, and reported that Stearns said he had brought about 35,000 Christians to Israel since 1992.

Public profile

Media coverage of Eagles' Wings has often centered on Stearns personally. Religion News Service described him as the founding executive director of Eagles' Wings and noted that the organization brings Christian pastors to Israel. In public discussion of Christian Zionism, Eagles' Wings has frequently been presented as one of the more prominent pro-Israel evangelical ministries based in New York.

Criticism and controversy

Criticism of Eagles' Wings has focused mainly on its theology and politics rather than on criminal allegations or financial scandal. In 2009, New Jersey Jewish News reported that while some Jewish communal leaders welcomed Stearns and Eagles' Wings as allies, others were wary of Christian Zionists because of their conservative domestic agenda and their “sometimes apocalyptic theology.”

Academic and political critics have also argued that the more bridge-building forms of Christian Zionism still carry theological assumptions about biblical prophecy and the end times. In his 2009 book Evangelicals and Israel, Stephen Spector used Eagles' Wings as a case study in American Christian Zionism and identified its events and theology with broader debates over premillennial dispensationalism, biblical prophecy, and Christian support for Israel. In 2010, Political Research Associates argued that Stearns was sometimes portrayed too favorably as free of conversionary or end-times motives, and contended that such portrayals understated tensions within Christian Zionism.

Eagles' Wings has rejected claims that it targets Jews for proselytization, stating that it does not have as its mission “the proselytization or missionizing of the Jewish people.”

Since the 2023 [...]-led attack on Israel, the ministry has taken a more overtly political public posture. In a 2025 interview, Stearns said Eagles' Wings missions were intended to counter a global “propaganda war” over Israel and tied the issue to what he called the future of Western civilization.

See also

• Robert Stearns
• Christian Zionism
• Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem