BIOGRAPHY OF JOEL OSTEEN

 

Joel Osteen is an American pastor and televangelist based in Houston, Texas United States. He is one of the prominent figures of Word of Faith movement. He was born on 5th of March, 1963 in Houston, Texas to John Osteen and Dolores Pilgrim. His father was a former Southern Baptist pastor and founded Lakewood  Church in the back of an old feed store in 1959.

Joel Osteen attended Humble High School, a public high school in the city of Humble, Texas and graduated in 1981. After graduation, he went on to Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the largest Christian charismatic university in the world where he studied radio and television communications but did not graduate.

He returned home after a year and suggested to his parents that he set up a television ministry for Lakewood church. His father however, was wary of the growing number of televangelists on the air at that time who used the electronic medium to solicit donations, he gave him the approval to go ahead but under the condition that Lakewood would never use its media pulpit to appeal for contributions.

For the next 15 years, Osteen directed and produced weekly Sunday service at Lakewood, which aired on a local Houston station and later on the Family Channel, a cable network. He traveled with his father, even as far as India to assist in the church's missionary outreach work but avoided a more active role. Occasionally, his father asked if he would like to deliver a sermon or speak during church services.

His mother Dolores and sister Lisa regularly did so but he declined the invitation. By early 1999, his father's health was deteriorating and he felt increasingly taxed by heart and kidney problems. One Sunday, he asked his son to deliver the sermon and Joel Osteen once again refused but called back a few minutes later and told his father that he would do it.

Nervous and wearing a pair of his father's shoes, he spoke that Sunday before a crowd of 6,000 worshippers. Eleven days later, his father died of heart attack and Osteen was named to succeed him as pastor of the church. Lakewood's attendance numbers began to grow almost immediately, he combined his father's self-improvement through faith message with anecdotes from his life and times.

Over the next five years, Osteen's church swelled exponentially in number, outgrowing the large facility his father had built in 1987. The church ran various smaller groups and ministries in which its members could interact. There were ministries for teens, singles and seniors and support groups for various problems including marital infidelity. It even offered free financial counseling services.

His Sunday sermons were broadcast weekly on religious channels such as Trinity Broadcasting Network and showed up on cable channels that included ABC family, USA and BET. He also had his own show, Joel Osteen and began touring U.S cities in one-night speaking engagements that drew fans to arenas. His appealing message led to the book "Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential."

The book was published by Warner Faith, a subsidiary of the immense Time-Warner media empire in October, 2004. It rapidly advanced to the New York Times bestseller list in November and earned the impressive distinction of becoming the fastest-growing non fiction book in publishing history. In 2005, Lakewood Church moved into a new local meeting house, the Compaq Center, which was the former home of arena of the Houston Rockets. The church currently attract a weekly attendance of about 43,500 worshippers and several millions who tune in on television to hear Osteen's sermon.

Joel Osteen is married to his beautiful wife, Victoria Osteen. They got married in 1987, two years after Osteen met her when he stopped by the jewelry store her father owned. They have two children, Alexandria and Jonathan and they also take active role in Sunday services. He and his family both live in Tanglewood, Houston and he is 61 years old as of the time of making this video

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