The richest pastor in the world as of November 2026 is Bishop Edir Macedo of Brazil, with an estimated net worth of about $1.8 billion. This ranking covers living pastors, bishops and ministry founders whose personal wealth can be traced to their own work: books, broadcasting, media companies and speaking. Church buildings and ministry assets are not personal money, so we leave them out of the totals. Every figure below is our estimate, and published numbers for pastors often differ by two to four times, so treat them as ranges rather than precise totals.
| Rank | Name | Net worth (USD) | Main source of wealth |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Creflo Dollar | $27 million | Books, broadcasting |
| 9 | Enoch Adeboye | $45 million | Books, ministry-linked ventures |
| 8 | Joseph Prince | $50 million | Books, TV ministry |
| 7 | Benny Hinn | $60 million | Television, books, crusades |
| 6 | T.D. Jakes | $80 million | Books, films, conferences |
| 5 | Chris Oyakhilome | $90 million | LoveWorld media, publishing |
| 4 | Joel Osteen | $100 million | Book deals, speaking |
| 3 | David Oyedepo | $150 million | Publishing, ministry-linked ventures |
| 2 | Kenneth Copeland | $300 million | Broadcasting, books, media |
| 1 | Edir Macedo | $1.8 billion | Record TV network, books |
10. Creflo Dollar: $27 million
Creflo Dollar held his first service in 1986 in a school cafeteria in College Park, Georgia. Eight people showed up. That congregation became World Changers Church International, and in 1995 it moved into the World Dome, an 8,500-seat sanctuary the church says it built for close to $20 million without a bank loan.
His daily program, Changing Your World, airs internationally, and he has written books including The Anointing to Live and Overcoming Fear. In 2012 the ministry opened a satellite church in a restored theater in the Bronx, extending its reach to New York.
His number reflects book royalties, broadcast income and personal property, and it is one of the more conservative estimates in circulation.
9. Enoch Adeboye: $45 million
Before he was a pastor, Enoch Adeboye was a mathematician. He earned a PhD in applied mathematics from the University of Lagos in 1975 and lectured at Nigerian universities before he left academia to preach full-time.
Since 1981 he has led the Redeemed Christian Church of God as General Overseer. Under him it spread from Nigeria to roughly 190 countries, and its annual convention at Redemption Camp, outside Lagos, draws crowds measured in the hundreds of thousands. Dozens of devotional books carry his name, and the church founded Redeemer’s University.
Estimates for Adeboye vary widely, from about $40 million to more than $100 million. We take the lower end, based on publishing income and personal assets, because so much of the church’s wealth belongs to the institution.
8. Joseph Prince: $50 million
Joseph Prince leads New Creation Church in Singapore, one of the largest churches in Singapore, with tens of thousands of members. Born in 1963, he worked in IT before he went into ministry full-time.
His best-known book, Destined to Reign, became an international bestseller, and his teaching program is broadcast in many countries. The church council has said Prince has not drawn a church salary since 2009, so his income comes from books and his media ministry.
The estimate rests on two decades of book sales and media income, with no church pay included.
7. Benny Hinn: $60 million
Benny Hinn was born in Jaffa in 1952 and moved with his family to Canada as a teenager. In 1983 he founded the Orlando Christian Center in Florida, and by the end of the decade his Miracle Crusades were filling stadiums.
His television show, This Is Your Day, launched in 1990 and has aired on Christian networks around the world ever since. The same year he published Good Morning, Holy Spirit, which became his best-selling book. In 2017 he partnered with Chris Oyakhilome on LoveWorld USA, a Christian cable channel.
We base his figure on decades of book and media income, which most estimates put between $40 million and $95 million.
6. T.D. Jakes: $80 million
Thomas Dexter Jakes started preaching in West Virginia and self-published a book in 1993 called Woman, Thou Art Loosed. It sold more than a million copies and became the foundation of everything that followed.
In 1996 he founded The Potter’s House in Dallas, which grew to about 30,000 members. He has written more than 40 books, and his publishing business has reportedly sold over 20 million copies. Hollywood came next. Jakes produced faith-based films including Heaven Is for Real and Miracles from Heaven, hosted a syndicated talk show from 2015 to 2017 and built MegaFest, a Dallas conference that draws tens of thousands of people.
Our estimate counts book royalties, film and conference income and personal property, and lands between the low and high figures commonly reported, which run from about $50 million to well over $100 million.
5. Chris Oyakhilome: $90 million
Chris Oyakhilome founded Christ Embassy in Lagos in 1987, the year he graduated from university, and grew it out of a campus fellowship. Today the church runs congregations across Africa, Europe and North America.
He is as much a media founder as a preacher. His LoveWorld group runs Christian television channels that broadcast from Africa to the world, a music label and the KingsChat messaging app. His daily devotional, Rhapsody of Realities, written with his former wife Anita, is distributed free in a long list of languages.
