There are thousands of religions around the globe. It’s even been said that they are some of the most profitable organizations in the world. There are billions of dollars spent yearly on churches, advertising, and publications. In addition to that are the salaries for the clergy that reach into millions of dollars.
Many members of the church don’t believe that the clergy can make a lot of money, but evidence shows that they do. Many leaders of the church live a lavish lifestyle. Because of that, some pastors are heavily criticized. Critics say that they just use religion and Bible to earn money.
Here’s the list of the richest pastors in the world and their estimated net worth. Not all of them earned their net worth through their career as pastors, some owned other businesses and have other jobs that also gave them their massive wealth. Let’s start from the top 50!
1. #50 – Paul Cain
Estimated Net Worth: $1 Million
Paul Cain is a Pentecostal Minister. He was one of the Voice of Healing revivalists in 1950’s. He started his career at the age of 18. Beginning in 1987, he was associated with the Kansas City Prophets, and shortly afterwards with the ministry of John Wimber. In February 2005, Cain stepped down from the ministry and confessed that he struggled with homosexuality and alcoholism. However, in 2007, he was restored as a minister after his supposed rehabilitation.
2. #49 – Bill Moyers
Estimated Net Worth: $1 Million
Bill Moyers started his career in journalism with an internship with the United States Senate, the young University of Texas graduate caught the eye of Senator Lyndon B. Johnson who helped secure future work for him as a television editor. He also pursued theology while working in broadcasting. In 1959, he was ordained as minister.
3. #48 – Richard Rossi
Estimated Net Worth: $1 Million
After a drug overdose, Rossi was inspired to change his lifestyle and take his experience and his fascination with faith healing to the pulpit and thus he became a so-called born-again Christian. In 1984, he opened his first church – The Fellowship. In 1994, he became a prime suspect when his wife was found nearly dead on the side of the road. The trial ended in a hung jury with Rossi sentenced to probation and domestic violence counseling.
4. #47 – Charles Stanley
Estimated Net Worth: $1.5 Million
Stanley was only 14 when he began his work as a minister. He graduated from the University of Richmond and the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. After, he was appointed as a pastor at the First Baptist Church. His largest program today, In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley is played across hundreds of radio and television networks.
5. #46 – Jimmy Swaggart
Estimated Net Worth: $1.5 Million
Jimmy Swaggart has been in the ministry for 57 years. In the 1950’s, he had launched his own telecast on a small AM radio network. Then he turned to television evangelism with weekly sermons aired on over 200 networks. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, he faced prostitution and sex scandals that resulted in the downsizing of his followers base. Through his music, radio, and television ministry, he earned an estimated net worth of $1.5 million.
6. #45 – R.C. Sproul
Estimated Net Worth: $2 Million
Robert Charles Sproul is the founder and chairman of Ligonier Ministries, established in 1970. He used the internet to gain followers. He launched the online radio station called the Reformation Network, and has authored dozens of books.
7. #44 – N.T. Wright
Estimated Net Worth: $2.5 Million
Nicholas Thomas Wright is one of the most popular New Testament scholars in all of Great Britain. He started his ministry in 1975. He retired as a bishop in 2010.
8. #43 – Jack Van Impe
Estimated Net Worth: $2.5 Million
Also nicknamed the “Walking Bible,” Van Impe graduated from Detroit Bible Institute in 1952 and began his career as an evangelist. In 1954, he and his wife launched the Jack Van Impe Ministries on television. He also founded the Jack Van Impe Ministries International Foundation, having a total yearly revenue of nearly $12 million with an annual salary of $150,000 for Impe himself.
9. #42 – Louis Farrakhan
Estimated Net Worth: $3 Million
He launched his career as a professional musician in the 1950s, and at the same time he was introduced to the teachings of the Nation of Islam. He was responsible for the Million Man March in Washington, D.C. in 1995.
10. #41 – Ernie Fletcher
Estimated Net Worth: $3 Million
He is a politician, a preacher, and a physician. In 1999 he joined the United States House of Representatives until 2003.
