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Prime Minister (Osteen)
JOEL OSTEEN’S Houston gigachurch has a congregation of more than30,000. His television show is the highest-rated religious broadcast in thecountry. His first book has already sold nearly three million copies. How didthe former TV producer become the world’s most talked about“pastorpreneur”? He is who he says he is. He has what he says he has. Hecan do what he says he can do.By William MartinAugust 20050FOR MOST PREACHERS, MONDAY IS A DAY OF REST. FOR JOEL Osteen,the 42-year-old pastor of Houston’s mammoth Lakewood Church and the faceof the world’s most popular religious television program, Mondays havebecome devoted to meeting his public. On this particular Monday in mid-December, his first book, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your FullPotential, had just hit the top spot on the New York Times’ “Advice, How-Toand Miscellaneous” best-seller list. To show its appreciation, the book’spublisher, Warner Faith, had provided Joel with a private jet and liveried towncars to ease the burden of a book-signing trip that included events in Arkansasand Tennessee on the same day. At the first stop, a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Little Rock, a few hundredadoring admirers were already lined up as Joel and his wife, Victoria, madetheir way to the store’s book section. Some fans applauded them ecstatically orsquealed with delight; others handed them flowers or reached out to touchthem, tears of joy streaming down their faces. One woman said to herhusband, a tinge of disappointment in her voice, “I thought he was taller. He’sno bigger than you are.” In fact, Joel is not a particularly imposing figure. Atrim five nine, he looks and stays in good shape by running, lifting weights,and playing basketball at the YMCA. On television or before any sizablegathering, he wears a conservative dark suit and an attractive but not flashytie, with thick black hair moussed and curling down his neck past his collarline his only nod to youthful fashion. He is not classically handsome, but hisface is instantly appealing, both because of the lively energy in his intense blueeyes and a smile that never seems forced and is seldom missing; he is oftenreferred to as the Smiling Preacher. As Joel sat down, Lakewood executive director Duncan Dodds announced thatthe pastor would not have time to listen to testimonies or to personalize hisinscriptions. But these restrictions detracted little from the excitement. A largewoman laughed and jumped up and down while taking pictures of friendshaving their books signed. Another woman clutched her autographed book toher breast and said through rapturous tears, “I’m signed. I’m blessed. It’s allgood!” Many were content simply to let Joel know that they were his greatestadmirers, but some used their precious seconds to attempt a more personalconnection: “I been keeping up with you since you first started.” “You savedmy husband’s life.” “Shake my baby’s hand. He needs the anointing.” “This isBailey Ann. She claps when she watches you.” One man handed his cell phoneto Joel and asked him to say “Hi, Jamie” to his wife. (“She started a new jobtoday and couldn’t come.”) Joel happily obliged. A young minister whoidentified himself as Chopper handed the pastor a DVD of his sermons, notingthat he often used Joel’s. (Among preachers, plagiarism has long beenconsidered more homage than offense.) A few aisles down, past an area where a young woman from Warner Faithstayed busy opening box after box of Joel’s book, Victoria held court with asmaller but no less enthusiastic crowd. A tall blond woman blessed with abeauty queen’s features and smile, she wears clothes well. On this day, thevaguely dominatrix look of her high-heeled black boots, black mock turtlenecksweater, and long black leather coat with silver buttons down the front waserased by the warm friendliness she showered on her adorers: “Hi, sweetheart.How are you, darling?” “It’s so good to meet you. You look so pretty.” “Youwatch every week? Oh, that’s wonderful!” “Bless your heart.” “We love youtoo.” After two hours, during which Joel signed nearly 1,200 books, we hustled backto the airport and headed to Nashville, where a reception was awaiting theOsteens at Warner Faith’s suburban Brentwood headquarters. The staff therewere duly solicitous, giving Joel a plaque for having reached number one onthe best-seller list. Though the young house, a Time-Warner subsidiary,publishes the work of several popular religious authors, Joel is clearly its prizeof the moment. I was told that a woman who had represented Doubleday inthe bidding for Joel’s book had told her successful competitor, “You have justguaranteed the success of Warner Faith.” It’s an audacious claim, especially when you consider that just six years agoJoel Osteen was largely unknown—probably even to most members ofLakewood Church, whose beloved founder and guiding spirit was his father,John Osteen. And even among those who did know Joel, it is difficult to findanyone who imagined that the mantle would fall to him when his father died,in 1999. At the time, Joel was a college dropout who ran the church’stelevision ministry and hadn’t preached a single sermon. Yet within a fewyears, he’s positioned himself as one of the country’s premier“pastorpreneurs,” a term often used to describe the leaders behind America’srapidly expanding megachurches. Preaching a consistently upbeat, can-domessage that some detractors refer to as “Christianity Lite”—references tobiblical passages are few, and he rarely takes a stand on controversial politicalissues—he’s attracted one of the largest and most diverse flocks this side of theVatican. Under his stewardship, Lakewood has grown from an impressive6,000 congregants to more than 30,000. His personal-appearance events arepacking arenas in major cities around the country, including Madison SquareGarden, in New York, where an extra night had to be scheduled to keep upwith demand, and the American Airlines Center, in Dallas, where scalpedtickets fetched as much as $100. His television show, Joel Osteen, is nowbroadcast in more than 150 countries. And in mid-July, Lakewood Churchmoved into the former home of the Houston Rockets, the 16,000-seat CompaqCenter, where he and his staff expect their congregation to swell before long to50,000. In less than a decade, Joel Osteen has outgrown nearly everything heinherited. The outstripping of expectations was evident that evening, when, following thereception at Warner Faith, Joel headed for yet another book signing, this timeat a Barnes and Noble. The store manager, looking at a line that was alreadyoutside the door when we arrived, said, “We knew it would be big but not thisbig this fast.” Joel and Victoria slowly wound their way through the store, theirprocession made more auspicious by the dazzling lights of a camera crewcovering the event for a local TV station. Twelve hours into his whirlwind tour,Joel still maintained his infectious grin as he addressed his fans with hisfamiliar greeting: “We just love you guys.” The crowd was a bit more upscalethan the mostly working-class folk we had seen at Wal-Mart, but the palpableexcitement and the proffered comments were much the same: “Love yourshow. It kept me going.” “I watch you three times a day.” “You are so uplifting.I love to see you smiling.” “The Lord’s with you, boy.”Joel signed another 750 books, bringing the total for the day to nearly 