Posted on 07/24/2005 1:36:58 PM PDT by zzen01
With 300 employees, a projection of $77 million in annual revenue and audited financial statements, Houston's Lakewood Church sounds a lot like a business. ADVERTISEMENT
And in many ways, it is.
"It would be naive to say, 'No, we're not a business,' " Senior Pastor Joel Osteen said in an interview. "We obviously are a business because we're dealing with millions of dollars. And I say that because we don't take that lightly."
According to a copy of the church's most recent audited financial statement obtained by the Chronicle and a review of public records including court documents, Lakewood is a sophisticated and successful business operation.
"We have to be good stewards of God's money, so we run it by sound, solid business principles," said Osteen, who this year stopped taking his $200,000 salary from the church and instead lives on profits from sales of his best-selling book, Your Best Life Now, which has sold 2.8 million copies.
The documents show revenue for the 2004 fiscal year of $54 million, including $3.4 million from the church bookstore, which sells religious videos, CDs and books.
Records also show:
•It owns and operates KTBU Channel 55, "The Tube," a local television station that features religious shows and retro programming like Gunsmoke and I Love Lucy. •Employees have access to retirement plans. •It has had a multimillion-dollar line of credit at Northern Trust Bank and has seven-figure investments in securities.. •Lakewood structured a sophisticated $60 million construction loan with Bank of America to revamp its new home at the former Compaq Center using collateral pledges from its members, a deed of trust on its northeast Houston campus and a life insurance policy for Joel Osteen. •The church has successfully sued to protect Joel Osteen's name as a valuable trademark. •Osteen, who lives in a home appraised at $2.3 million in the ritzy Tanglewood neighborhood, is listed as president of Lakewood Church, a nonprofit organization. (A spokesman for the church noted that Osteen paid $380,000 for the home when he bought it, though it has since been remodeled.) If Lakewood is to be compared to a business, there is no doubt it is family-run:
Osteen's wife, Victoria, his mother, brother, sister and in-laws all play central roles.
Kevin Comes, who is married to Joel Osteen's sister, Lisa, who also is a pastor at the church, is the administrator who handles the day-to-day business. He attributes much of the success to penny-pinching.
"We have an incredible budgeting system," Comes said. "We budget all the way down to hot chocolate."
Comes said Lakewood has done "significant analysis" that shows the church will increase its revenue by 42 percent, from $54 million in fiscal year 2004 to $77 million in the current fiscal year, 2006. At the same time, annual operating expenses will rise from $45 million to $75 million.
Comes said the increased revenue will come from a sharp increase in weekend attendance — already at 30,000 strong before the church moved into the former Compaq Center. Worshippers are encouraged to tithe 10 percent or more of their income annually.
Lakewood recently held its first services in the 16,000-seat arena, drawing standing-room-only crowds.
The church has few big donors and counts on a large volume of middle-income families, Comes said. "We have a huge middle class that gives responsibly," he added.
While Lakewood is considered the largest church in the country by attendance, it is not alone in finding success among the masses. Hundreds of other so-called megachurches — defined as having 2,000 or more weekly attendants — are cropping up around the country, and they're filling the pews using business tactics.
"Lakewood, and megachurches like it, are efficiently marketing an interchangeable product better than the competition," said James Twitchell, a professor of English and advertising at the University of Florida who's written about churches and marketing.
"They have been able to tell a story, dynamically market a brand and are harvesting the reward, namely, greater consumption at higher profit margins thanks to economies of scale."
John Green, a political science professor at the University of Akron in Ohio, who studies megachurches and their impact on society, refers to Osteen and other megachurch leaders as "religious entrepreneurs" who excel at niche marketing.
"If you go to a megachurch, you'll find that they emphasize different things, and if you're looking at this from a business point of view, that's good marketing. You find your niche," he said.
Interpretations of the Bible, for example, vary widely from church to church and are sometimes tailored to their demographics, Green said.
Lakewood features "prosperity gospel," which promises the faithful that if they ask, God will reward them financially. Its niche is what Osteen calls "the unsaved" or "unchurched."
"We like to target people who do not go to church today," Osteen said.
Green also said megachurches are frequently structured like corporations.