We valued his share of the LoveWorld media and publishing businesses rather than church property, which is owned by the ministry.
4. Joel Osteen: $100 million
Joel Osteen spent 17 years behind the camera, producing his father’s television program, before he preached his first sermon in 1999. That year he succeeded his father, the founder, as pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston. Within a few years, it had outgrown its building.
In 2003 Lakewood acquired the Compaq Center, the former home of the Houston Rockets, and turned it into a 16,800-seat sanctuary that now welcomes more than 50,000 people a week. Osteen has not taken a church salary since 2005. His money comes from books. Your Best Life Now spent around 200 weeks on the bestseller list, and his advance and royalties for Become a Better You reportedly topped $13 million. In 2010 he and his wife bought a Houston-area home for $10.5 million.
Book advances and royalties drive almost all of his figure, plus his property.
3. David Oyedepo: $150 million
David Oyedepo founded Living Faith Church Worldwide, better known as Winners Chapel, in 1981. His home church, Faith Tabernacle in Ota, near Lagos, has 50,000 seats and was recognized as the largest church auditorium in the world.
Winners Chapel now runs congregations in more than 30 African countries, plus the UK, the US and Dubai. The ministry also founded two private universities, including Covenant University, and runs Dominion Publishing House, which prints Oyedepo’s many books.
The $150 million covers publishing income and personal holdings tied to his ministry work. It is a hedged number, since church and personal assets in Nigeria are hard to separate from the outside.
2. Kenneth Copeland: $300 million
Kenneth Copeland had a pop hit before he had a pulpit. His recording of “Pledging My Love” reached the Billboard charts in 1957. A decade later, in 1967, he founded Kenneth Copeland Ministries in Fort Worth, Texas, and in the early 1970s he started the broadcast that became Believer’s Voice of Victory.
That program has run for more than 50 years and grew into a full media operation, including a 24-hour Christian channel. Copeland also founded Eagle Mountain International Church and has written dozens of books with his wife, Gloria. Few ministries in the world have stayed on air as long as his.
His estimate is the hardest on this list to pin down. Published figures range from about $100 million to $400 million, and we sit in the upper half of that range, counting broadcasting, publishing and personal property.
1. Edir Macedo: $1.8 billion
Edir Macedo worked for Rio de Janeiro’s state lottery before he started preaching on a bandstand in a city park. In 1977 he founded the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, and it grew into one of the biggest Pentecostal denominations in the world, with churches in more than 100 countries.
His fortune does not come from the church. In 1989 he bought RecordTV, a struggling broadcaster, and built it into the second-largest television network in Brazil. His books have sold more than 10 million copies, and his autobiographical trilogy Nada a Perder was adapted into films that were huge hits in Brazilian cinemas in 2018 and 2019. He first appeared on global billionaire lists in 2013. He is 81 and still leads the church as its bishop.
Our model values his ownership of the RecordTV group at broadcast-industry multiples and adds book income. Brazilian and international estimates of his fortune cluster between about $1.8 billion and $2 billion.
What the richest pastors have in common
- The money is in media, not the collection plate. Every name in the top five owns or built a broadcasting or publishing operation. Macedo’s TV network and Osteen’s book deals are worth far more to them personally than any church salary.
- They were early to television. Copeland and Macedo were building broadcast operations before cable TV was mainstream. Oyakhilome built his own satellite channels when African Christian TV barely existed.
- Nigeria and the US dominate. Eight of the ten are Nigerian or American. Both countries combine big congregations with a culture of televised preaching.
- Personal wealth is the hardest part to measure. Churches own their buildings, schools and broadcast equipment. We count only what the person owns, which is why some figures here are lower than headlines suggest.
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Who is the richest pastor in the world?
Bishop Edir Macedo of Brazil is the richest pastor in the world, with an estimated net worth of about $1.8 billion as of November 2026. Most of it comes from his ownership of the RecordTV network.
Who is the richest pastor in America?
Kenneth Copeland is the richest American pastor on our list, with an estimated $300 million built mainly from broadcasting and books.
Who is the richest pastor in Nigeria?
David Oyedepo, founder of Winners Chapel, is the richest Nigerian pastor in our ranking at about $150 million.
How do pastors become wealthy?
Mostly through book deals, television and radio programs, conferences and media companies. Church donations generally belong to the church, not the pastor.
Does Joel Osteen take a salary from his church?
No. Joel Osteen has not taken a salary from Lakewood Church since 2005 and earns his income from books and speaking.
How much does the number 10 pastor have?
Creflo Dollar is number 10 with an estimated net worth of about $27 million.
How we estimate net worth
Our estimates are based on public reporting, company valuations, and deal and earnings figures all compiled in an internal valuation model. They are approximate, and figures change over time as new information emerges.
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Last updated: November 2026.
