John Osteen
Encyclopedia
John Hillery Osteen was the first pastor of Lakewood Church
Lakewood Church
Lakewood Church is a non-denominational Christian megachurch located in Houston, Texas. It is the largest congregation in the United States, averaging more than 43,500 in attendance per week. The 16,800-seat Lakewood Church Central Campus, home to four English language services and two Spanish...

 in Houston, Texas from its beginnings in 1959 until his death in 1999 of a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...

. His son Joel Osteen
Joel Osteen
Joel Scott Osteen is an American author, televangelist, and the senior pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. His ministry reaches over seven million broadcast media viewers weekly in over 100 nations around the world.-Biography:...

 succeeded him.

Osteen earned his bachelors degree from John Brown University
John Brown University
The main campus in Northwest Arkansas has been the site of the university since it was founded in 1919. JBU has 2,183 students as of the 2011-2012 school year, 1,279 of which are traditional undergraduates. Of these, 878 live on campus. The Graduate School has 468 students...

 in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, and his Masters degree from Northern Baptist Seminary. He also held a Doctorate of Divinity degree from Oral Roberts University
Oral Roberts University
Oral Roberts University , based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the United States, is an interdenominational, Charismatic Christian, comprehensive university with an enrollment of about 3,790 students from 49 U.S. states along with a significant number of international students from 70 countries...

.

Osteen began preaching at the age of 17 and initially was ordained as a minister by a Southern Baptist congregation. He shifted his views toward a more charismatic perspective in 1958 and voluntarily disassociated himself from the SBC. On Mother's Day, 1959 he started what is now Lakewood Church in what was described as a "dusty, abandoned feedstore" in northeast Houston.

Lakewood Church

Osteen founded Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, widely known as "The Oasis of Love in a Troubled World", where his youngest son Joel Osteen
Joel Osteen
Joel Scott Osteen is an American author, televangelist, and the senior pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. His ministry reaches over seven million broadcast media viewers weekly in over 100 nations around the world.-Biography:...

 continues to minister to thousands weekly. He hosted the weekly "John Osteen" television program for 16 years, reaching millions in the U.S. and in many other countries internationally with his interpretation of the Gospel. His numerous books, cassettes, and videotapes are widely
Popularity
Popularity is the quality of being well-liked or common, or having a high social status. Popularity figures are an important part of many people's personal value systems and form a vital component of success in people-oriented fields such as management, politics, and entertainment, among...

 distributed
Distribution (business)
Product distribution is one of the four elements of the marketing mix. An organization or set of organizations involved in the process of making a product or service available for use or consumption by a consumer or business user.The other three parts of the marketing mix are product, pricing,...

.

External sources

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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