Lakewood Church, for example, has a president, a chief financial officer who oversees a team of accountants, a board of directors, a public relations officer, and health and retirement plans.
Osteen said he is mainly involved in the spiritual side of Lakewood's operation but that the church has hired "top-quality people to manage the money to help us be good stewards."
It's common for a megachurch to have annual revenue in the millions of dollars, and for most if not all of that money to be spent on construction, highly produced services, advertising, promotion and broadcasting, according to the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.
The average annual income for a megachurch was $4.8 million, with expenditures of $4.4 million, according to a 2000 Hartford study.
Just 25 years ago, there were only about a dozen megachurches in the United States. There are at least 1,200 today, according to the Hartford Institute's Scott Thumma, who is wrapping up a study on the phenomenon.
Thumma said those churches are mainly nondenominational and are in 45 of 50 states. Texas leads the nation with 174 megachurches, followed by California with 169 and Florida with 83. Houston and Dallas account for 56 megachurches alone.
Broadcasting is a big part of the megachurch.
Some 44 percent use radio and 38 percent use television to spread their gospel and in turn get bigger, according to Thumma's research.
While no one knows for sure how much the megachurch industry is worth, most experts say that with their millions of attendees, who often tithe 10 percent of their income or more to the church annually, it's in the many billions of dollars.
"This is a business that dwarfs all other businesses. This business dwarfs the car business. Nothing compares to it," said Twitchell, who wrote Branded Nation: The Marketing of the Megachurch, College Inc., and Museumworld, which examines how religion, education and culture are relying heavily on brand recognition and marketing.
He's working on another book, Shopping for God, which will show how megachurches are targeting audiences using highly developed marketing skills.
Megachurches, he said, are marketing salvation.
"From a consumer point of view, we may not think we're church shopping, but from their point of view, they're shopping God," he said.
And to do it, they are targeting an audience that Twitchell said churches once largely failed to court — men.
"That's been the marketing breakthrough. If you want this thing to succeed and get big and get strong, pitch it to men," he said.
Megachurches, he said, are unlike the churches of yesteryear in that they feature what men like: comfortable cineplex-style seats, glossy professional-quality performances with high-tech sound and video systems, and rapid-fire sermons about issues related to day-to-day living.
In its glossy magazine's summer edition, Lakewood Church features an article written by a star of the Houston Texans football team, David Carr, whom it counts as a member.
With a laid-back tone and action photos of the popular quarterback playing football, Carr discusses how his faith guides him as a father and a field general.
At a recent Sunday service at Lakewood, among the crowd of several thousand were family men in their 20s and 30s.
On that Sunday, while her brother Joel was in California preparing to preach to a sold-out stadium in Anaheim, Lisa Comes gave a sermon to several thousand churchgoers on personal finance, which she called "financial freedom from the Bible's point of view."
Financial freedom, she said, will come to those who tithe.
And the church isn't shy about asking the congregation to ramp up its tithing. Joel Osteen said he wants to pay off "as quickly as possible" the $60 million construction loan used to refurbish Compaq Center. He said he expects church members, who have already paid $35 million of the $95 million cost, to carry the load.
"We're just going to put it to the congregation that we want to pay this thing off," Osteen said during a recent media tour of the arena.
He said he doesn't fret over filling the stadium or raising enough money to pay expenses.
"I don't lose any sleep over it," Osteen said in an interview. "If something's not working, we'll scale back."
Osteen suggested that the church could even eventually outgrow its new home.
"I'm satisfied with this, but 10 years from now, you never know," he said.
"We might need something bigger."
.....sounds 'TBN'.......and 'Rich Warren'......transitions of money laundering......
/naw
I have absolutely NO qualms about criticizing most................
Give me an old-fashioned Cathloic priest any day...
Isn't the Catholic Church one of the largest 'businesses' (to use your word) in the world?
You are enthusisastic about Catholic priests after all the scandals they have been and are creating? I will take a used car salesman to a pedophile anyday. (None of this is particularly valid, but your comment desereved something in the same vein).
**Sounds like a 'business', should be taxed as such.**
History tells me the Catholic church 'acquired' a lot of wealth during the dark ages. One of my lifelong friends, an RC, visited Notre Dame in Paris years ago. He says that is an example of the megachurch centuries ago. And as he walked around in it, he said he couldn't help but think "was all this granduer acquired honestly?". He says he doubts it.