2,000,all without the slightest sign of fatigue or boredom. The day before, he hadpreached to 30,000 people packed into 4 ninety-minute high-octane servicesand had now gone full tilt on one stage or another since daybreak. Minutesafter we got into the air, bound for Houston, Joel pulled his tray out beforehim, laid his head directly on it, without a pillow, and slept soundly until wemade the approach for our landing. THE STORY OF HOW JOEL OSTEEN BECAME THE leader of the fastest-growing ministry in America begins with his father. The son of a cotton farmerin the East Texas town of Paris, John Osteen wasn’t converted until he waseighteen, not long after he had had the feeling that God was tapping him onthe shoulder as he left a Fort Worth nightclub (perhaps for being underage).Shortly afterward, he accepted Christ and began preaching in his hometown.After earning degrees from John Brown University and Northern BaptistSeminary, he was ordained as a Southern Baptist minister. He made a briefmove to San Diego but soon came back to Texas, where, in 1954, he met andmarried Dolores “Dodie” Pilgrim, a fitting name for a woman about to set sailinto uncharted waters. John served as pastor of Central Baptist Church, inBaytown, and Hibbard Memorial Baptist, in Houston. Not long after arriving at Hibbard Memorial, in 1958, John experienced andbegan to recommend to others what Pentecostal and charismatic Christianscall the “baptism of the Holy Spirit,” which typically involves speaking intongues and openness to other “gifts of the Spirit,” such as the ability to heal,perform exorcisms, and experience visions. Rather than face a showdown withhis Baptist brethren, who preferred to keep a tighter rein on the Holy Spirit,John withdrew from their fellowship and, in 1959, founded Lakewood Churchin an abandoned feed store in a predominantly black neighborhood onHouston’s northeast side. It was an unimpressive little place, not obviouslydifferent from the many churches one sees in such neighborhoods or alonghighways of Texas and throughout the South, where a small group of believersand a zealous preacher have erected an outpost of faith in the hope of winningtheir slice of the world for Christ. From the start, however, Lakewood had agreat spirit. Nondenominational and inclusive, it welcomed all colors andconditions to what Pastor John referred to as an “oasis of love in a troubledworld.” Though hardly a captivating orator, John was a competent preacher with alively revivalist style. He spoke on conventional topics—the atonement, theResurrection, the Holy Spirit—but the theme with which he became mostclosely identified may be found in this passage from one of his sermons: “It’sGod’s will for you to live in prosperity instead of poverty. It’s God’s will for youto pay your bills and not be in debt. It’s God’s will for you to live in health andnot in sickness all the days of your life.” John was one of many Pentecostal pastors proclaiming this controversialworldview, which went under such names as Word of Faith, Name It andClaim It, Positive Confession, or simply Health and Wealth. The essence of theteaching is that when Christians have sufficient faith, they can ask for healing,for prosperity, or for almost any other legitimate good, and God is honor-bound to provide it. That message was a winner at Lakewood. Almostimmediately, the church began to expand rapidly, first to a simple but moresubstantial building hardly larger than the feed store, then to a flat, featurelessstructure that by 1979 had increased to accommodate more than five thousandworshippers, all sitting on folding chairs. In that time, Lakewood had alsobecome a popular venue for some of the top preachers, teachers, andmusicians in Pentecostal and charismatic circles, especially those who sharedPastor John’s Word of Faith convictions. By the early eighties, the Osteen family was flourishing as well. John andDodie had six grown children (the oldest, Justin, was John’s by an earliermarriage that had ended in what is referred to by the family as “an unwanteddivorce”). They all lived comfortably in what is now Kingwood. Dodie anddaughter Lisa were active in the church’s ministry; younger daughters Apriland Tamara were faithful Christians; son Paul was in medical school; and theyoungest son, Joel, was a freshman at Oral Roberts University, in Oklahoma.By all accounts, Joel was already an upbeat, optimistic encourager; still, hesurprised his family in 1982 when he returned home and told them that hewanted to drop out of ORU and help his dad launch a television ministry. Johnsoon agreed, with the understanding that they would never use the program toask for money. His son quickly demonstrated a notable talent for TV production and overallmarketing. Lakewood’s Sunday service, which Joel directed and produced,was soon being aired locally over Houston’s CBS affiliate, KHOU-11, andnationally on the Family Channel. It was hard to drive on a Houston freewaywithout seeing John Osteen’s smiling visage shining down from strategicallyplaced billboards. Not everyone knew exactly where Lakewood was, but fewHoustonians were unaware that it existed. This point was brought home to meone evening around that time when, riding around with two of mygranddaughters, then about six and four years old, a radio commercial beganwith “We believe in new beginnings,” and the girls immediately chimed inwith “and we believe in yoooooouuuuu!!!” (The Houston Press would laterassert that the jingle ranked as one of the most successful marketingcampaigns in the city’s history.) Joel’s efforts helped Lakewood take anothergiant step: building a 7,800-seat facility in 1987, one that resembled a civicauditorium more than a sanctuary. This was followed by a large family lifebuilding in 1991 and a combination education-office building in 1993, makingit easy to mistake Lakewood for a well-kept community college with a greatdeal of parking. It seemed nothing could stop Lakewood’s growth as long as its pastor stayedhealthy, and John had frequently predicted that he would be preaching intohis nineties. But while in his mid-seventies, John developed some seriousmedical problems, including a heart condition that necessitated a pacemakerand high blood pressure that weakened his kidneys to such a degree that herequired dialysis. One week, in mid-January 1999, he felt so depleted that hecalled Joel to ask him to preach for him on Sunday morning.There was no clear reason to think his son would be an able preacher; personalcharisma does not pass automatically from generation to generation. Yet itwas no surprise that John had confidence in Joel. When John went onpreaching missions to foreign countries, particularly to India, whereLakewood had sent millions of dollars to support missionaries and establishBible schools, orphanages, and medical clinics, Joel and Victoria, who hadmarried in 1987, went along to handle the filming of the revivals and toprovide companionship and care. As they might have put it, Joel and Johnknew each other’s hearts. But unlike his mother and several of his siblings,Joel had never delivered a single sermon; in fact, he had steadfastly refused todo so on numerous occasions. And even when his father called that night andsaid, “Joel, you’re my first choice,” the son once again refused. Then Joel hungup the phone and sat down to eat dinner, confident that Lisa or his mother orsome other staff member could easily fill the pulpit for a week or two. A fewminutes