Pauline Joyce Meyer (née Hutchison; June 4, 1943) is the president of Joyce Meyer Ministries and an American Charismatic Christian author and speaker. Joyce and her husband Dave live outside of St. Louis, Missouri, with their four grown children. Her ministry is based in Fenton, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.
Early Life
Meyer was born in 1943 in south St. Louis as Pauline Joyce Hutchison. Soon after she was born, her father enlisted in the army to serve in World War II. She has stated in interviews that upon his return, he resumed sexually abusing her, and she talks about it in her sessions. She has a working-class St. Louis accent to this day.
She graduated from St. Louis’ O’Fallon Technical High School and married a part-time auto salesman shortly after her senior year. The relationship lasted five years. She claims that her spouse cheated on her frequently and got her to steal her employer’s payroll checks. They utilized the money to travel to California for a holiday.
She claims to have returned the money some years later. Meyer frequented local bars after her divorce before meeting Dave Meyer, an engineering draftsman. On January 7, 1967, they tied the knot.
Ministry and conversion
Meyer also claims to have heard God call her name while travelling to work one morning in 1976 while praying intensively. She had been born-again when she was nine years old, but her misery pushed her to go further in her faith. She claims she was “drunk with the Spirit of God” that night at the local bowling alley after returning home from a beauty appointment “full of liquid love” later that day.
… I was completely unaware of the situation. I skipped church this week. And I had a lot of issues that needed to be addressed, and I needed someone to assist me.
And I believe that even those who desire to serve God, if they have so many issues that they don’t think correctly, act right, or conduct right, they virtually need someone to take them by the hand and guide them through the early years…
Meyer was a member of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod’s Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in St. Louis for a short time. She started teaching an early-morning Bible lesson at a neighborhood restaurant and became involved with Life Christian Center in Fenton, a Pentecostal church. Meyer became the church’s assistant pastor after only a few years.
Because of her fame as a Bible teacher, the church became one of the major charismatic congregations in the area. She also started a daily 15-minute radio show on a local station in St. Louis.
Meyer resigned as associate pastor in 1985 and started her own ministry, which she named “Life in the Word” at the time. From Chicago to Kansas City, she began broadcasting her radio show on six different stations.
Dave, her husband, recommended they start a television ministry in 1993. Her show, now named Enjoying Everyday Life, first aired on Chicago’s WGN-TV and Black Entertainment Television (BET) and is still on the air today.
Meyer’s backlist inventory of independently published books was purchased by mainstream publisher Hachette Book Group in 2002 for more than $10 million.
Meyer’s programming was dropped by KNLC, a Christian television station in St. Louis run by the Rev. Larry Rice of New Life Evangelistic Center, in 2004. Meyer’s “excessive lifestyle” and teachings often going “beyond Scripture,” according to Rice, a longtime Meyer admirer, were the driving forces behind the program’s cancellation. Meyer was placed 17th on Time magazine’s “25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America” list in 2005.
Salary & Finances
Meyer, who owns many residences and travels in a private aircraft (now a Gulfstream G-IV), has been chastised for leading an extravagant lifestyle by some[who?]. “There’s no need for us to apologize for being blessed,” she responded, adding that she doesn’t have to defend her spending habits. “You may be a businessman here in St. Louis, and people think the more you have, the better it is… but if you’re a preacher, it all of a sudden becomes a problem,” Meyer said.
Meyer’s “$10 million corporate jet, her husband’s $107,000 silver-gray Mercedes sedan, her $2 million home and houses worth another $2 million for her four children,” a $20 million headquarters furnished with “$5.7 million worth of furniture, artwork, glassware, and the latest equipment and machinery,” according to a four-part special report published in November 2003 by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Senator Chuck Grassley’s investigation into the tax-exempt status of religious groups included Joyce Meyer Ministries as one of six organizations under investigation. Meyer’s personal profit from financial donations was the subject of the investigation, which demanded a comprehensive accounting for things like cosmetic surgery and foreign bank accounts, as well as costs like the $23,000 commode noted previously. Meyer’s ministry must likewise make the information available by December 6, 2007, according to Grassley.
Meyer points out that the commode is a chest of drawers in her November 29 letter to Grassley. According to Meyer, it was part of a large lot of $262,000 worth of materials needed to complete the ministry’s 150,000-square-foot (14,000-square-meter) headquarters, which was purchased in 2001. She apologized for “not paying close attention to precise ‘assigned values’ placed on the parts” and stated the commode’s price tag was a “errant value” provided by the selling agent. On November 9, 2007, Joyce Meyer Ministries sent out a newsletter to its e-mail list subscribers.
According to the ministry’s annual financial reports, it spent 82 percent of its total expenses “for outreach and program services toward reaching people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as confirmed by independent accounting firm Stanfield & O’Dell, LLP” in 2006. “We decided that you [Joyce Meyer Ministries] continue to qualify as an entity exempt from federal income tax under IRC section 501(c)(3),” according to an Internal Revenue Service letter dated October 10, 2007. The ministry’s website likewise included the same information.
One of two ministries to comply with the Senate’s request for financial documents was Joyce Meyer Ministries. It also pledged to maintain financial transparency in the future. There was no evidence that either side had committed any wrongdoing.
Joyce Meyer Net Worth
More About Joyce Meyer Ministries
Joyce Meyer Ministries, based in Fenton, Missouri, is a Christian non-profit organization. With around 800 employees in 14 offices throughout the world, including about 500 at our global headquarters. The ministry is being financially supported by donations from ministry friends and partners.
Brief Summary About Joyce & Dave Meyer
Joyce Meyer Ministries was formed in 1987 by Dave and Joyce Meyer, who have been in ministry for over 40 years. It is a Christian, non-profit organization that is financially supported by the contributions of its friends and partners.
They have been married for almost 54 years and have four grown children who all serve in various capacities in the ministry. They live in the St. Louis area. They are committed to the simple yet powerful message of sharing Christ and loving people as a family and as a ministry.
Other Resources That Can Help You
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[…] Joyce Meyer and her husband frequently found themselves at the center of debates about their excessive and abundant way of life. According to reports, Meyer owns many properties and a private jet. She reacted to the accusations and said she was blessed and didn’t need to apologize to anyone. (4) […]