11. #40 – Clifton Davis
Estimated Net Worth: $3 Million
Clifton Davis is an American actor, songwriter, singer, and a pastor. He holds a BA in Theology from Oakwood University and a Master of Divinity degree from Andrews University. Davis is a regular guest host on Trinity Broadcasting Network. He also hosted the Gospel Superfest TV show from 2000 to 2008.
12. #39 – Reinhard Bonnke
Estimated Net Worth: $4 Million
For the last 50 years, Reinhard Bonnke crossed Africa for his missionary work. He claimed that he has preached to more people than any other evangelist in the world.
13. #38 – Tony Campolo
Estimated Net Worth: $4 Million
He became the spiritual adviser of President Bill Clinton. He founded the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education.
14. #37 – Leroy Jenkins
Estimated Net Worth: $4 Million
He is a evangelist from South Carolina who became a born-again Christian after being convicted of arson in 1979. Jenkins started his own faith healing ministry called the “Leroy Jenkins Ministries” – using “miracle water.”
15. #36 – Noel Jones
Estimated Net Worth: $5 Million
At the age of 19 he enrolled at the Aenon Bible College where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Theology. In 1994, he became a pastor at the Greater Bethany Community Church in Los Angeles.
16. #35 – John Hagee
Estimated Net Worth: $5 Million
After he finished his theological training, Hagee led Trinity Church in San Antonio in the 1970s then established The Church at Castle Hills in 1975. He also established John Hagee Ministries and broadcasts his sermons on television and radio.
17. #34 – Joseph Prince
Estimated Net Worth: $5 Million
Prince became the Senior Pastor in the New Creation Church, one of Asia’s megachurches. From that, he earned an annual salary of $550,000
18. #33 – Al Sharpton
Estimated Net Worth: $5 Million
Sharpton became a Baptist minister in 1994 and is one of the most controversial pastors. In 2014, reports revealed that he “regularly sidestepped” his debts and owed millions in back taxes. However, he managed his wealth when he became the trusted White House adviser and the host of his radio show, Keepin’ It Real.
19. #32 – Eddie Long
Estimated Net Worth: $5 Million
She once admitted that she “went down on her knees a harlot and got up a saint.”She goes to Mexico for missionary work with her husband regularly.
21. #30 – John MacArthur
Estimated Net Worth: $5 Million
He was ordained as a Christian evangelical preacher in the 1960’s. He began his career behind the pulpit in 1964 at the Calvary Bible Church in Southern California. After that, he joined Grace Community Church in Los Angeles and became its president from 1984 until today.
22. #29 – Paula White
Estimated Net Worth: $5 Million She is currently working as the Senior Pastor of the New Destiny Christian Center in Apopka, Florida. She is known for her humorous sermons and thousands attend to hear her sermons.
23. #28 – Ravi Zacharias
Estimated Net Worth: $7.5 Million
He is a Nigerian televangelist and the pastor of the Household of God Church International Ministries, a Pentecostal congregation in Lagos, Nigeria. He has also run for presidency 3 times but lost every time.
25. #26 – Juanita Bynum
Estimated Net Worth: $10 Million
She is an American Pentecostal televangelist. She is also an author, an actress, and a religious singer. She became a New York Times Best Seller and wrote many religious books.
26. #25 – Matthew Ashimolowo
Estimated Net Worth: $10 Million
He is Nigerian pastor, and currently works as the Senior Pastor of the Kingsway International Christian Center. He has programs that air on radio stations and television networks.
27. #24 – Jesse Jackson
Estimated Net Worth: $10 Million
Jackson is an American Civil rights activist and a Baptism Minister. He is also a politician. He was ordained as a minister in 1968 but focused on his career in politics. He sought presidency but lost in both 1984 and 1988 elections. He served as a shadow U.S. Senator in Washington, D.C. from 1991 to 1997.
28. #23 – Joyce Meyer
Estimated Net Worth: $10 Million
She is a charismatic Christian author and speaker. Meyer speaks humorously, sharing her own shortcomings and taking playful jabs at stereotypical church behavior. She accumulated her wealth as a result of her television and radio programs in addition to a number of books.
