DALLAS - The list of names reads like a who's who in evangelical Christianity: Osteen, Jakes, LaHaye.

But the focus of a ministry conference in Florida next week isn't megachurch pastor Joel Osteen, or televangelist and filmmaker Bishop T.D. Jakes, or best-selling author Tim LaHaye of "Left Behind" fame.

Rather, it's their wives: Victoria Osteen, Serita Jakes and Beverly LaHaye. They're each planning to address more than 2,000 women, from all 50 states and more than 20 nations, at the Free to Soar pastors' wives conference in West Palm Beach, Fla. Thousands more are expected to watch parts of the meeting at 80 satellite locations across the nation.

Organizers bill the conference, set to begin Tuesday, as the first global event to help pastors' wives deal with a full-time job - typically unofficial and unpaid - that is often fraught with unrealistic expectations, constant demands and even loneliness.

"Most pastors' wives just don't feel qualified. That's really a sad situation," said Lois Evans of Dallas, president of the Global Pastors' Wives Network. "And the guilt that they feel can be immense, simply because they are expected to have it all together."

She's organizing the conference along with network founder Vonette Bright, who started the international ministry Campus Crusade for Christ with her late husband, Bill Bright. Bright also founded the Global Pastors Network and the wives' network is an affiliate of that group.

Victoria Osteen, whose husband preaches to more than 25,000 worshippers each weekend at Lakewood Church in Houston, is a familiar face on the church's nationally televised services. For the mother of two, being a pastor's wife means never buying groceries without someone watching what you're putting in your cart - or what you're wearing.

"I do try to sneak out in my ball cap and a jogging suit on a Saturday," she said, chuckling. "It seems like I always get caught."

Osteen said her message to pastors' wives will be: "You can't do everything and you can't be everything to everyone, so prioritize your life. ... The first thing on my agenda is my relationship with God, then my relationship with my family, and then, of course, the congregation."

Evans - wife of Tony Evans, senior pastor of the 7,000-member Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas - said training and mentoring have long been available to pastors, but are just now being offered to their wives.

Seminaries have held leadership training courses and retreats for women. Pastors' wives have started newsletters and Web sites to share the challenges and rewards of life "in the fish bowl," as the home page of www.pastorswives.org refers to it.

But the Florida conference marks the first effort crossing racial, cultural and denominational lines to reach out to pastors' wives, said Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, which represents more than 50 denominations.

"There's no one personality that everybody's gathering to hear," said Haggard, pastor of the 11,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo. "There are Baptists and Pentecostals, Americans and people from other nations. I think it's going to be incredibly powerful."

His wife, Gayle Haggard, has a new book, "A Life Embraced: A Hopeful Guide for the Pastor's Wife." In it, she maintains that ministry life shouldn't be about enduring challenges but about embracing joy. "It's really a wonderful role and not a pitiable, sad role."