Joyce Meyer, whose sermons were playing when the police entered the De residence in Kolkata’s Robinson Street – to uncover the bizarre case of decomposed bodies, dead dogs being fed pizza, and nightly planchette sessions – was voted as one of the 25 most influential evangelicals in America by Time magazine in 2005.
Spread of Meyer’s Evangelism
72-year-old grandma Meyer sits at the helm of a powerful and very wealthy religious organisation, Joyce Meyer Ministries (JMM), straddling nine international offices, 25 field offices and over 700 employees.
According to the organisation’s website, Meyer’s signature show Enjoying Everyday Life is broadcast in 80 different languages over 1,000 TV and radio stations. Her number of Twitter and Facebook followers is an astonishing seven million. The audited assets of the organisation are upwards of $57 million and Meyer jets around the world in a Gulfstream G-IV private jet.
Headquartered in Fenton, Missouri, the mission of JMM is stated as “called to share the Gospel and extend the love of Christ. Through media we teach people how to apply Biblical truth to every aspect of their lives and encourage God’s people to serve the world around them.”
Very tech and media-savvy, she holds road-shows (often in large stadiums) accompanied by jubilant religious music, aggressive sales pitches and attractive merchandise. Once a Lutheran minster her unique brand of Pentacostal preaching with its message of ‘a gospel of prosperity’ is especially popular with a female following with whom she often shares stories of her rocky first marriage and abuse as a child.
When it was Frowned Upon
In the US, evangelists like Kenneth Copeland, Bennie Hinn, Paula White, Eddie Long, and Creflo Dollar have received flak from the local media for flaunting opulent lifestyles and alleged tax irregularities. In fact according to Wikipedia, JMM was one of six religious organisations investigated by US Senate Commission led by Senator Chuck Grasslay. Since then JMM has been publishing audited accounts and in 2009 received accreditation from the Evangelical Council of Financial Accountability.
As John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge say in their book, God is Back: How the Global Rise of Faith is Changing the World, “Today there are at least five hundred million renewalists around the world. Their beliefs are not for the fainthearted. Most adherents have witnessed divine healing, exorcisms or speaking in tongues.” Like the rest of the world, in India too, this form of evangelism which emphasises the work of the Holy Spirit and the direct experience of the presence of God by the believer is finding many takers.
Seeds of Evangelism in India
JMM is very active in India. Over 52 of Joyce’s books have been translated into more than 20 different Indian languages and 8.3 million copies distributed through outreaches. It operates 17 children’s homes, medical centres, feeds millions of meals yearly and runs a human trafficking rescue centre near Mumbai.
In 2010 Joyce Meyer visited Kolkata for the four-day Festival of Light conference. The JMM website says “More than 213,000 people listened to Joyce share the word of God at the Festival of Light, over 42,000 people gave their lives to Christ for the very first time and 20,652 pastors, church members and volunteers attended the daily leadership sessions.”
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