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Megachurch pastor Joel Osteen is calling in a few of his famous friends to take part in the Lakewood Church’s virtual Easter Sunday service. Osteen, 57, who has been delivering his sermons online since March, has invited Mariah Carey, Tyler Perry and Kanye West, along with the rapper’s Sunday Service choir, to each take over …
Megachurch pastor Joel Osteen is calling in a few of his famous friends to take part in the Lakewood Church’s virtual Easter Sunday service.
Osteen, 57, who has been delivering his sermons online since March, has invited Mariah Carey, Tyler Perry and Kanye West, along with the rapper’s Sunday Service choir, to each take over a segment of the Lakewood Church live feed.
“It just all came together,” says Osteen. “It just kind of fell into place.”
“I had known Mariah from years past,” the televangelist tells TMZ, explaining that Carey had summoned him to help her “do her part to bring hope and uplift the nation,” by putting together a tribute to health-care workers and first responders on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.
As for Perry, Osteen says his congregation will be thrilled to see his longtime friend back again. “He’s a very powerful speaker,” he says. “People at Lakewood love him.”
The preacher also admits that he’s “not sure exactly what [West is] going to do” with his airtime, but this isn’t the first time the pair have worshipped together. They teamed up last year in November at the reverend’s 16,800-seat auditorium in Houston, and then again earlier this year for an event at Yankee Stadium hosted by the Osteen and his wife Victoria, that time with Ye’s choir.
Everyone involved will be practicing social distancing. How a mega choir will pull that off is yet to be seen.
“Kanye’s one of a kind,” he added. “He’ll figure out some way to do it.”
Osteen hedged his opinions on other American ministers who have defied lockdown orders in their states, including one pastor who died of the coronavirus after criticizing the “mass hysteria” of the virus and preaching to crowds in New Orleans.
“I don’t want to judge anybody else. People feel strongly about their faith,” Osteen says.
“It felt right to me to honor the authorities,” he added. “It’s not a lack of faith that we’re not having service — it’s a respect to mankind.”