later, however, Joel changed his mind—something came over him, hesays—and called back to tell his dad that he would do it. The days before that Sunday were not easy. He was convinced that he hadmade a serious error and was setting himself up for colossal public failure.Knowing he’d be preaching for the first time, in front of some six thousandpeople, he longed to retreat to his familiar and comfortable position behindthe camera. To boost his confidence, he even wore a pair of his father’s shoeswhen he stepped onto the broad stage. He spoke rapidly but winningly,drawing laughs from a sympathetic audience with self-deprecating commentsand amusing stories about his family. No one, apparently, enjoyed the sermonmore than John, who had been hospitalized but had listened to the serviceover a telephone. Lisa recalled that when she visited her father after theservice, he asked her how she thought Joel had done and she had said, “Ithought he was great. You know, Daddy, I think one day he may be standing infront of that camera instead of behind it.” Later that same week, on January23, John Osteen died of a heart attack at age 77. Before the end of the year,Joel officially became Lakewood’s new leader. IN FRONT OF PACKED CROWDS, PASTOR JOEL IS A SUPERBCOMMUNICATOR. He pokes fun at himself, makes no effort to moderate astrong Texas twang, and appears to be talking almost extemporaneously. Heseems completely unaffected and can be funny without straining to be a comic.His presence and charisma go a long way toward explaining the astoundingpopularity of the Joel Osteen television program, which in most markets ishalf an hour long and consists almost entirely of his preaching. But crucial tothe success of Lakewood is bringing in its Houston constituents, who providemore than 80 percent of the ministry’s $50 million in annual contributions. Aswith all megachurches—usually defined as Protestant churches with morethan 2,000 members; at 30,000, Lakewood is sometimes called agigachurch—new members are attracted with a vibrant worship experiencepacked with generous helpings of music and prayer. On a mild Sundaymorning in early February, I witnessed a good example of Lakewood’s versionof a familiar format. Nearly half an hour before the official beginning of the eight-thirty service,worship leader Cindy Cruse-Ratcliff led a 64-voice choir through severalnumbers that provided background music as the thousands of congregantsfound their way to seats with the aid of an extensive corps of ushers, part ofthe thousand or so volunteers needed each weekend. When the time came,Joel and Victoria stepped onto the stage, and Joel gave his standard greeting:“We welcome you to Lakewood. You guys are looking good. You look like morethan conquerors this morning.…Let’s take a few minutes to celebrate the goodthings God has done in our lives.” Victoria, her honey-blond hair cascadingover a dramatic black-and-white dress, then offered an enthusiasticendorsement of her husband’s words and promised, “If you are coming in hereand you have a heart for God, he will never fail you.”With this call to worship completed, Cruse-Ratcliff, the choir, and a ten-pieceband launched into a slick, rollicking, often throbbing country-rock-gospeloutpouring that had the congregation on its feet for more than half an hour,most with arms upraised, some dancing in a manner not learned entirely inchurch. In one of the aisles, an older black gentleman, nattily dressed in a graysuit, expressed his pleasure at being in the house of the Lord with a restrainedbut charming quick-step soft-shoe shuffle. Cruse-Ratcliff, meanwhile, wearinghigh-heeled boots, a white blouse, and a long black jacket that made her shortblack skirt seem more modest, prowled the stage almost fiercely, nowbouncing, now stomping, now leaning forward in an attitude and expressionof pained ecstasy. All of this was magnified on five giant screens and dozens ofsmaller monitors spaced throughout the auditorium and underscored by asaxophone whose smoky sensuality sounded better suited for Saturday nightthan Sunday morning. Cruse-Ratcliff and her colleague, African American singer-songwriter IsraelHoughton, compose most of the music used at Lakewood. Typical of thethousands of churches that have converted to “praise music,” hymnals havegiven way to projection screens, and harmony and substantive content havesurrendered to unison repetition of simple themes with simple words:Lord, we declare, who can compare, who would even dare,’Cause there is no one like you.Or, in a less complex assessment of divine transcendence,Who is like the Lord? Nobody!Who is like the Lord? No, no, no, no, no, nobody!And, in what seems to be Lakewood’s all-purpose signature stanza,I am a friend of God,I am a friend of God,I am a friend of God,He calls me friend.It is not deep, and there’s no definitive confirmation that the Almighty actuallyprefers the praise genre to august anthems, but it is clearly a great deal of fun.Next, Joel led a prayer for healing, prosperity, new beginnings, and a fullmeasure of joy and peace. He then invited people with any special needs tocome to the front of the stage to be prayed for, one-on-one, by a large team of“prayer partners” that includes Joel and Lisa and Dodie, herself a cancersurvivor who specializes in praying for people with that disease. This is clearlya moving experience for many, including the partners; after he prayed for afamily with two small children, Joel began to weep and returned to his seat fora few moments to gain his composure. (Such incidents, if caught on film, areedited out of the telecast.) After that, Victoria invited parents to bring theirchildren to the front for a special prayer and then announced that it was timeto take the offering. She reminded the flock of the need to give a tenth of theirincome to the church and offered assurance that God would bless themabundantly for doing so, but the whole process, with hundreds of gray plasticbuckets whizzing along the rows, took less than two minutes, putting a damperon suspicions that the Osteens are in it for the money. (Remaining true toJoel’s father’s wishes, this portion of the service is never included in thetelevision broadcast.) Dodie then delivered a brief sermon on how Jesus couldrescue us from any trouble if we just had faith to call on him, after which itwas time for her son’s sermon. At nearly every service, Joel first greets both the television audience (“It’salways a joy to come into your homes. We love each and every one of you, andwe know that God has good things in store for you”) and the live audience(“You guys are looking good”) and then begins by reading a joke: “A man cameinto the church office…” “A Christian lady on an airplane was reading herBible…” That morning he began with one about a man trying to discipline aprofane parrot. When the laughter subsided, he said, “All right. Hold up yourBibles and say it like you mean it. Ready?” Thousands of Bibles ascended likeblackbirds as Joel led the assemblage in its standard affirmation: “This is myBible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have. I can do what it says Ican do. Today I’ll be taught the word of God. I boldly confess: My mind isalert; my heart is receptive; I will never be the same. I am about to receive theincorruptible, indestructible, ever-living seed of the word of God. I will neverbe the same—never, never, never. I will never be the same. In Jesus’ name.Amen.” The topic of Joel’s sermon was “The Dangers of