In the beginning there was Lakewood Church.
Opened Mother’s Day
May 10, 1959
A humble beginning at that.
But still, the spark of a dream for John and Dodie Osteen.
Faith, prayer, hard work, focused ambition and belief in the vision they both shared soon had John and Dodie looking for a larger facility.
How the Osteen family and ministry grew.
Oldest child, Paul Osteen was born on November 16, 1956. Three years before Lakewood Church was founded.
Tweet This(Paul has five siblings: Lisa Osteen, Tamara Osteen, Joel Osteen, April Osteen, and half-brother Justin Osteen. Justin is born of Pastor John’s first marriage to Emma Jean Shaffer.)
Rather than following in his father’s footsteps as a pastor, Paul Osteen set his heart on the practice of medicine.
He attended Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma and received his M.D. along with others in the first Oral Roberts medical school graduating class.
Oral Roberts University is, of course, the school evangelist Oral Roberts brought to the world. Prayer is an integral part of the university’s mission.
Dr. Paul Osteen (’78, ’82 M.D.) was on ORU’s first missions team. He spent 17 years as a surgeon before joining the pastoral team at Lakewood Church in Texas. Paul Osteen is the older brother of Joel Osteen, lead pastor of Lakewood. Paul serves at the church, providing insight to the pastoral team. He has been pivotal to the growth of Lakewood and is a constant support for his brother Joel. Osteen and his family have been called to serve around the world at mission hospitals, schools and orphanages. Each year, he spends months in Africa, caring for patients, performing surgeries and visiting orphanages with his wife Jennifer and their children.
ORU RECOGNIZES 50 LIFETIME GLOBAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD RECIPIENTS
Following graduation from Oral Roberts, the new-Dr. Paul Osteen completed his residency in General Surgery at the University of Arkansas Medical Science Campus in Little Rock, Arkansas.
He was the Robert M. Bransford, M.D. Outstanding Chief Resident in Surgery (1987). He was in private practice of general and vascular surgery in Little Rock for many years.
He married a nurse, Jennifer Osteen.
He and Jennifer have four children.
In Little Rock, Arkansas, Paul trained and practiced as a general and vascular surgeon for over seventeen years
Interested in learning more about the dynamic growth and blessed history of Lakewood Church?
Dr Paul Osteen, in addition to pastoring duties at Lakewood Church, also felt called upon to go on medical missions to provide medical care for underserved populations, especially in Sub Saharan Africa.
- Paul also hosts the annual global medical missions conference, which gathers medical professionals who have a vested interest in going on missions and providing support and resources in impoverished areas.
- He saw the need for such a conference when he spent time in Zambia, and was informed that he was the only surgeon in an area as big as the state of Louisiana in the United States.
- Since then, Paul has been on missions all over the world, from Cameroon to Iraq to Kenya.
- In 2015, he founded Mobilizing Medical Missions along with Jennifer Osteen, his wife, which organizes the M3 annual conference.
Dr. Paul Osteen Partners With Outstanding Groups Such As Samaritan’s Purse
- Paul is the voice of the audiobook version of his late father’s book, Your Words Hold a Miracle.
- His mother, Dodie Osteen, is a liver cancer survivor.
- Paul was inspired by his mother’s former career as a nurse to go into the medical field, and now combines the passion of his mother and his father in his mission work.
- He spent a decade outside the operating room fully dedicating himself to Lakewood Church, and then returned to surgery on his first mission trip. After that first trip, he kept getting asked to return on further missions.