29. #22 – Peter Popoff
Estimated Net Worth: $10 Million
Popoff is a German-American televangelist. He is a self-proclaimed prophet and a faith healer. He performed healing a number of ailments such as anxiety, depression, heart conditions and paralysis. However, in the mid 1980’s the truth was revealed that all of his healings were just a hoax. He disappeared from the spotlight for a decade, then made a comeback in the 1990’s and started drawing followers again.
30. #21 – Ed Young
Estimated Net Worth: $11 Million
Edwin Barry Young is the founder and currently the Senior Pastor of his “Fellowship Church.” He founded this church in 1990. His international ministry includes televised broadcast, Ed Young Television, C3 Global and Fellowship Live. He has also wrote many religious books.
31. #20 – T.B. Joshua
Estimated Net Worth: $15 Million
Temitope Balogun Joshua is a Nigerian evangelist who proclaimed himself as a prophet. He founded the Synagogue Church of All Nations and was popularized by claiming that he had healed every sort of illness ranging from cancer to HIV.
32. #19 – Cindy Trimm
Estimated Net Worth: $15 Million
Trimm identified herself as an empowerment specialist. She became a senator at the age of 30 in Bermuda. She built her incredible wealth through her publications and guest appearances. She is currently serving as pastor for Florida’s Embassy Worship Center.
33. #18 – Ernest Angley
Estimated Net Worth: $15 Million
Angley is an American evangelist, author, and television station owner. His interdenominational ministry was originally based at Grace Cathedral in Springfield Township, Ohio. He began his online Bible College in 2011.
34. #17 – T.D. Jakes
Estimated Net Worth: $20 Million
Kirk Cameron is a TV actor, an evangelist, and a show host. Ray Comfort is his partner in the evangelical ministry The Way of the Master, and co-founded The Firefly Foundation with his wife, actress Chelsea Noble.
36. #15 – Billy Graham
Estimated Net Worth: $25 Million
William Franklin Graham Jr., or most known as Billy Graham, served briefly as pastor of the First Baptist Church in Western Springs, Illinois from 1943 to 1944. He took over the radio program titled “Songs in the Night” when it was nearly cancelled due to lack of funding. While the radio ministry continued for many years, Graham decided to move on in early 1945. In 1947 he became the president of Northwestern Bible College in Minneapolis. At that time, he was the youngest president of any college in the US. He served as a spiritual adviser for President Eisenhower, President Johnson, and President Nixon.
37. #14 – Rick Warren
Estimated Net Worth: $25 Million
Warren is an American evangelical Christian pastor and author. He founded the Saddleback Church, an evangelical megachurch in Lake Forest, California. Warren is also a best-seller author.
38. #13 – Kenneth Copeland
Estimated Net Worth: $26.5 Million
Copeland is one of the leaders of the Charismatic Movement. Aside from being a televangelist, he is also an author and a speaker. He has been strongly identified with preaching a prosperity and abundance message, commonly referred to as the prosperity gospel, which has been criticized by various denominations.
39. #12 – Creflo Dollar
Estimated Net Worth: $27 Million
Creflo Dollar is a televangelist, pastor, and the founder of the non-denominational World Changers Church International in Georgia, Atlanta. He is known for his controversial teaching called the prosperity theology, or the gospel of wealth. He owns two Rolls-Royces, a private jet, and real estate such as a million-dollar home in Atlanta, a $2.5 million home in Demarest, New Jersey, and a $2.5 million home in Manhattan, which he had sold for $3.75 million. When Dollar’s private Gulfstream III jet ran off the runway at Biggin Hill Airport, UK, he launched a fundraising campaign to get his followers to pay about $60 million for a new Gulfstream G650 jet. He suggested his followers each commit to giving $300 or more. However, due to backlash, the project was made optional for his followers. Several months later, the board of World Changers Church International announced that they were ready to acquire a Gulfstream G650.
40. #11 – John Danforth
Estimated Net Worth: $30 Million
Another politician-pastor on our list is Danforth. He started his career as the Attorney General of Missouri from 1969 to 1976, then he was elected to the United States Senate and served as a senator for 19 years. He became the US Ambassador to the United Nations from 2004-2005. After he retired from politics, he now spent his time as an Episcopal priest. He is one of the owners of the National Hockey League team, the St. Louis Blues.
