![]() ![]() On March 31, 2010, the Houston City Council voted 13–2 to sell the property to Lakewood for $7.5 million. The church received $15,000,000 after selling the former building to New Light Christian Center Church. Lakewood renovated the new campus at an estimated cost of $100 million. The church was required to pay $11.8 million in rent in advance for the first 30 years of the lease. Highway 59, that has twice the capacity of its former sanctuary. It is a 16,800-seat facility in southwest downtown Houston along U.S. Lakewood Church relocated to the Compaq Center on July 16, 2005. In late 2003, the church signed a long-term lease with the city of Houston to acquire the Compaq Center, a 29-year-old former sports arena. Attendance increased to 30,000 weekly, prompting a move from its location at 7317 East Houston Road to a larger facility. Under Joel Osteen, Lakewood's congregation increased almost fivefold. Lakewood Church was opened as a shelter to approximately 5,000 displaced persons. ![]() In 2001, Tropical Storm Allison caused flooding in the Houston area. ![]() Upon John Osteen's death on January 23, 1999, his youngest son, Joel Osteen, became the pastor. John and Dodie created and hosted Lakewood's weekly television program, which could be seen in 100 countries worldwide. By 1979, attendance was over five thousand, and the church was becoming prominent among Pentecostals and Charismatics. The church soon dropped "Baptist" from its name and became non-denominational. John was a Southern Baptist minister, but after experiencing baptism in the Holy Spirit, he founded Lakewood as a church for charismatic Baptists. Lakewood Church, originally called "Lakewood Baptist Church", was founded by John Osteen and his second wife, Dolores (Dodie) on Mother's Day, May 10, 1959, inside an abandoned feed store in northeast Houston. Iloff also emphasized neither Joel or his wife Victoria, who is also active in the church, do not receive salaries from Lakewood and the PPP loans did not “provide any personal financial benefit to them whatsoever.Joel Osteen at Lakewood Church, September 21, 2018 “However, as the shutdown persisted month after month, given the economic uncertainty, Lakewood finally applied for the PPP loan and has been able to provide full salaries and benefits including health insurance coverage to all of its employees and their families.” “Believing the shutdown would only last a few weeks, Lakewood did not initially apply for PPP assistance during the first half of the program,” Iloff said in a statement. 18, the church lost out on substantial donations. The spokesperson, Donald Iloff also said since services were closed from March 15 until Oct. The Hill reports Lakewood Church received the third-biggest loan in the Houston area, which a church spokesperson told the Houston Business Journal was used to pay 368 full- and part-time employees. But the Lakewood loan, according to the Houston Chronicle, is the first time a church has received financial aid from the government. The federal loans were given to help employers pay workers and cover daily operations as the COVID-19 pandemic continues impacting businesses. Pastor Joel Osteen and his Lakewood Church in Houston are taking heat after it was revealed his megachurch received a $4.4 million Paycheck Protection Program loan as part of the federal CARES Act, KTLA sister station KXAN in Austin, Texas reported Tuesday. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated. This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. ![]()
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