Procrastination,” and heopened by identifying procrastination as “one of the greatest enemies we willever face.” He then listed the kinds of things even well-meaning people put off:cleaning the kitchen, straightening up the garage, paying the bills, cutting backon spending (“Listen carefully, Victoria”), losing weight and getting in shape,giving up smoking, practicing good preventive medicine (“Ladies, you knowhow important it is to have that regular checkup”). He admitted that hesuffered the same temptations, which come to us from “the Enemy” (formerlyknown as Satan), but always felt much better when he did what he knew heshould do, which was most of the time now. As in many of his sermons, heurged people to pay attention to their conscience, with gestures that indicatedthat it was located just below the rib cage. Joel illustrated his points with simple stories of people he had known or readabout, and occasionally he cited a scripture whose words seemed to fit,whether or not the author had that application in mind. As if he had anendorsement deal with Nike, he repeatedly recommended that instead ofputting off those things that were nagging at our conscience, we should “justdo it!” Despite that note of insistence, his conversational tone invited knowingsmiles rather than guilty tears, and his entire manner conveyedencouragement rather than accusation. He wound up by assuring us that if wewould stop putting things off and do our part right now, learn to bloom wherewe are planted, quit looking at what is wrong in our lives and look at what isright, quit letting others steal our joy, quit complaining about what we don’thave and start thanking God for what we do have, and stop putting off ourhappiness and start enjoying life, God would pick up any remaining slack andhelp us discover the champion in ourselves and, repeating two key Lakewoodslogans, be more than conquerors, victors and not victims. “He will pour outhis blessings and favor so you can experience the abundant life that he has instore for you. Amen. How many of you receive it today? I know you do. Amen.”The service ended with Joel’s inviting people to accept the free gift of God’ssalvation and get on the road to victory. Dozens of people streamed down theaisles, accompanied by sustained applause from those who were not alreadyheading for the exits in an effort to avoid the traffic jam. An hour later Iwatched the 10:45 service from the television control room. It was virtuallyidentical, right down to the teasing reference to Victoria’s penchant forshopping and her surprised reaction—caught both times on the monitors forthe congregation to see but not included in the telecast that aired two weekslater. NOT EVERYONE WAS INITIALLY ENTHUSIASTIC about Joel’s becomingthe pastor at Lakewood. To some observers, the choice appeared to be rootedin a determination to keep control of the church within the Osteen family.How could a shy young man with hardly any experience as a preacher be up tothe task of shepherding one of the largest flocks in America? Among those saidto be disappointed was Gary Simons, who is married to April Osteen and wasalready prominent in the church as a youth pastor and praise-and-worshipleader. Simons subsequently left to establish the High Point Church, inArlington, modeled along Lakewood lines. Another plausible choice was JimGraff, who is married to the third Osteen daughter, Tamara, and who was thepastor of a church in Victoria. Joel, however, believes he was more ready thanpeople gave him credit for. “I grew up [in my father’s] church,” he said, “and Iworked with him for seventeen years. That was an education. I kid about beingthe least likely to take the church, but in one sense, this is all I have everknown. I know how a church works. I just hadn’t spoken.”Any residual skepticism about Joel was shattered when attendance at theSunday morning service began immediately increasing. In fact, Lakewoodsoon ran out of room, so Joel enlarged the field of his dreams, convinced that“if we hold another service, they will come.” When they added a second servicein January 2000, attendance doubled. Nine months later, a Saturday nightservice drew 5,000 more. Not long afterward, a one o’clock service on Sundayfilled the building once again, and a Spanish-language Sunday afternoonservice, led by Latin Grammy award—winning recording artist and preacherMarcos Witt, drew an additional 3,000 worshipers, bringing the averageweekly total to 30,000.Joel’s youth and energy certainly played a part in his sudden popularity, butanother key to his success was his early recognition that he needed competenthelp. Within a month of becoming pastor he hired Duncan Dodds, who hadoverseen media for Houston’s giant Second Baptist Church before establishinga successful marketing and advertising business, to come to Lakewood to helpimplement his ambitious vision for the church’s television outreach. Asexecutive director, Dodds coordinates media buying and handles the contractswith TV networks and individual stations. Media relations is handled by DonIloff, Victoria’s brother, who performs his duties on a volunteer basis, thoughhe is connected to the church in his capacity as president and general managerof Lakewood-controlled KTBU-TV55. Joining Joel and Dodds on the executiveteam is Lisa’s husband, Kevin Comes, who is in charge of administration,including accounting and other business, and has been consumed in recentmonths with heading up the transformation of the Compaq Center into a placeof worship. Joel acts as CEO, with responsibility for all major decisions and the overallvision for the church. His main role, however, is to preach. He spends all dayWednesday and Thursday preparing that week’s sermon, then two half-dayspracticing and polishing until he has it down cold. “It takes a lot more work,”he acknowledged, “than just getting up there with an outline and preaching topeople who know your heart, but this is a responsibility, so I’m very careful. Ittakes the majority of my time. It’s basically what I do.”How, I wondered, can Joel spend three days preparing a sermon, another daydelivering it four times, and, in recent months, another full day givinginterviews and still have time to fulfill the duties of a pastor of a 30,000-member church? The answer is that he leaves those duties to others. Heperforms no weddings or funerals, makes no hospital visits, does no pastoralcounseling, and turns down outside speaking engagements. Shortly after hisfather’s death, his older brother Paul left a thriving surgical practice in LittleRock and came back home to help Joel, mother Dodie, and sister Lisa runLakewood’s day-to-day operations. Paul and a staff of professionals andvolunteers that numbers almost two hundred handle weddings and funerals(“exponentially bigger than you can imagine,” said Paul), counseling services,dozens of specialized outreach ministries, discipleship training for newmembers, a dozen or so “fellowship ministries” (for singles, senior adults, andfamilies who home-school their children), and hundreds of small groups thatmeet biweekly all over the sixty-mile area from which Lakewood draws itsmembers. He also oversees an extensive Sunday school program, which isexpected to involve 10,000 youngsters now that they’ve moved into theCompaq Center. Paul and Lisa also share the preaching duties at Wednesdaynight services. Although the Osteens seemed slightly amused when I characterized Lakewoodas a family-owned business, they did not