It is sad if this phenomenal church growth is because people are drawn to a pastor that refuses to rebuke sin.
I guess everybody has a line that separates prudent accumulation of property and security from greedy hoarding and huge salaries. This one in the story crosses mine.
$200,000 a year for a pastor? That's even more than most school superintendents make in Illinois, my new definition of over-paid "public servants."
Let God's word judge who is faithful, who is sanctified.
Big, small, or in between, it doesn't matter, if church bodies are being fed something less than the whole gospel, then God is no doubt less than pleased. But the Lord will sort the 'wheat from the tares', and the 'sheep from the goats'.
What saith He?
"Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Matt. 7:14
Just a few. His words, not mine.
Funny this was posted about a preacher in Houston.
A year and a half ago I went to Houston (actually Conroe, TX) and did seats carpet and sidewalls on a preachers Gulstream II. He has three churches in Houston with 20000 members and another big church in Austin. He also has a Hawker 400 and a Bell 206 helicopter.
A diamond encrusted gold medallion the size of a dinner plate hung around his neck and his wife was prettier than Halle Berry.
What was really funny, after the pastor left the airplane while we were working one of the mechanics working on the plane said " Damn, did ya'll see that hubcap hangin' around that preacher's neck ?"
I almost fell out of the airplane laughing at that.But I told him don't knock it his money is the same color as everyone else's.
These African preachers run in circles. Another from Maryland bought a G-II after that and called me up as I had done work for him before. He couldn't stand it. I had to arrange a limo for his entourage when he came to see me. $175.00 hr stretch Hummer so he could go see Creflo Dollar, or as we call him "Cashflow Dollar".
More stories about these guys later.
This will probably sound like sour grapes; but I don't understand a "Man of God" lives in a $2.3 million dollar home.
"Rollin in....'dough'... Osteen"
"Rollin in....'dough'... ______"
"Rollin in ...'dough'...Schiller"
"Rollin in ...'dough'...My-ears"
"Rollin in ...'dough'...Rich Warren"
......Roll Me Over in the... 'Clover'.....$$$$$
**$200,000 a year for a pastor? That's even more than most school superintendents make in Illinois, my new definition of over-paid "public servants."**
YOU DARE ATTACK ANY STATE SPONSORED POSITION IN THE COMMUNIST PROVINCE OF ILLINOIS??? OFF TO GITMO WITH YOU!! :D
You know, we do not have safe communities anymore where common values are shared. These mega churches provide communities for people to find others who share similar values and a safe place to raise children. I think it is great and wish there was one around here.
I certainly have disagreements with their theology, but his salary was not out of line and facility costs are in line with attendance.
I would suspect that is low for comparable jobs at mega-churches in Dallas or Houston. Of course, most mega-church pastors supplement the salary with book sales. And the packages should be structured so that a large chunk of the $200,000 would be non-taxable.
$200,000 / yr is what Mr Osteen used to make. He no longer draws any salary from the church.
Also, his house is large, but was bought relatively cheap many years ago. Many homes in the Tanglewood area were undervalued for tax purposes, but property taxes in Texas have exploded. Since these communities are capped at the tax rate they can charge, we are seeing large increases in home valuation. The $2.8 million is what the taxing authority declares it to be worth.
I have personally done business with Lakewood. The business office is straight-forward and bids nearly everything out. I have seen them go beyond what is normal to remain above reproach.
One can disagree about their message, but the church is run very professionally. And they pay their bills on time.
His Father was above reproach as far as I know. I sure don't want to see another Jim Baker?Swaggert type scandal. but money and power corrupt. He needs prayers to keep him on the right path.
I don't recall Joel Osteen promising anything other than that God will meet all of our needs if we are faithful, which is what is promised in the Bible. To those whom much has been given, much will be required. God will judge whether or not good stewardship has been practiced.
Just because a person is poor doesn't make him a more righteous believer. It may just mean that believer is a poor steward.
Amen!
2Tim.4:3.
What makes you think Osteen has any opinions, on anything?
The driving force of this type of church is the lack of any strong conviction on anything.
What sin did he rebuke?
Except not having not enough 'faith'to be wealthy?
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