(Screenshot: Joni Lamb looked healthy in 2024 when she sang during the Daystar Telethon Heart for the World.)
“Show me, LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is.” – Psalm 39:4 NIV
Joni Lamb, co-founder of the Daystar Television Network, a ministry that promoted the Prosperity Gospel, died May 7 at age 65. While it is alleged that Joni died from bone cancer, Daystar has not disclosed the cause of death.
In her final year on earth, Joni prepared for death by downsizing. Joni sold three homes she owned and placed four properties in a trust so that assets could be shared after her death, without going to probate.
(Screenshot: Bibb County, Georgia, eSearch shows property transfer of Macon, Georgia, home to the Joni Lamb Trust.)
Joni encouraged Daystar viewers to put the TV network in their wills during estate planning. Daystar’s Legacy Stewardship page lists reasons for estate planning. Here are four of them which may have influenced Joni in preparing for her death:
- Ensure your property is transferred to the persons of your choosing – not the state’s
- Prevent persons from receiving any of your assets
- Make charitable contributions
- Maintain privacy
In March 2025, with assistance from Trinity Foundation, journalist Julie Roys reported that Joni owned seven properties in four states, worth $11.7 million.
Three of the properties were purchased following the death of Joni’s first husband Marcus Lamb. These properties, which included a beach condo in Miramar Beach, Florida, costing $2.9 million, may have been purchased with funds from Marcus’ life insurance policy.
Joni’s prior residences were partially paid for by a generous clergy housing allowance which totaled $1,671,324 from 2002 to 2011. The tax-exempt housing allowance was disclosed in financial documents that Daystar gave to defendant Jeanette Hawkins, a former Daystar employee falsely accused of blackmail. Trinity Foundation successfully sued as an intervenor to get the financial records unsealed.
Unlike secular non-profit organizations, Joni’s non-profit Word of God Fellowship, because it has church status, is not required to file a Form 990 which would disclose to the IRS and the public the housing allowance given to highly compensated employees.
In October, Joni sold her two-story Colleyville, Texas residence. The final sale price is unknown. According to the General Warranty Deed with Vendor’s Lien, the new homeowner acquired the property with a loan of $2,350,000 but that doesn’t include the amount of a downpayment.
(Screenshot: Trinity Foundation supplied drone footage of Joni’s former home to Inside Edition.)
According to Redfin, the Colleyville home is worth $3,365,263. Meanwhile, the Tarrant County appraisal of the property was $5,779,632 for 2024 through 2026.
Redfin reports that Joni sold her Taylors, South Carolina residence for $300,000. The sale price for Joni’s lake house in Granbury, Texas is unknown, but Redfin estimates it to be worth $831,762.
Downsizing also occurred at Joni’s broadcast ministry.
Word of God Fellowship, the parent organization of the Daystar Television Network, sold its Gulfstream G-V jet, which the network acquired in 2020, shortly after receiving a $3,913,200 Paycheck Protection Program loan to retain 303 employees during Covid.
(Photo: Daystar’s former jet at Fort Worth Meacham airport.)
In November 2020, Inside Edition reporter Lisa Guerrero conducted an ambush interview of Marcus in the parking lot of the Timarron Country Club in Southlake, Texas.
When Marcus arrived for the Daystar Golf Tournament, Guerrero and her cameraman sprinted out of a van to question Marcus.
Guerrero asked, “Did you use taxpayer money to buy a private jet?” Marcus responded, “No we did not. We had our own money.”
Daystar paid back the PPP loan.
Studying the Accumulation of Wealth by Religious Leaders by Documenting Property Holdings
In 2021, the Houston Chronicle published an investigative article series on the topic of church parsonages. Investigative reporter Jay Root submitted open records requests to county property assessors to identify the state’s most expensive parsonages.
After assisting with the Houston Chronicle investigation, Trinity Foundation created a master list of church and ministry leader residences with the goal of studying the accumulation of wealth by religious leaders.
This research resulted in the article Church, Pastor and Ministry Leader Homes Sold in 2023 and the 2024 investigative report 40 Church and Ministry Leaders’ Beach Houses, Beach Condos and Waterfront Homes Identified; Their Total Net Worth Is $140 Million.
In addition to reporting on Joni’s property holdings, Trinity Foundation also published the articles Worship Leader Acquires Nine Homes and Two Parsonages about Sean Feucht and the article Billionaire Televangelist Sells Condo for $13 Million about Brazilian preacher Edir Macedo.