protest. “Yes, the family is in charge,”Lisa agreed. “The board is all family members. Joel decides what he feels likethe Lord wants him to do, but we work with attorneys. We call otherministries. We get as much counsel as we can. We have a great accountabilityto the Lord and to the people and we feel that. We hold ourselves to a highstandard.” None of them saw this arrangement as a cause for concern. “Thebeauty of our organization,” Paul observed, “is that we don’t have to passthings by a thousand boards or a bunch of people with different opinions. Ifwe want to add an extra service next week, we can do it. There’s a real beautyabout the way we work together. We know our parts. It sounds a lot like thebody of Christ.” Inevitably, some wonder about the wisdom of having a small family groupexercise almost total control, with little outside accountability, over more than$60 million in annual revenue, a figure almost certain to grow in future years.When I spoke with Joel about the financial scandals that have bedeviled someindependent ministries, he revealed that the church did not currently make itsbudget available to the congregation but that the executive team had beendiscussing the need to do so. I noted that Billy Graham and other ministriesassociated with the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability had beenable to deflect much criticism—and, in the process, erect a barrier againsttemptation—by providing an audited financial statement to supporters. As afamily ministry, Lakewood cannot belong to the ECFA, nor is it required tosubmit 990 forms to the IRS listing income and major expenses, including thesalaries of its five highest-paid officials. Joel recognized, however, that nothingwas stopping the church from doing this on a voluntary basis. Later that week,I learned that on the day following our conversation, he had spoken to Iloffabout the need to provide a more complete picture of the church’s finances,“like Billy Graham does.” A few days later, I received audited financialstatements for the two previous fiscal years.“We don’t set our own salaries,” Lisa pointed out. “An outside group approvescompensation.” (In addition to contributing a substantial portion of hisearnings from the book to the church, Joel has stopped taking his $200,000salary.) And Dodie stressed that she had always told the children, “Daddy’sname was always squeaky clean, and we intend to keep it that way.” Sheseemed to feel this had been sufficient, observing, “They are so respectful oftheir father and of me. You don’t hear much criticism about Lakewood Churchor about the Osteen family.” Indeed, rather than make an attempt to conceal the family-run nature ofLakewood, the Osteens obviously regard their image as a faithful unit as one oftheir greatest strengths. From Lakewood’s beginning, Dodie has played aprominent role in the worship services. The tiny (size 2 petite), neatly dressedOsteen matriarch still speaks at every service, frequently noting her pleasurein her brood, and it seems that no service passes without some mention of“Daddy.” Even when they are not on the program, Lisa and Paul are alsopresent, and the giant screens remind everyone that they will be speaking atthe Wednesday night service. Pictures and promos for the church feature Joeland Victoria in affectionate poses, and they have recently brought their twochildren into a more prominent role. At the Dallas event at the AmericanAirlines Center, six-year-old Alexandra sang “Come Just as You Are” duringthe invitation. And at this spring’s Easter service, at Minute Maid Park,eleven-year-old Jonathan led the Bible affirmation, then drew warm laughterfrom the crowd of nearly 40,000 by repeating his father’s familiar line, “Yousound great, as usual.” Just as Joel’s sermons often imply that following hisown advice has helped him achieve a near-ideal life, so the extensiveinvolvement of his immediate and extended family offers church membersanother model for their lives. TO WATCH JOEL AND THE LAKEWOOD team at work and to visit withthem offstage is to become aware of dual narratives for explaining theministry’s meteoric success. At one level is a clear sense that the entire venturehas been ordained by God and continues to operate under the directmicromanagement of the Holy Spirit. In trying to account for his popularity,Joel mentioned several possible factors—the head start he got by inheriting analready successful ministry, his youth, his consistently positive message—butfinally confessed, “I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s just God’s favor andblessing.”Lisa told me about the first Lakewood service after their father’s funeral. “Ialways sat behind my dad to assist him. So when Joel was sitting there andgetting ready to preach—he was so nervous—I was sitting behind him, and Ileaned up to say something to him, and in that split second the Lord spoke tome down in my spirit, and he said, ‘Lisa, I am transitioning you to work withyour brother, and just as you served your dad, I want you to serve your brotheras pastor of this church.’ I knew that was the Lord who had said that to me,and I was just so happy after that.”Dodie, whose oft-repeated story of surviving metastatic liver cancer serves as apremier warrant for belief in miraculous healing, also finds it easy to accepther son’s success as part of a divine plan. “Not long after John died, Joel said,‘Mama, I need to talk to you. I think God is calling me to be pastor of thischurch.’ I said, ‘What?!’ I thought he was the last one. He didn’t want to get upthere and pastor, but he felt like it was God’s will.”A second set of explanations for Lakewood’s success, not perceived asconflicting with the first in any way, is heavy reliance on technology and agreat deal of marketing savvy. Although the weekly television show can beseen in almost every home in America, Joel and his associates work constantlyto raise the odds that it actually will be seen. In addition to repeated showingson religious channels TBN and Daystar, the program currently airs on nationalnetwork affiliate stations in 35 major cities, including the top 30 markets, andon 5 secular cable channels (ABC Family, USA, Discovery, PAX, and BET).Iloff noted that some people disapprove of having the program appear on USAand BET—“Don’t you see the stuff they put on those networks?”—but said,“That’s where we need to be: reaching the unreached, telling the untold.”Dodds added, “We love Christian television. We are on TBN and Daystar. Butwe are committed to reaching those who don’t believe yet. You have got to gowith what they are watching. They are not typically tuning into Christianstations. We try to place our program within the habits and patterns of thosepeople. I am convinced that if they will give Joel five minutes, they will behooked.” To increase the chances that this will happen, Joel and his media team analyzethe Nielsen ratings at the end of each quarter to see how their show is doingand how it might improve. Are they on the strongest station in a market at atime with the highest number of homes watching television? Is a better timeslot available? What is the cost per rating point? “We want to know all thesame things you would if you were placing your slicer-dicer on the air,” Iloffsaid. In slightly less-commercial terms, Dodds agreed: “We want to make surewe are spending God’s money wisely.” The programs themselves are slickly produced, as good or better than anydaytime talk show. And even though