Joel and Victoria Osteen of Lakewood Church – one of the largest churches in the US – emphasise the importance of family in their newly released books.

While Pastor Joel shares his family's traditions during the Christmas season in The Christmas Spirit: Memories of Family, Friends, and Faith, Victoria's new book Gifts from the Heart is a children's book meant to encourage parents and children to spend time together.

The Osteens were in New York on Tuesday for a book signing and sat down for an interview with The Christian Post. They talked about the importance of balancing ministry and family and of having strong faith even when "it's not a perfect Christmas".


CP: Tell us more about your books.

Joel: The Christmas Spirit is about how important it is to make good memories in Christmas time and just to spend time with your family and friends. It had a lot of personal stories, how I grew up. When I wrote it, I remembered the great childhood that I had and it just warms your heart. My encouragement is for everybody to make good memories during Christmas.

Victoria: This is my second book of a series of picture books. It has to do with family as well. It’s kind of along the same lines so parents and children can sit down and communicate with one another. The book is about a brother and sister who go on different journeys and this particular journey is to a medieval city and they find some children who need their help. And one of the things that they are looking for is that they want to go to a birthday party for a king and they don’t really have any money to buy the king a birthday present so they all get together and create a talent show and they begin to use what’s in the inside of them and that was the greatest gift of all. The king loved it, he comes outside and he joins in with the kids.

CP: What are some of the traditions you keep with your own family right now?

Joel: I think the biggest one is especially around Christmas time just spending time together, everyone just getting together, not so much the gifts or the food but laughing together, talking together, having fun with the children, it’s the strong sense of family.

Victoria: We try to bring our cousins or relatives or anyone that lives around and we like to get all of us together and that’s more fun so that’s what I hope our children remember. Just a bunch of fun with their cousins and all the family.

CP: How do you keep a balance between ministry and your families?

Joel: One thing we are real good at is just setting priorities and boundaries and realising what we can do and what we can’t do. You know, with a big church you can’t do everything everybody wants you to do so we just make time for our children, they come on the road when we travel and so it’s just something that we decided early when we started the ministries just to raise our children, to not be so busy, stressed and always doing for others. My father talked about how your first mission field is your own family so we try to invest in them, stay healthy, stay active together. We play together, we travel together we and that’s the way we try to stay balanced.

Victoria: It’s about choices and what we try to remember is that this particular season in our life we make the most of this season. There’ll be other seasons and we’ll be able to do different things and more things but this particular season is about family, and our children are still young and so we really just want to have the best season we can right now. So that’s one way to keep yourself focused and grounded - making the right choices.

CP: Last month, Crystal Cathedral Ministries filed for bankruptcy and people are asking about the sustainability of megachurches and whether being bigger is better. Lakewood Church is considered the nation's largest megachurch. How does Lakewood Church practise financial stewardship?

Joel: We have a board that helps us manage the finance, plus we believe that starts with the own leader's heart. We try to stay within our means, to have good people that are experts in managing the finances and to just always walk in integrity. Our father started the ministry back in 1959 and we are 51-years-old now and we continue to not spend more than we take in, just be conservative all the while and doing our best to grow and reach more people. We have a good track record.

CP: Is there a way to keep a balance between making money and staying from the temptation of money, especially for Christians?

Joel: I think that money can’t be the focus of your life. The Bible says that even if you gain wealth don’t let money be the centre of your life. When your life is about helping others, being a blessing and fulfilling your destiny I think that many times that’s when God does bless you. The Bible talks about wealth that comes when you honour God so I think the key is where your focus is. Like the scriptures say, it’s the love of the money that messes people up.

CP: Some people actually want to wipe out Christmas and simply keep “happy holidays”. What do you think about that?

Joel: I just thing that it’s important that we recognise what the Christmas season is about. Iit’s about the birth of our saviour and there’s a lot of pressure today to be politically correct but people are realising too that you have to be open to express your faith, what you believe. I find it important that when somebody wants to celebrate other faiths that we all accept tha, but we are also able to say “Merry Christmas, it’s the birth of our saviour” and as Christians we are celebrating forgiveness, redemption and it’s just important that we keep that message out there as Christians.

CP: In your book you mentioned that one Christmas was particularly hard for you because your mother was sick with cancer. Can you tell us about that moment and can you give advice to anyone who is going through something similar especially during Christmas time?

Joel: Well my mother in 1981 was diagnosed with terminal cancer and doctors just told her she had a few weeks to live. We were very devastated as a family, it wasn’t the Christmas we were expecting. But you know in those difficult times, in the book I said when it’s not a perfect Christmas again you have to turn your faith toward the Lord and believe that he’s got you in the palm of His hand.

I realise too some people around Christmas time they don’t have a lot of family. They don’t have good things happening. I think it’s important that you get outside of yourself and help somebody out. Because if you just sit around and think “look how bad I have it I don’t have a big family like Joel or I don’t have this” it’s just going to make you feel worse. If you go out and serve somebody else, go buy somebody else a gift, go feed somebody, go cheer somebody up, when you give up yourself that’s when you will feel the true spirit of Christmas. And that’s giving, that’s serving others and that’s when you feel fulfilled.