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Biography
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Joel Osteen is the pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, North America’s largest church, averaging around 25,060 weekly attendees in 2004. Lakewood was founded on Mother’s Day 1959 by Joel’s parents, John and Dodie Osteen. The first meeting was held in an abandoned feed store. John Osteen once said, “Great it is to dream the dream, when you stand in youth by the starry stream. But a greater thing is to fight life through, and say at the end, the dream is true.”
The elder Osteen developed Lakewood into a body of approximately 6,000 members with an active television ministry, crusades, conferences, missionary support and food distribution. He died of a heart attack in 1999. Having produced his father's television program for years, Joel Osteen (who had never received formal religious training) succeeded him. Adopting the slogan Discover the Champion in You, by fall 2004 Lakewood was holding six weekly services in a 7,800 seat sanctuary.
After a process involving much litigation, in late 2003 Lakewood Church acquired Compaq Center (former home of the NBA’s Houston Rockets). Following over 85 million dollars in renovation it become the Lakewood International Center, with 16,000 seats for Lakewood’s services and a media department for Joel Osteen Ministries.
Osteen lives in the Houston area with his wife Victoria and two children, Jonathan and Alexandra.
Critics have decried his lifestyle as "lavish" pointing to the fact that he lives in a house valued at over $1 million. Supporters however say that his income is largely the result of his book sales and state that he declined to take his 2005 annual salary of $174,000 as pastor of the church in order to use the money for other ministries. They also point to the church's charity work, particulary during the aftermath of Tropical Storm Allison. For example, according to Lakewood, the church donated over 1 million dollars to flood victims in one year alone.
Osteen is associated with the Word of faith movement in charismatic protestantism.
See also * Bible
* Televangelist
* List of U.S. Televangelists
* Televangelism
* Lakewood Church
...(more on Wikipedia)
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Joel Osteen".
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