Does Joel Osteen Own a $325,000 Ferrari?

Claim:

Photos show Joel Osteen’s $325,000 Ferrari.

Evaluation:

context

While Joel Osteen has an estimated net worth of more than $40 million, claims about the pastor’s exotic car collection are speculation. Additionally, a series of photos purporting to show Osteen’s $325,000 Ferrari actually show an unrelated vehicle.

In July 2021, a series of photos circulated on social media purporting to show a $325,000 Ferrari 458 Italia owned by Joel Osteen, televangelist and megachurch pastor:

While Osteen may own an expensive car (or two), he does not own the vehicle shown in this picture. It should also be noted that reports of Osteen owning a Ferarri 458 Italia have not been confirmed. As a matter of fact, some news outlets that originally published this claimlike the Houston Chronicle, have since deleted their articles.

We couldn’t find any verified reports that Osteen owns a $325,000 Ferrari. There do not appear to be any photos of Osteen driving this exotic sports car and we could not find any statements from Osteen mentioning an exotic collection.

This rumor seems to be little more than a guess. Osteen has a reported net worth in the tens of millions (more on that later) and a large home in Houston, Texas. It seems entirely possible that Osteen bought an exotic car (or two), but so far these reports have not been verified.

As for the photos above, one (the top right image in the meme displayed above) was originally posted on a Exotic Cars Flickr page in 2010. A spokesman for Exotic Car Life’s Flickr account told us the photo was taken in Coral Gables, Fla., near luxury car dealership The Collection. They told us they had seen the car, which they believed was custom built, at another event and had provided us with numerous photos that didn’t show Osteen.

The spokesman said: “I saw the car on another occasion at an event, no Joel Osteen was to be seen.”

It should also be noted that this meme contains photos of two different Ferraris. As mentioned above, one image shows a custom Ferrari in Florida in 2010. The other photo shows a Ferrari in Zurich, Switzerland in 2013. The following video seems to be the source of the second photo:

In addition to this video being shot in Switzerland and not Houston, Texas where Osteen resides, the driver can be seen towards the end of this video and it is not Osteen.

It’s worth nothing that in 2018 an assistant pastor at Lakewood Church in Osteen was criticized for buying his wife a $200,000 Ferrari.

As these images went viral, a number of other claims about Osteen’s net worth were circulated on social media. For example, one viral tweet claimed Osteen had a net worth of more than $40 million, he lived in a $10.5 million mansion and his Lakewood Church had $4.4 million in PPP-Covid -19-Aid Loan Received. These claims are generally true. However, there is a small nuance that should be noted.

Osteen owns a home in Houston that is valued around $10 million, and his Lakewood Church received a $4.4 million PPP loan. However, claims about Osteen’s net worth are only estimates. We found estimates for Osteen’s fortune from $40 to $100 million, suggesting that these are little more than conjectures. While we cannot determine Osteen’s exact net worth, it is safe to say that he is wealthy.

The majority of Osteen’s fortune appears to come from book sales. In addition to being a megachurch pastor and televangelist, Osteen is also a successful author. In 2006, The The New York Times reported that Osteen’s 2004 book “Your Best Life Now” has sold more than 3 million bound copies:

Mr. Osteen, a televangelist, has signed a book deal with Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, which insiders say is potentially one of the richest for a nonfiction book, and could bring in more than $10 million for the author.

Mr. Osteen’s contract follows the tremendous success of Your Best Life Now, published in 2004 by Warner Faith, a division of the Time Warner Book Group. More than three million hardcover copies have been sold, along with more than one million copies of related magazines, daily devotionals, and study guides.

Osteen opened up about his wealth during an interview with PennLive In 2013:

“I think we should be leaders,” Osteen said. “That we should represent Christ. I believe we should look good and excel in what God has called us to do. You have gifts from within and you are meant to excel. It is not this tradition that says that you should be poor and humble. I believe that Jesus died so that we could have abundant lives and be leaders. I think that’s a part of ministry that resonates with people.”

Osteen has repeatedly resisted the label of a prosperity gospel TV evangelist.

“I don’t really know what the prosperity gospel is,” Osteen said. “I define it as believing that God wants you to be prosperous in your health, in your family, in your relationships, in your business, and in your career. If that is the gospel of prosperity, then I believe it.”