Megachurch Pastor Keion Henderson says God told him followers will give $4.4 million in 3 weeks

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter
Friday, August 02, 2024

After Hurricane Beryl caused $20 million in damage to three of his church's four campuses, Pastor Keion Henderson, founder and CEO of The Lighthouse Church & Ministries in Houston, Texas, says God told him He damaged the churches so he could rebuild facilities twice as big and that his followers would give him approximately $4.4 million in three weeks to do it.

Henderson made the bold announcement in an update on the state of his churches on Wednesday night from Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church, where he says he'll be hosting services for his 20,000 weekly attendees in August.

While Henderson lamented the damage to his churches as "catastrophic," he claimed God revealed to him that it was all His doing so Henderson could build a bigger church to accommodate the thousands that want to hear God's Word from him.

"I won't pretend like I can do this by myself. If I could do this alone, trust me, it would be done already. But I am a feeble man who puts himself at the mercy of the court and asks you to join me in a journey because we do not have time to waste. We cannot build, and we cannot raise money for three years and then build another two years and have all of these people displaced," said Henderson.

He claimed that before the damage from Hurricane Beryl, the church turned away between 600 and 700 people from his campuses weekly because the sanctuary was beyond capacity.

"God gave me a vision, and He said we can do it in 21 days. I'm asking 2,100 people to give $2,100 in the next 21 days, and what we're calling it is 'Out of the Harbor,'" Henderson said.

"I call you from California. I call you from New York. I call you from Florida. I call you from the U.K. I call you from Africa to join us in our call to action: 2,100 people, $2,100, 21 days, to kickstart our efforts to get back into our building."

Henderson said that while some people may believe that insurance will be enough to cover the losses, he doesn't think it will be enough to cover God's vision for his church because the payout will be based on "depreciated" value.

Before making the request of his followers, Henderson spoke of the journey he had been on for the last 15 years to build the church and the challenges he faced.

"I can't give you all of the details but let me tell you our building is uninhabitable as of this moment. You can't even walk in it. It's catastrophic. It's shocking. It's sobering. It's actually emotional. The reason why it's emotional is that you could not have imagined all we had to go through just to get here," he said, recalling multiple deaths in his family as he prepared to buy the building that housed his church and church-run school 15 years ago.

"I will never forget when we were signing the papers to close on the building we're in. Closing had to be postponed. My grandfather died on the same day we were scheduled to close. Well, we rescheduled closing 30 days later. I was signing the papers. The lawyer that was in the room with us, he looked at me with tears in his eyes, and I thought he was happy because of what God had done," Henderson said.

"What I didn't know is that my mother had called him to tell him that my uncle had died while I was signing the papers. Three days later, when we walked in the building with the keys, we got the news that my oldest cousin died from a brain aneurysm. You can't imagine all that took place for us to get in the building, and now I am looking at 15 years gone in 15 minutes," he continued.

Henderson said the storm damage caused him at times to suffer depression because it disrupted the lives of some 300 children in his church-run daycare and school as well as staff members.

"Yes, I have moments of depression. Yes, I live by faith, and I walk by faith, but I had moments when I felt like giving up. The impact was so great, not just on the building, but all of the decisions I knew I would have to make," he said.

"Where is the daycare going to go? Where is the school going to go? We've got 300 kids in daycare and school that are now displaced, and where do you put the 60 to 80 staff members? So many decisions so quickly with little time to think about. Then, I had to reach in my reservoir and remember that we are a royal priesthood. I am a resilient person because I walk by faith and not by sight."

He said that faith has moved him to carry out God's vision of building back bigger with the help of followers who have never even attended his church in person.

"Let me thank you, those of you who sit in your living rooms, and you loaned me your spirits. Thank you for using your hard-earned time and resources to call me your online pastor. Some of you I've never met, but I feel like I know you in my heart. And because you've helped us to get here, I'm going to call on you to help us to get there," he urged in his appeal.

"I need you to help us in rebuilding ... All who have watched me, you've heard me say that it was time for us to expand our sanctuary. We were turning 600 to 700 people away every week. The parking was abysmal, but we made it. I told our church that we were going to start over, and yet again, I believe God said, 'Keion, your faith was too small, so let me blow the building down so you can build what I put in your heart,'" he claimed God told him.

"I want to increase the size of our sanctuary by two. I want to double the size of it so that no one who has an opportunity to get in is turned away because we don't have a seat," he continued.

"We can't wait on the insurance company to do that. I need you from around the world. If I've ever preached a message that has touched your spirit, if I've ever spoken into your life and you started the company that you were not going to start had I not pushed you in faith, If you were thinking about ending your own life, but somehow God gave me a word that made you fight to live another day, I need you."

Donald Iloff, Lakewood's lead spokesman and Osteen's brother-in-law, confirmed that Henderson will be hosting services for his church at Lakewood for the month of August and was only asked to assist with "costs that incur" from his congregation's use of the space and is not being charged a typical rental fee.

"Joel and Keion know one another," Iloff told The Houston Chronicle. "Joel respects the young man."

Spokesman for The Lighthouse Church & Ministries, Brian Smith, confirmed the temporary relocation and said the gesture from Lakewood Church is a blessing.

"Lighthouse is grateful to the Lakewood staff for providing us with the use of their building and sanctuary during the month," Smith said. "Their friendship and compassion are wonderful blessings to our church. The partnership between Lakewood and Lighthouse demonstrates that our community is all about the one resilience for the city of Houston."

Lakewood Church doors and parking lots will be open for Lighthouse Church parishioners on Sundays at 6 p.m. CST, while the service will begin at 7 p.m. CST and end at 9 p.m. CST, according to an announcement.