Kenneth Copeland- Founder Of Eagle Mountain International Church Inc [EMIC], Televangelist

American televangelist Kenneth Max Copeland is part of the charismatic movement. Eagle Mountain International Church Inc. (EMIC), which is based in Tarrant County, Texas, was started by him. Copeland has also written books and other materials.

He is part of the Word of Faith movement and teaches prosperity theology. Copeland has written that when people give to God, they will get a “hundredfold” return on their money.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Copeland said that the pandemic had ended or would end soon and that his followers would be healed of the virus. He said that people should keep giving tithes even if they lost their jobs because of the pandemic’s effect on the economy.

Kenneth Max Copeland grew up in West Texas near an airport for the US Army Air Forces. This made him want to be a pilot.

Career Life

Copeland was a music artist on the Imperial Records label. He had one Billboard Top 40 hit, “Pledge of Love,” which entered the charts on April 20, 1957, stayed on the charts for 15 weeks, and peaked at No. 17.

In the fall of 1967, he went to Oral Roberts University, where he quickly became Oral Roberts’s pilot and driver.

Ministerial Life

Copeland and his wife Gloria started Kenneth Copeland Ministries (KCM) in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1967. They did this after going to Kenneth E. Hagin’s Pastor Seminars. “Jesus is Lord” is the group’s theme.

Since 1967, Copeland’s ministry has held meetings all over the United States that last between three and six days. KCM still holds the Southwest Believer’s Convention every year in the first week of August in Fort Worth, where he was born. Kenneth and Gloria Copeland also serve and preach at other conferences and conventions around the world.

These events are shown live on Copeland’s website, kcm.org, and on Christian TV channels like GOD TV and the Daystar Television Network. On Sundays, parts of conferences that were recorded are shown. Monday through Friday, a member of the Copeland family, either alone or with another preacher, talks about Bible-related topics on TV.

On May 27, 1971, KCM launched a one-hour TV show. This show, originally called “The Word of Faith,” is now called “Believers Voice of Victory.” In 1972, a new TV show called “The Prayer Group” was put on the air. This was a half-hour TV show that was shown all over the U.S.

Properties

Kenneth Copeland Ministries is in Fort Worth, Texas. It is on a 33-acre (13 ha) piece of land that used to be the Marine Corps Air Station Eagle Mountain Lake (MCAS Eagle Mountain Lake), an air station for the United States Marine Corps.

In 2008, Tarrant Appraisal District valued the property at $554,160, which is equal to $753,212 in 2022. On the site are the Eagle Mountain International Church, places to make TV and radio, warehouses and distribution centers, homes for the Copeland family, and the Kenneth Copeland Airport.

KCM is a company that employs about 500 people.[citation needed] Kenneth’s son John Copeland ran the church until 2017, when he split up with his wife Marty Copeland. He still works for the office as a consultant.

KCM also owns a 2005 Cessna 750 Citation X, which it uses for foreign flights, and a 1998 Cessna 550 Citation Bravo, which it got from a donor in October 2007 and uses for domestic flights. In 2018, they also bought a Gulfstream V that Tyler Perry used to own. It is also fixing up a 1962 Beech H-18 Twin that will be used to help people after a disaster.

In February 2007, Copeland was accused of taking trips with friends and using his ministry’s Citation X for his own pleasure.

The Copelands’ financial records are not available to the public, and neither is a list of the board of directors. The Internal Revenue Service knows these information, but they are kept secret.[19] When asked by the media, Copeland pointed to what he said was a statement from an accounting firm that all jet travel is in line with federal tax rules.

In December 2008, KCM’s Citation Bravo lost its tax-exempt status because KCM wouldn’t fill out a standard form from the Texas Comptroller that some county appraisal districts use to make decisions. This form would have made the salaries of all ministry workers public, which KCM didn’t want to do.

