Joel Scott Osteen (born March 5, 1963) is an American televangelist based in Houston, Texas. Osteen\'s televised sermons are seen by over 7 million viewers weekly and over 20 million monthly in over 100 countries.\n', '

He is the author of seven books which have been on The New York Times Best Seller list.\n', '

Osteen was born in Houston, Texas, and is one of six children of John Osteen and Dolores ("Dodie") Pilgrim. His father, a former Southern Baptist pastor, founded Lakewood Church, of which Osteen is the current senior pastor, in the back of an old feed store. He was educated at Humble High School, a public high school in the city of Humble, Texas, from which he graduated in 1981, followed by Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he studied radio and television communications, but did not graduate and did not receive a degree from a divinity school. In 1982, he returned to Houston and founded Lakewood\'s television program, where he produced his father\'s televised sermons for 17 years until January 1999, when his father died unexpectedly from a heart attack.\n', '

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