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One of the world’s most well-known televangelists, Joel Osteen has been preaching in people’s living rooms for decades. He has built a lucrative career for himself, one that includes best-selling books, public speaking engagements, and his own radio channel, in addition to his weekly sermons. The 58-year-old pastor also lives in an amazing multi-million dollar house with his wife, Victoria. Here, we take a peek into Joel Osteen’s net worth to shed some light on how much he really earns.
Joel Osteen Has Been A Pastor Since 1999
Joel Osteen was born in Houston, Texas, on March 5, 1963. He studied communications and radio at Oral Roberts UniversityinTulsa, Oklahoma, though he did not graduate. In 1981, he returned to Houston to work with his father, John Osteen, the founder and pastor of Lakewood Church. The younger Osteen worked behind the scenes, producing his father’s televised sermons from the church for 17 years. When his father died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 1999, Osteen took over his father’s role as senior pastor (the title he holds to this day) and began delivering his own sermons in front of the camera.
Joel Osteen Was A Master At Marketing Lakewood Church
Under Osteen’s skilled and media-savvy leadership, Lakewood’s congregation grew rapidly. The new pastor began advertising the church on billboards, and he was able to double its TV airtime budget in just a few years. By 2004, Osteen’s weekly sermons were being aired in more than 100 countries and had become one of the most popular inspirational shows on TV.
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In 2005, Osteen embarked on an enormously successful 15-city tour. That same year, he moved Lakewood Church into Houston’s Compaq Center, a former basketball and hockey arena with 16,000 seats. It became the nation’s largest church, with weekly attendance soaring to more than 50,000 by 2016. By 2018, Osteen’s televised sermons were pulling in about 10 million viewers a week.
Osteen says that one of the reasons he thinks his sermons have been so popular is because they appeal to a wide audience. “About half the people who watch and listen to us, they don’t consider themselves necessarily a religious people,” the pastor said in a NPR broadcast from 2015. “They didn’t grow up in a church like me. That’s been my goal, how do we get outside the church wall, because that’s easy to keep talking to the same people, but I want to make God relevant to people who maybe weren’t raised like me.”
He Doesn’t Earn A Salary Through The Church
Osteen says that he doesn’t take a salary for his position as pastor. “Not everybody can do that, it’s not practical,” Osteen said in a 2013 interview with The Christian Post. “But for us, it was important to me because I don’t need to. And I think it’s important to because being in the public eye, there’s a lot of scrutiny, and people think, well, he’s just doing it for money.”
He continued: “This way I can say I don’t do any of this for money. God has blessed us in other ways. It’s really part of my message in that, you honor God and you stay faithful, you don’t know where God’s going to take you. I don’t tell people that God’s going to make them rich. But you don’t know how God’s going to bless you.”
Most Of His Income Comes From Book Signings And Public Speaking
Osteen is a best-selling author who’s released more than a dozen inspirational books, including Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential, Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Every Day, and The Power of I Am: Two Words That Will Change Your Life Today. His most recent title, Peaceful on Purpose: The Power to Remain Calm, Strong, and Confident in Every Season, was released this past May.
The pastor also has his own SiriusXM radio channel and earns income from his tours and public speaking jobs.
Joel Osteen Lives In A $10.5 Million House
Osteen also has significant investments in real estate. In 2010, he and his wife bought a $10.5 million mansion in the upscale Houston neighborhood of River Oaks. The mansion has six bedrooms, six bathrooms, a guest house, and three elevators. They also own a home in nearby Tanglewood that’s reportedly worth about $3 million.
He Controversially Received Over $4 Million In Federal PPP Loans
The popular pastor did face some bad press last year when it was reported that Lakewood Church applied for and received $4.4 million in PPP loans from the Small Business Administration. Many people criticized this move, given Osteen’s wealth and the church’s tax-exempt status. However, a spokesperson for the megachurch insisted that Osteen did not personally benefit from the loans, which were reportedly being used to pay the salaries of the megachurch’s full and part-time employees.
What Is Joel Osteen’s Net Worth In 2021?
Joe Osteen’s net worth is estimated to be a massive $100 Million. CelebrityNetWorth.com estimates that he earns upwards of $70 million a year in revenue from his book sales, radio channel, public speaking fees, and church collections.