most people watching never see thejoyful-music-and-tear-filled prayer segments of the service, they still get a feelfor the church as cameramen roaming the aisles capture the earnest look, thedelighted laugh, the agreeing nod, and above all, the remarkable diversity ofthe crowd. On an average Sunday, the congregation appears to be about evenlydivided among whites, blacks, and Hispanics, with a growing number ofAsians, who seem to have a better-than-average chance of being shown ontelevision. In addition, all the major services are now webcast live. Lakewoodhas an extensive Web site that provides a wealth of background informationabout the church, including transcripts of classic John Osteen sermons andsome of Joel’s first sermons. The site also offers tapes, CDs, videos, and booksfor sale—bookstore sales account for more than $3 million of the church’sannual income—and makes it possible for donors to contribute online. Thisspring, a webcam, updated hourly during the workday, enabled members tosee how the work on the Compaq Center was going. As an astute observer of both popular culture and other television ministries,Joel realized that people who watched his program would likely have a stronginterest in seeing him and other regulars on the program in person. This gaverise to the phenomenally successful tour events, called “An Evening With JoelOsteen.” At these programs, which Dodds likes to compare to concerts,complete with searchlights scanning the crowd and floor-to-ceiling lightcolumns that move through bright yellow, fuchsia, and purple hues duringwarm-up segments and musical numbers, the audience not only gets toexperience all the ingredients of a typical Lakewood service, including a fullchoir, but also hears much more explicit references to such pillars of Christianbelief as the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus, topics scarcelymentioned on the half-hour program. Regular viewers have no difficulty finding out when the tour will visit theircity. When Joel occasionally quotes a Bible verse during a sermon, a banner atthe bottom of the television screen identifies it and displays the crucial part ofthe text. Much more frequently, that space advertises future tour stops orreminds people that Your Best Life Now and its companion text, Your BestLife Now Journal, are now on sale. With all the growth that occurred as a result of its marketing efforts, the onlyplausible way for Lakewood to expand even further was to find more space.When Joel learned in 2001 that the Houston City Council was going to beleasing out the Compaq Center, he and his associates put together a proposaland hired Dave Walden, who had served former mayor Bob Lanier as a topaide, to lobby the council on their behalf. Their only competitor was CrescentReal Estate Equities, which owned nearby Greenway Plaza and wanted to tearthe building down to make way for additions to that complex. A lively struggleensued. Crescent argued that the space should be put to more varied use andthat giving a religious organization exclusive access to a city-owned facilityviolated the separation of church and state. The Lakewood forces pointed outthat the city had rented the Compaq Center and other facilities to religiousorganizations over the years and promised to spend tens of millions of dollarson improvements. They also bombarded council members with a phenomenalnumber of calls, letters, and e-mails asking for their support. Ultimately,Lakewood prevailed, agreeing to pay $12.1 million for thirty years, with a$22.6 million option for a second thirty years. Even though their new facilitywill hold more than twice as many people as the old one, the current plan is todrop only the one o’clock Sunday service, with the option to resume it if theremaining three English-speaking services grow too crowded.Error! Filename not specified. In the meantime, Lakewood’s staff is considering other ways of growingbeyond Houston by establishing satellite churches that would have a localpastoral and teaching staff, with the worship and preaching service beamed indirectly from Houston. “I can’t speak for the pastor,” said Dodds, “but I cansee us having Lakewood Philadelphia, Lakewood Atlanta, Lakewood Detroit,and having Joel preach the message every week. I think we could havechurches of four thousand to six thousand [in other cities]. I see the potentialthere from the marketing side. I see the opportunity to expand this ministryand almost franchise it in that way. I think we will get there.”AS DIFFERENT AS THEY AND THEIR ERAS MAY HAVE BEEN, the greatpopular preachers with an enduring legacy in American religious history—Charles Finney in the 1830’s, D. L. Moody in the 1870’s, Billy Sunday in theWorld War I era, Billy Graham in our lifetime—have shared threecharacteristics: a good organization, a distinctive and appealing personality,and an easily grasped message aimed at a mass audience. Joel’s organizationhas clearly met the competence test, and even his detractors concede that he isan enormously charismatic young man with no apparent dark side or hiddenagenda. Still, detractors aplenty exist, and the criticisms they raise pertaindirectly to Joel’s message, which is variously characterized as a barely baptizedversion of the secular doctrine of Positive Thinking or a damnable heresy thatlegitimizes materialism and endangers the souls of those who embrace it.Some of the most vitriolic criticism comes from biblical literalists who usetheir Web sites to attack him as “a devil in disguise…a flashy, smiley, jokeyhuman being” who is “a stench unto God for twisting God’s holy Word” andfor preaching “the doctrines of devils and demons.” Specifically, they chargehim with being a Word of Faith preacher. Faith healers often espouse thisteaching because it provides a convenient explanation for failures; thesupplicant lacks the faith to “name it and claim it.” (In the process, it alsogives healers an inflated rate of apparent success, as people claim cures theyhave not yet experienced, lest doubt thwart God’s willingness to heal them.)Word of Faith advocates also urge people to claim material blessings,including new cars, new houses, and financial windfalls. Some, including a fewwho have preached at Lakewood, go even further. One night in late 1981 Iheard television preacher Kenneth Copeland, host of the Believer’s Voice ofVictory program, tell a Lakewood audience about a farmer whose cotton waswithering and dropping to the ground like little brown marbles. When thefarmer took his preacher into the field to read some scriptures promisingrewards to the righteous, Copeland claimed that they began to hear soundslike popcorn popping, and as they looked about them, they saw the field fillingwith large, fluffy bolls. One can understand why some critics place Joel in the Word of Faith campwhen he says such things as “You can change your world by simply changingyour words” and “When you make declarations of faith, you are charging theatmosphere, and your own words can help to bring it to pass.” Joel does notdisown such statements nor categorically reject the teachings in question, buthe softens them considerably. “I never knew it was such a bad thing to be aWord of Faith preacher,” he said, “but I never preach that whatever you say,you can get —‘I want five Cadillacs.’ ‘I’m going to be the president of thiscompany.’ I never believed that kind of stuff.” When I mentioned whatCopeland had said about the magical cotton bolls, he said, “I like BrotherCopeland, but I don’t believe that. That’s just not me. I encourage people tosay what God says about you, to say, ‘I am strong in the power of the Lord. Ican do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’”Other critics accuse the Osteens of preaching a gospel of prosperity andmaterialism, a charge with even more evidence to support it. Like his father,Joel often speaks of God’s desire that his children do well financially, andprayers at church services frequently invoke God for jobs and promotions andgood homes and good cars. Joel and Victoria live in a large home in tonyTanglewood, as do Lisa and Kevin Comes; Dodie’s townhouse is a stone’sthrow from the senior president Bush’s, and Paul lives on a small ranch nearTomball. None of the family members seem inclined to fear that affluenceposes much of a danger. During the tour event in Dallas, Lisa made thesomewhat surprising statement that “if you look through the Bible fromGenesis to Revelation, every person who served him faithfully, God blessedfinancially.” When I asked her about that later, mentioning Jeremiah, whospent time at the bottom of a well and died in captivity, and Stephen, who wasmartyred, and Paul, who made tents to support his missionary activities, shebacked up a bit, noting that she had been thinking mainly about Abraham,Isaac, and Jacob: “The Bible says they had a lot of things. God is just a blessingGod. That’s my point.” Well aware of the criticism, Joel said, “People will probably laugh, but I don’tfeel like I am a prosperity preacher. I do believe, though, that God wants us toprosper. I don’t see how I could get up there and preach that we need onehundred million dollars for the Compaq Center and have a poverty mentality.I just don’t think Christians should feel that they have to stay at the lower rungof the ladder. I also point out that prosperity is not just money. It’s a healthyrelationship with your wife, with your kids; it’s a healthy body. We need to getaway from the dollar sign on prosperity. In my next book, I’m going to beclearer about that. I believe God wants us to be blessed, but it’s only so that wecan be a blessing. I think God blessed me by writing this book and giving me alot of money, but it’s not so I can go buy thirteen cars or a bunch of other stuff.After the book started selling a couple hundred thousand copies, I called afriend on staff and asked, ‘Do I get paid [more] for that?’ They gave me some[advance] money. I thought I’d already been paid for it. I didn’t know. He said,‘Yeah, you get a royalty.’ I said, ‘Have you figured that out?!’ I had never in amillion years thought about doing it for the money, but I thought, ‘You knowwhat? That’s great. I never dreamed that I could be one of the biggest givers inour church, and now I can. I can underwrite a whole wing of this thing.’ I don’tsee us changing our lifestyle. It’s so I can help more people’s lives. We arestewards of God’s money.” Joel and his associates are less comfortable with the characterization of hismessage as Christianity Lite, an appealing but less filling version of the realthing. Dodds contends that such criticisms “come from a lack of experienceand full knowledge of what we are doing. I always tell people who say that,‘Just come to church.’ There is no way you can sit in our services during a timeof worship and not know we are lifting up the name of Jesus. I have heard thecriticisms. I just don’t think they are valid.” Once again, however, the critics can make an argument. Joel readilyacknowledges that he is not an exegetical preacher who begins with a passageof scripture and expounds upon its meaning for his congregation. Even in theearly days, when Joel preached on such topics as “The Truth of theResurrection” and “The Great Commission,” it was hardly in a standardfashion; at the 1999 Easter service, after a rather conventional sermon, he tolda series of amusing stories about his family, even admitting that they had littleto do with the drama of resurrection. And eventually, those gave way tosermons with Tony Robbins—style titles such as “Developing Your Potential,”“Persistence and Determination,” “Your Life Follows Your Thoughts,” and“Enlarge Your Vision.”“Daddy would often just teach the Bible,” Joel said. “I take a little differentapproach. I may give a whole sermon and give the scripture at the end—‘Thisis what Jesus meant when he said this, that, and the other.’ I know doctrine isgood. We need doctrine, but I think the average person is not looking fordoctrine. They are looking to ask, ‘How do I let go of the past?’ ‘How do I havea better marriage?’ ‘What is wrong with me?’ If you want to reach the culture,you need to speak in their terms. When Jesus was here on this earth, he didsuch practical stuff. He taught using simple examples like the parable of theprodigal son; everybody can relate to that. I tell a lot of stories in my sermons.Most of what I preach is about the simple things.” Jesus indeed told stories, but he also issued some scathing condemnation ofsinners, particularly the arrogant, the self-righteous, the corrupt, and thosewho trust in riches. Joel’s sermons are notably free of condemnation. “TheBible says it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance,” he said.“When I talk about sin, I may call it ‘making bad choices.’ People get so used tobeing beat over the head. I don’t come from that side. I come from theencouraging side. It seems like it resonates with people that God is for them. Ifeel like I’m doing what God calls me to do. I don’t have any agenda to say I’mnot going to preach about sin. I write my sermons and pray, and this is whatcomes out of me.” What about issues of basic social justice, of structures that impede or blockpersonal growth and prosperity, no matter how strongly one believes or howhard one prays? “I don’t know that I have a good answer on that,” he said. “Ifeel like the church should be a force. I know that I am all for anything we cando to lift people. On a thirty-minute program, you can’t solve the world’sproblems.” As for that knottiest of theological issues, the problem of suffering:“I have a file in my mind called an ‘I don’t understand it’ file. There are somethings we are not going to understand, and we must say, like Job, ‘Though heslay me, yet will I trust in him.’ I think God will give us peace to go throughanything. How do you tell somebody why their kid got killed in a car wreck?You just say, ‘I can’t understand it. I can’t explain it to you.’ You can’t dwell onthat. You just know that God is in control. It’s a tough issue.” PERHAPS IN AN EFFORT TO MAINTAIN HIS UPLIFTING MESSAGE, Joelhas avoided speaking out on today’s red state, blue state issues, such asabortion and homosexuality. “I feel there are other issues I am called to morethan those,” he explained. “I don’t know the answers, even on abortion.Somebody asked me what I think of stem cell research. I had to say I don’tknow. I’ve heard people talk about it both ways. I don’t think a homosexuallifestyle is God’s best way, but I’m not going to tell [homosexuals] they can’tcome to our church. I’m going to be wide open for them.” In the same spirit,he has resisted recruitment into the ranks of the religious right. Iloff, whoworked for a time in the White House during the senior Bush administration,admitted that he was tempted at one time to try to get Joel to be morepolitical. “I guess God dealt with me on that, because I realized, as Joel didfrom the very beginning, that [politics] could be very polarizing. It could shutthe door on his ability to plant the seed of God’s message in people’s hearts.”Politicians are often eager to court his constituency, yet as a general rule, anofficeholder who attends Joel’s service will be recognized but not asked tospeak. And candidates in a current race will rarely be recognized at all.What does come out of Joel, no matter what topic he is discussing, isunfailingly upbeat and encouraging. Repeatedly, at book signings, at theDallas appearance, and at the church itself, his followers told me that this waspart of the appeal: “You can actually take what he teaches you into real life. It’sreal useful.” “He gives you such a positive outlook on life. When you listen tohim, he gives you renewed hope.” “He addresses the needs in my life.” “Hedoesn’t make you feel dirty, you know? It’s just so uplifting.” Nonetheless, Joeland his family are sensitive to the charge of theological thinness, so they takecomfort in the classic defense used by unconventional but successfulevangelists for centuries: It gets results. Virtually every key person Iinterviewed noted that “We had eighteen thousand people walk the aisles [atLakewood] last year” to mark a new or renewed relationship with Jesus andthat thousands of others from across the country and around the world writeor call each week to tell of “giving their lives to the Lord.” After Joel’s invitation to new visitors at the end of the Sunday service Iattended in February, I followed dozens of people to a “salvation room” behindthe stage. Once there, Joel congratulated them, urged them to get into a goodBible church if they didn’t intend to keep coming to Lakewood—“This is notthe only good church”—and gave each of them a small folder entitled “YourNext Step to a New Beginning,” which set forth a bare outline of Christianbeliefs, encouraged them to be baptized in water, and invited them to attendan eight-week New Beginnings class taught on Sunday evenings by Paul. Theyalso received 30 Thoughts for Victorious Living, a daily devotional guidewritten by Joel. It wasn’t possible to probe the thoughts of these folks, butexpressions on the faces of most indicated that they felt something significanthad just happened. The Osteens define salvation as both a transformation in one’s earthly life andthe promise of eternal life in heaven. They believe in hell, but they don’t talkabout it much. As Lisa put it: “My dad always said, ‘Preach the Bible like it’sgood news. Don’t tell people they’re going to hell. Tell them they don’t have togo.’” Joel often makes the same point: “God is not mad at you; he is not tryingto send you down into darkness. God is on your side. He has already forgivenyour sins. All you’ve got to do is accept the free gift of God’s salvation.”Quite appealing, to be sure, but what about Jesus’ observation that “the gate isnarrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few”?Doesn’t the gospel according to Joel sound more like the wide gate and theeasy way that leads to destruction? Paul knew the scripture. “I think we’vemade it clear,” he said, “that you have to change your life. Joel is giving a lot ofpeople the opportunity to find the narrow way.” Paul contends that, despitethe lack of standard theological content, his brother is nonetheless an effectiveevangelist. “We see the results all the time. I see a guy who is addicted tococaine, addicted to pornography, on his fourth marriage—it doesn’t happeninstantly, but in a couple of years, he’s married, he’s stable, he’s got a job, he’sgot a heart for God. Let me tell you, that’s pretty big.” Joel says little about the narrow way in his televised sermons or his book,which elaborates on the themes from those sermons. In the past he hasconceded that most of his ministry is not evangelistic and has admitted thatthe principles he extols will work in anybody’s life, whether or not that personis a Christian, but he feels confident that by teaching people how to live as Godwants them to live, he is training them for Christian discipleship. And inaddition to those he brings into the church, Joel feels his television audiencegets the necessary message when he offers a fifteen-second “salvation call” atthe end of each telecast, asking viewers to repeat a brief prayer—“Lord Jesus, Irepent of my sins. I ask you to come into my heart. I make you my Lord andSavior”—and assuring them that if they say those words, they will be bornagain. “It’s not long and it’s not complicated,” he acknowledged. “It would begreat to have three minutes to really explain it, but I do think I put it outthere.” Reluctance to shut the gate or shrink the dimensions of the path does not sitwell with everyone in Joel’s audience. When he appeared on Larry KingLive in late June, King asked him about the fate of Jews and Muslims, who“don’t accept Christ at all.” Joel replied, “I’m very careful about saying whowould and wouldn’t go to heaven. I don’t know.…I just think that only God willjudge a person’s heart. I spent a lot of time in India with my father. I don’tknow all about their religion. But I know they love God.…I’ve seen theirsincerity. So I don’t know.” That humane, large-spirited response—quitesimilar to comments Billy Graham has made on occasion—apparently broughta flood of critical calls, letters, and e-mails to the Lakewood office, promptingJoel to issue an abject apology on his Web site, asserting that he believes“Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven” and that he regretted that he had not“clearly communicate[d] the convictions that I hold so precious.” In light ofhis consistent spirit of “Judge not, that ye be not judged,” Joel’s repudiation ofhis apparent instinct in the face of opposition reminded me of anotherscripture: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” IN A VIDEO SHOWN AT THE TOUR EVENTS, a man says he believes Joelwill replace Billy Graham. Clearly, that does not strike Joel’s siblings asfanciful. “Joel’s impact is huge,” Paul pointed out. “He has a humility abouthim, a power and presence, an ability to use television, and hundreds ofpastors are saying, ‘This is changing our lives.’ It would not surprise me forJoel to be a dominant force in Christianity for quite a few years.” Lisa’sassessment was even more positive: “The reason they [compare Joel toGraham] is because the anointing is on him to bring in thousands, and that’swhat we saw with Billy Graham, and still see today. That is only the hand ofGod on a person. You don’t choose that. God chooses. I sort of agree withthem.” Billy Graham, of course, is not an office in the Christian church that must befilled. Because of the enormous growth and diversification within evangelicalChristianity over the past half-century, much of it a result of Graham’s visionand thoughtful leadership, it is unlikely that any single figure will everdominate it again to the extent that Graham has. Yet Joel Osteen is on aremarkable arc, and it’s more than fair to speculate that he is nowhere near hispeak. That ambitious outlook seems to be embedded in the Osteen genes.Dodie once told me that her husband announced years ago, “Someday, we’ll bemeeting in the Compaq Center.” Lisa remembered that he had the Astrodomein his sights. For his part, as Joel has said, “I am convinced that in twentyyears we’ll look up and realize that the Compaq Center isn’t big enough to holdall the people. Hopefully, someone will want to build another stadium by thenand Reliant Stadium will be available."