- Lakewood Church, led by Pastor Joel Osteen, held a special healing and thanksgiving service one week after the shooting in one of its hallways.
- Osteen, along with his wife and church staff, addressed the impact the shooting has had on the community and talked about moving forward strongly.
- The shooting occurred when Genes Moreno entered the church with her 7-year-old son and began firing an AR-style rifle.
A Houston megachurch led by prominent pastor Joel Osteen held a special service of healing and thanksgiving on Sunday, one week after a woman opened fire in one of its hallways and was shot and killed by a security guard.
Lakewood Church in Osteen has not held services since the Feb. 11 shooting, leaving worshipers scrambling for safety. On Sunday, Osteen, his wife Victoria Osteen, and church staff who lead the Lakewood Spanish Mission sat on stage pews and talked about the shooting, its impact on the Lakewood community, and the church’s mission. He talked about how he is moving forward.
Osteen told parishioners it was a difficult time with “a lot of trauma.”
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“I just learned that Lakewood is strong and continues to get stronger,” he said. “Fear doesn’t win. Faith wins. We move forward.”
Pastor Joel Osteen prays during a service at Lakewood Church in Houston on February 18, 2024. Osteen welcomed worshipers back to his Lakewood church for the first time since a woman wearing AR styles opened fire during a service at the Texas megachurch last Sunday. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Church leaders expressed gratitude to security personnel who responded to the shooting and protected parishioners. Osteen invited Houston Mayor John Whitmire and Police Chief Troy Finner to the stage to thank them for their support following the tragedy. Those in attendance gave the police and security guards a standing ovation.
“After last week’s tragedy, (God) had a purpose to bring us together to show how united our city is,” Whitmire said in a passionate and emotional speech.
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As Osteen and others spoke, voices of “amen” and “thank you, God” could be heard from the audience.
“The purpose of today is to take back what is ours, to take back the space that God has provided for all of us,” Victoria Osteen said.
Officers from various law enforcement agencies, including the Houston Police Department, walked the hallways during and between services Sunday.
Church spokesman Don Iloff said there are typically 40 to 50 uniformed and plainclothes personnel on duty at each church service. He said it was not immediately clear whether Sunday’s numbers were higher.
According to police, Genes Moreno, 36, entered the church with her 7-year-old son between Sunday services and began firing an AR-style rifle. Moreno was unable to reach the main sanctuary and was killed in a gunfight with two off-duty police officers. Two people were injured in the shooting, including Moreno’s son, who was shot in the head and hospitalized.
Osteen, who spoke while wiping away tears, said she was praying for the boy.
Moreno “came here to do a lot of harm, but by the grace of God we are all here,” Osteen said. “Lord, I know she was troubled in her heart.”
Jocelyn Edwards, 39, who attended one of the two services Sunday morning, said she felt it was important to be there and support Lakewood.
“This is not the end. We are not broken. We are going to move forward,” said Edwards, who has attended Lakewood University since 2015.
Beth Mast, 50, was also in Lakewood Sunday with her husband, two daughters and three sons. Her family lives in Crockett, Texas, and travels an hour and a half to Houston every week to attend church services. She has been a member of Lakewood for the past four years.
“We’re coming every Sunday, and the enemy isn’t going to stop us,” Mast said. “Fear doesn’t control us just because something bad happens.”
Vera Andronenkova, 54, and her godson Richard Figas, 33, both live in Chicago and usually watch services online, but the shootings ended up in Houston. He said it was a sign that they needed to come and visit the church.
“A lot of people asked us, ‘Aren’t you guys afraid to go?’ We didn’t give in to that fear,” Figas said. “I felt like this week was the week to come.”
Finner told reporters after the service that investigators are working to determine Moreno’s motives and learn more about how he obtained the AR-style rifle he used.
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, who also appeared in court, said investigators are “leaning toward the view that she is more mentally ill and this is a lone wolf situation.”
Moreno’s former mother-in-law, Wali Carranza, told The Associated Press that Moreno had long struggled with mental illness. Carranza said she believes systemic failures and lax gun laws ultimately led to the shooting.
It also revealed that in addition to trying to alert authorities and others about Moreno’s mental health issues, his attorney sent emails to Lakewood Church in 2020 and 2021 asking for assistance.
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Iloff said church officials have not found any email records, but are still searching. Records show Moreno had attended Lakewood services “sporadically” for several years, but there was no record of her being at the church after 2022, Iloff said last week.
Texas does not have a so-called “red flag” law, and law enforcement or family members typically ask a judge to seize guns from someone deemed dangerous due to mental health issues or threats of violence. or request an order for extradition.
Osteen, 60, preaches to about 45,000 people a week at his church in a former basketball stadium and is known to millions more through his televised sermons. It became so. Lakewood is his third largest megachurch in the United States, according to the Hartford Institute of Religion.
