Marcus Lamb

Marcus Lamb (born October 7, 1957) is an American televangelist, minister and Christian broadcaster. He is the co-founder, president, and CEO of the Daystar Television Network, the second-largest Christian television network in the world. The network has 90 TV stations and satellite and cable coverage that reaches 100 million U.S. households and more than 200 countries.^[1] The estimated value of the network is $230 million.^[2]

Early life

Marcus was born October 7, 1957 in Macon, Georgia. He grew up in a Christian home, attending the East Macon Church of God with his family. He became a Christian at the age of five and continued in church attendance and work as he grew older. He began to preach as an evangelist at age fifteen. He graduated from high school at a young age and was enrolled at age sixteen at Cleveland, Tennessee’s private, faith-based, Lee College, (formerly the Bible Training School of the Church_of_God_(Cleveland) until 1947, known as Lee University since 1997). Three years later he graduated with Magna Cum Laude honors.^[3] In 1982, four years after graduation, he married Joni Trammell (Joni_Lamb) of Greenville, South Carolina. The couple spent their early years of marriage as traveling evangelists. They visited churches throughout the Southeast to teach the gospel.^[4] Marcus was ordained as a Bishop with the Church_of_God_(Cleveland) of Tennessee.

Media ministry

In 1980, the same year that Marcus met his wife Joni, he founded The Word of God Fellowship, the company that would eventually birth the Daystar Television Network. In 1984, Marcus and Joni moved to Montgomery, Alabama to begin WMCF-TV. This was the first full power Christian station in the state. Marcus and Joni built it to the point that it garnered interest from Trinity Broadcasting Network. They sold the station to TBN in 1990 and moved to Dallas, Texas. It was in Dallas that Marcus founded Daystar. At the end of 1997, the Daystar network was officially launched.^[4] Marcus is a regular speaker and teacher on his network and as a visitor in churches around the world. His most regular public forum is on Celebration, the Daystar flagship program. Every weekday, he hosts the show with Joni and speaks about the Bible and their network. Marcus has been named one of the top 50 most influential Christians in America by the Church Report Magazine.^[5]

Personal life

In November 2010, Lamb admitted on the Daystar Network that he had an extramarital affair that had ended several years before.^[6][7] In his admission, Lamb took "100 percent responsibility" for his actions. He and his wife were able to fully reconcile with the help of marriage counselors. Due to the advice of their marriage counselors, the decision was made to keep this matter private as long as they could, in order to heal adequately.^[2] The Lambs decided to publicly disclose the infidelity shortly after they claimed that three women asked for US $7.5 million in exchange for silence on the matter. Instead, the Lambs' shared their story publicly on television and refused to pay anything. Bedford, Texas authorities decided not to prosecute criminal charges against the three women for extortion, even though the attorney representing the three former Daystar employees had in fact, asked for $7.5 million from Daystar.^[8] Civil suits and counter-suits between Daystar and the three former employees were filed over the matter.^[9][10]

Lamb and Daystar were vindicated in fall 2011 following an October decision by a Dallas court after a contested hearing to throw out all employment law claims by one of the employees. By December, 2011, that employee had dropped all of her other claims which were based on defamation, and the other two other employees had dropped their cases entirely. Daystar subsequently dismissed its countersuits against each of the women. In connection with these matters, none of the claimants received any financial compensation, either individually or for attorney fees, and have no right to re-file.^[11]

The Lambs have appeared on mainstream network programs such as Good Morning America and Dr. Phil to say that Marcus' infidelity was several years ago, that their marriage is now whole, and that they want to do all they can to help other married couples stay together.^[12][2]

Marcus and his wife, Joni, reside in Dallas, Texas with their three children, Jonathan, Rachel and Rebecca. Jonathan recently married Suzanna Sagar.^[13]

References

External links

• Marcus Lamb Personal Ministry Site
• Daystar Television Network Website
• Marcus and Joni Lamb Biographies and the history of the Daystar Network
• The Church Report's 50 Most Influential Christians in America
• Daystar Television Network - Marcus Lamb Bio
• Daystar Television Network - Marcus Lamb - Empowered By The Spirit