![]() Joel Osteen and his wife Victoria greet Lakewood's 16,000-strong congregation © Brandon Thibodeaux He was at least two inches shorter than me. Profiles list Osteen’s height at anywhere between 5ft 9in, which is my height, and 5ft 11in. The second thing that struck me was his stature. Thousands were queuing outside in the rain for the $15 tickets to hear him preach. Even on the 194th Night of Hope, his nervous energy was palpable. The first thing that struck me was Osteen’s jitters. The sermon he was about to give turned out to be as candied as anything the town produces. This Night of Hope took place at the Giant Centre in Hershey, Pennsylvania - the home of American chocolate. The pastor has sold out New York’s Madison Square Garden no fewer than seven times. I met him behind the scenes before one of his Nights of Hope - a two-and-a-half-hour, all-singing-and-dancing show that he takes on the road every few weeks. Joel Osteen is a maestro of high-tech religious marketing. They are at the cutting edge of consumer trends.” “They are like the mega mall of religion with an Amazon account added on. “Preachers like Osteen know how to work the modern marketplace,” says John Green, a political scientist specialising in religion at Ohio’s University of Akron. Among its largest growth markets are South Korea, the Philippines and Brazil. This offshoot of Christianity is quintessentially American - a blend of the Pentecostal tradition and faith healing. Though precise numbers are hard to find, one in five Americans is estimated to follow a prosperity gospel church. ![]() Among the Christian brands, only “non-denominational charismatics” - a scholarly term for the prosperity preachers - are expanding. Almost a quarter of Americans now profess to having none. Formal religion in the US has been waning for years. Three out of four of the largest megachurches in America subscribe to the prosperity gospel. Yet the market share of US churches run by celebrity prosperity preachers such as Osteen, Creflo Dollar ( sic), Kenneth Copeland and Paula White keeps growing. There is scant mention of humanity’s fallen condition in his motivational talks. They point to the belief, which Osteen seems to personify, that God is a supernatural ally whom you can enlist to help enrich your life. Some of Lakewood’s more firebrand critics even label it “heresy”. Hardline evangelicals dismiss the prosperity gospel as unchristian. “Most people want to leave church feeling better than when they went in.”Ī Joel Osteen service at Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, last month: 'Had he chosen the life of a preacher, Trump would surely have designed his church like Lakewood - with its curved stage, glitzy video screens and rotating golden globe' © Brandon Thibodeaux “If you want to feel bad, Lakewood is not the place for you,” said Rollo. Lakewood is not the kind of church that troubles your conscience. Words that are rarely heard include guilt, shame, sin, penance and hell. Optimism, hope, destiny, harvest, bounty - these are Lakewood’s buzzwords. To my surprise, my conclusion was greeted with yells of “Yeah brother!” and “Right on!” I felt a stirring of optimism as I sat down. My hope was to gain insight into what drives Lakewood’s allure: their help would be gratefully received. Two elevator levels below us in this giant corporate building, more than 50,000 people stream each week into a converted basketball arena to hear Osteen’s sermons. There was a mildly quizzical look on some of the faces. My purpose, I went on, was to discover what drew people to Joel Osteen, the “smiling preacher”, who runs the largest megachurch in America. The only refreshment to be found was moderately caffeinated hot water in styrofoam cups. Most of the men were dressed in tracksuits, cargo pants or jeans and T-shirts. I was here at Lakewood to learn about the so-called prosperity gospel. I am a journalist at a global business newspaper, I said. Tell us who you are, Rollo asked, motioning me to the front of the class. Rollo, a 35-year-old warehouse supervisor with a wispy beard and calligraphic tattoos on each hand, was supervising. About 25 men, mostly middle-aged, had gathered for their first session in the church’s Quest for Authentic Manhood night class. ![]() ![]() I met Dustin Rollo one evening in Houston in an airless classroom at Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church. ‘Bring to the storehouse a full tenth of what you earn… I will open the windows of heaven for you and pour out all the blessings you need’ – Simply sign up to the Life & Arts myFT Digest - delivered directly to your inbox. ![]()
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