(Photo: Former home of faith healer David Turner, from Realtor.com)
Donors, where is the money going?
When a televangelist’s ministry or pastor’s church owns a private jet, you can almost be certain the leader lives in a mansion. That is one of the lessons Trinity Foundation has learned from investigating religious fraud and excess for more than 30 years.
In April 2021 the Houston Chronicle’s Jay Root asked Trinity Foundation for assistance on an article series about church parsonages in Texas. Trinity Foundation compiled a list of megachurches and large media ministries in the state and then searched for parsonages and homes of pastors and ministry leaders.
Meanwhile, the Houston Chronicle examined the state tax code and filed open records requests with county appraisal districts seeking lists of parsonages.
Root’s thorough investigation uncovered startling evidence of pastors living extravagantly: “A months-long Houston Chronicle investigation of ministers’ tax-free residences found no shortage of extravagant homes in high-dollar locales. At least two dozen were worth over $1 million even using the artificially low values that exempt properties typically carry.”
If you are keeping track, that is at least 24 parsonages in Texas worth more than $1 million.
Trinity Foundation also investigated pastor and ministry housing in other states, discovering multi-million dollar homes of several televangelists and pastors who have received little media scrutiny. It’s time to present some of our findings.
Texas Church Parsonages and Pastor Owned Homes
Texas Televangelist Joel Osteen lives in the most expensive home we identified. Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, owns a home in Houston appraised for almost $12 million. Real estate website Trulia estimates the 15,700 ft. mansion to be worth more than $14 million.
(Photo: Google Satellite view of Joel Osteen’s Houston home)
In 2019, Trinity Foundation learned that Osteen purchased a home in California. After an extensive investigation, we located the home in 2021 with the help of an informant.
In 2017, Osteen acquired the home in Newport Coast, CA which Trulia estimates is worth almost $7.4 million. The home, located near the Pacific Ocean, is registered to a limited liability company registered in Delaware.
Neither of Osteen’s homes would be classified as parsonages because they are not owned by his church and are not tax-exempt. Osteen could afford them because he receives book royalties.
In 2009, World Magazine reported, “Osteen’s first book, 2005’s Your Best Life Now, has sold an estimated 10 million copies-enough to get a $13 million advance from his publisher for his second book, Become a Better You.”
Read the full article here.
True Discernment 
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