Then, in January 2009, KCM sued the Tarrant Appraisal District, and in March 2010, its request to get the aircraft’s tax-free status back was approved.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries has used a program from the Federal Aviation Administration that keeps flights from being tracked by websites. The ministry owns five aircraft, including the Cessna 750 Citation X and the North American T-28 Trojan, whose flights are kept secret.Senator Chuck Grassley of the United States has questioned some of these planes’ trips, such as their stops in Maui, Fiji, and Honolulu. The ministries say the stops were to teach or give the pilots a chance to rest.

Controversy

KCM was criticized because they said they would help Haiti by making a program called “Angel Flight 44” from 2006 to 2010. A spokesperson said, “This was not a specific promise with a deadline.” The money was used to fix airplanes, the official said.

Copeland was criticized for what he said about the Joe Biden presidency, Covid-19, and the controversy over vaccines.

In 2008, the ministry had five planes, and it kept buying more, including a Gulfstream V jet from the businessman and movie director Tyler Perry. Copeland raised money to build a garage, improve the runway, and take care of the airport.

Copeland and other televangelists have been attacked for using private jets, luxury cars, and big, fancy homes. In 2015, Copeland and another televangelist, Jesse Duplantis, defended the use of private jets as a necessary part of their mission.

In 2015, Copeland and his wife were on an episode of John Oliver’s show Last Week Tonight.John Oliver criticized the Copelands for using tax laws to live in a $6.3 million mansion because the parsonage allowance for their home is not subject to income taxes, for using church donations to buy a $20 million jet that was used for trips to a ski resort and a private game ranch, and for promoting healing through faith and skepticism of medicine.

Mike Huckabee, a Republican candidate for president in 2008, was on Copeland’s show Believer’s Voice of Victory six times. rented KCM’s space for a fundraiser, which the Trinity Foundation said was a bad idea.

As a result of Huckabee’s presence, KCM was one of six ministries looked into by the US Senate as part of an investigation into the tax-exempt status of religious groups. KCM was one of four groups that did not work together or offer to help make changes. The review didn’t find anything wrong with the Copelands.

Personal Life

Copeland has had three marriages. In October 1955, he got married to Ivy Bodiford. They had one child, a girl named Terri Copeland Pearsons. In 1958, they got a divorce. Then, from 1958 to 1961, he was married to Cynthia Davis.

In 1963, Copeland married Gloria, whose maiden name was Neece. It’s been 59 years since they got married. John Copeland, Kellie Copeland, and Terri Copeland Pearsons all have them as parents.[needs clarification] The Believer’s Voice of Victory is the ministry’s most popular show, and Gloria and her husband both lead it.

Kellie and Terri both preach in different parts of the United States. Terri also preaches at Eagle Mountain International Church, where her husband, George Pearsons, is the leader.

Copeland has become a “very wealthy man” over the course of his work. In 2021, Copeland had a net worth of $750 million, making him the richest priest in America.

Advisory Board

Copeland was a member of the Christian executive advisory board that Donald Trump put together while he was running for president.[29] Being put on the board didn’t require Copeland to support Trump’s run for president,[30] and he made it clear that he didn’t at the time.

Before the 2016 election, Copeland said that Christians who didn’t vote for Trump would be murderers because Hillary Clinton supported abortion rights.

In an interview after a state dinner at the White House that Copeland attended, he said that Trump was “led by the Spirit of God” and that his most important impact as president would be the appointments of conservative judges.

Kenneth Copeland Bible College

Kenneth Copeland Ministries and Eagle Mountain International Church (EMIC) own the land where Kenneth Copeland Bible College (KCBC) is. Transworld Accreditation Commission International has given KCBC a seal of approval.

Victory Channel

KCM started the Believer’s Voice of Victory Network in 2015 on Dish channel 265. In 2019, Believer’s Voice of Victory Network changed its name to Victory Channel. You can watch it over-the-air or with some cable companies.

The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) stopped airing the Believer’s Voice of Victory (BVOV) on October 2, 2020.

At the beginning of 2022, it was added to several national cable systems as part of a new channel deal with Olympusat. Before that, the channel space was used by Hillsong Channel, Living Faith Network, and then Bulldog Shopping Network.