Attendance appears to be down at Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, after a video has emerged of their Sunday service showing a sanctuary less than 25% filled.
Lakewood Church, led by the pastor-pastorette duo Joel and Victoria Osteen, is a 600,000-square-foot, 16,800-seat behemoth located in the former Compaq Center. They have an annual budget of nearly $90,000,000, 368 full-time and part-time staff, and spend nearly $1.7 million each week on operations.
The church has 4 in-person services weekly, including three services on Sunday: English at 8:30 a.m. (CST) and 11:00 am., a Spanish service at 2:00 p.m., and then a Wednesday evening service at 7:30 p.m.
Recently, Instagram user ChristianDanielX filmed himself visiting the church on Sunday, August 9th, during the first service. The results are startling, with the church looking at less than 25% of capacity.
While the ‘summer slump’ typically sees church attendance fall by 20% during June-August, the amount of folks missing is striking and does not reflect what anyone watching the service on their YouTube channel might see that the camera is angled to show the church looking full, with dim lights (see below, which is their 11:00 am service)
The reality though is something else:
In a 2024 survey, Lakewood claimed a weekly attendance of 45,000 people. To put that into perspective, both English services would have to be at capacity with 16,800 each; their Spanish service would have to be half full with 10,000 people, and their Wednesday evening service at 7:30 p.m. would have to draw another 3,000.
Given how the church looks on an average Sunday morning, it’s difficult to believe.
Editor’s note: one of our major complaints with Joel Osteen is that he does not talk about the Christian Gospel. Joel does not follow in the footsteps of Paul and shares this message:
Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve… 1 Corinthians 15:1-5
Rather, in the gospel of Joel Osteen, the “good news” that he brings is that “God loves you and wants to save you from life of mediocrity and small dreams. Therefore, if you believe in God and be obedient to him, God will give you a plan for your life that includes big dreams, self esteem, favor, health and wealth, influence, a better job, a positive self image and a fulfilled life free of negativity”.
That’s it. That’s what it’s all about. That is the sum of just about every book, every sermon, every media appearance, and every tweet of Joel Osteen, condensed into a few sentences.
That being said, there is something significant to understand about Joel Osteen: He does talk about God. A lot. You cannot accuse the man of not mentioning him because he’s all over that. Yet it’s never really in a personal sense. Joel talks about God, but it’s always in a vague, amorphous sense. There is undoubtedly nothing distinctly Christian or Biblical about it. There’s nothing doctrinal or theological about the way he talks about God. Instead, He is an ethereal, shapeless, formless, customizable, singular being thing that is out there called God that functions like a cosmic vending machine whose sole purpose is seeming to bless you and make your life better. Even when he mentions God, it’s not ABOUT God, but it’s about what God can do for YOU.
And while he talks about God a lot, he NEVER talks about Jesus. We did a survey of his Tweets one year and out of nearly a thousand tweets, he mentioned ‘God’ over 330 times and ‘Jesus’ just three time. Got Questions notes:
More often than not, Osteen sounds like an inspirational life-coach, instead of a herald of the gospel. He often preaches about how people can improve their lives, be prosperous, and experience happiness. Noticeably absent in Osteen’s optimistic message is any mention of sin or repentance. The atonement of Christ provides us with healing and the abundant life, according to Osteen, but apparently receiving forgiveness from a holy God is not necessary.
In numerous interviews and writings, Osteen has failed to proclaim that Jesus is the only way to heaven. He has repeatedly refused to agree with the teachings of the Bible that certain behaviors are sinful. This is not a new convert being interviewed; it’s the leader of a church of tens of thousands. Osteen can’t bring himself to support fundamental doctrines of the faith he claims to preach. His words communicate relativism and demonstrate a profoundly poor understanding of the Bible.
When you don’t talk about sin—and Osteen purposefully does not—you’re not preaching the whole gospel. When you barely, if ever, call sin what it is, you’re not helping anyone, least of all the sinner who is enslaved to sin (John 8:34; 2 Corinthians 4:3). Joel Osteen’s teaching would lead us to believe that we are being saved from unhappiness and failure in life, not from sin and God’s wrath. Osteen does not teach that we need a divine rescue from judgment, but rather simply a self-improvement plan.
