2024-01-19 20:00:31
19 years ago, Pastor Joel Osteen agreed to move Lakewood Church to a former basketball arena, but needed $100 million for renovation work. And last Sunday, he revealed that the entire loan amount had already been paid off with the bank.
Offers from Lakewood Church members allowed a bold undertaking to be completed and now paid off. Pastor Joel Osteen revealed that it took almost 20 years to pay the costs of space adaptation workswhich was a basketball arena.
“My big announcement today is that [desde] On December 31st of last year, we officially paid off the US$100 million loan”, declared the pastor in tears, as he recalled everything that happened during this period.
The sports arena formerly known as the Compaq Center was transformed into a temple for approximately 45,000 adults: “I look back at these 19 years and see that they were great years. I mean, Lakewood has been a beacon for the entire world.”
“It was interesting when we got the facilities. You know, it was a basketball arena, as you saw. But, you know, underneath these bleachers [havia] service areas and changing rooms and where food was served. They were not public areas. We needed daycare centers and facilities for children. We needed a lot more things”, recalled the pastor.
Challenges
In addition to the renovations in the internal area, there was a need to build a five-story building adjacent to the arena that would connect to all the rooms below the stands.
The pastor noted that the church initially paid $11.5 million to rent the space for 60 years, but did not have the necessary $100 million that contractors had budgeted for the renovation.
“I received the bid bill and it was US$100 million to renovate. And I thought, like, God, I didn’t sign up for this. I was 36 years old. And I thought, but you know what, God gives you grace for every season of your life,” Osteen said.
On their first loan attempt, he and his father – the late John Osteen – went to the bank where they themselves worked, but the response was negative: “Let me tell you, they were very negative. They were like ‘man, that’s not going to happen’, ‘we don’t think you can raise the money and all that stuff’. And man, we left there and I was discouraged at first, until I let it go in one ear and out the other,” said the pastor.
“I thought, God, our bank is not our source. You are our source. And then we went to another bank, Bank of America. They showed up at the office, the first day we were there without even knowing us, they had never seen our financials, they had a check for $25 million dollars,” she explained, already in tears. “I saw that 25 million and said, ‘You’re going to lend us 25, would you lend us $100 million?’ They said they would do it. Bank of America lent us $100 million.”
He explained that God was so faithful to the church that during the 20 years of loan service “we never cut any of our efforts”: “We spent hundreds of millions of dollars on media and [ajuda] humanitarian and helping people around the world,” he said, thanking the faithful for their generous donations of faith.
In addition to smaller debts for equipment, the pastor said that the Lakewood Church is essentially “debt free,” and that in 2010 they were able to purchase the building for an additional $7 million over the amount initially paid.
“What God did for Lakewood, He will do in your life. I believe that in 2024 you will see God free you from some of the things that have held you back. Free you from debt, addiction, relationship [ruim], of wrong mentalities. I just believe that [este será] one year of launch”, he concluded, according to information from the portal The Christian Post.
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