41. #10 – Joel Osteen
Estimated Net Worth: $40 Million
Osteen is an American preacher and televangelist. He is the Senior Pastor of Lakewood Church, the largest Protestant church in the United States. He is also a New York Times best-selling author due to the outstanding success of Your Best Life Now.
42. #9 – Benny Hinn
Estimated Net Worth: $42 Million
Hinn is a televangelist. He is best known for his Miracle Crusades, a revival meeting or faith healing summits that are usually held in stadiums in major cities, which were later broadcast worldwide on his television program, This Is Your Day. He claimed that he had miraculous abilities to heal blindness, cancer, AIDS, and damaged limbs. His healing abilities came into question when he was admitted to a California hospital for shortness of breath after completing a mission in Brazil. Anthony Thomas, the director of the film that investigates Hinn’s healing told CNN that they did not find any cases where people were actually healed by Hinn.
43. #8 – Chris Oyakhilome
Estimated Net Worth: $50 Million
Pastor Chris is a Nigerian minister. He founded the Believers’ Loveworld Incorporated, also known as the “Christ Embassy”, a Bible-based Christian ministry headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. Oyakhilome runs a global prayer network using social network platforms to send messages to Christians around the world regularly. He has 1.2 million twitter followers and over 30 million followers on his own social networking site called Yookos.
44. #7 – Janice Crouch
Estimated Net Worth: $50 Million
Couch is an American religious broadcaster. She and her husband founded the Trinity Broadcasting Network in 1973. In 2012, she was accused by her granddaughter, a former employee and chief finance director of the network, of misappropriating network funds to spend on a lavish lifestyle. Expenditures included expensive homes, private jets, massive custom wigs, and a $100,000 air conditioned mobile home solely for her dogs.
45. #6 – Robert Tilton
Estimated Net Worth: $50 Million
Tilton is an American televangelist of the prosperity gospel widely known for his infomercial-styled religious television program Success-N-Life. He taught that life’s trials, especially poverty, were results of sin. He asked all his followers to make a financial vow of $1,000. When he received a vow, he claimed that the one who gave it will be blessed with material things. In 1991, Diane Sawyer and ABC News conducted an investigation of Tilton. They found out that he threw away the prayer request letters without just reading them and kept only the accompanying money. His ministry earned money that way, totaling in at approximately $80 million every year. In the years of 1992 and 1993, many donors of Tilton’s show sued him for fraud.
46. #5 – Enoch Adeboye
Estimated Net Worth: $55 Million
Enoch Adeboye is a Nigerian pastor and the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. He is also known as “Daddy Go.”
47. #4 – David Oyedepo
Estimated Net Worth: $150 Million
Oyedepo is a Nigerian Christian author, preacher, and the founder and presiding Bishop of Living Faith Church World Wide, also known as Winners’ Chapel. He is one of the richest pastors in the world. Oyedepo is the senior pastor of Faith Tabernacle, a 50,000 seat church auditorium, reported to be the largest church auditorium in the world as recognized by Guinness Book of Records.
48. #3 – George Foreman
Estimated Net Worth: $250 Million
He is a two-time World Heavyweight Champion and Olympic gold medalist. In 1977, announced his faith as a born-again Christian and took a break from the ring to become an ordained minister. He retired from boxing in the year 1997.
49. #2- Pat Robertson
Estimated Net Worth: $500 Million
One of the biggest names in the evangelical industry is Pat Robertson. In 1961, he was ordained as a Minister of the Southern Baptist church. For the last 50 years, he hosted the television show The 700 Club. He is also the founder of the ABC Family Channel and Regent University.
50. #1 – Edir Macedo
Estimated Net Worth: $1.1 Billion
The number 1 richest pastor on our list is no other than Edir Macedo. He is a Brazillian evangelical leader. He is also the owner of the second largest television network in Brazil, Rede Record. He also teaches the prosperity theology. He used the church’s fund to purchase radio stations, television networks, real estate, health insurance, and even an airline. When criticized about his wealth he answered: “If I preach prosperity and my clothes are ragged, who will follow me?” Let us know what you all think about these pastors and their immense wealth!
via:
standardnews.com
