Kanye West's Sunday Service at Joel Osteen's megachurch leads to ticket frenzy
People will be flocking to see Kanye West and his Sunday Service at Joel Osteen's megachurch this weekend.
The rapper behind the Jesus Is King album will be at Lakewood Church in Houston Sunday for two events: the televangelist’s 11 a.m. worship service, during which Osteen will interview the performer about overcoming adversity and his faith journey. Then there will be a 7 p.m. musical performance by West and his Sunday Service Collective choir.
On Friday, a portion of the tickets — which are free to the first 45,000 people — were offered in a Ticketmaster pre-sale and it led to a ticket-grabbing frenzy. Ticketmaster’s site went down during the middle of it, leading to some irritated Ye fans. (Some fans appealed to Kim Kardashian directly over it.)
Of course, the free tickets to the church event were soon quickly being resold for hundreds of dollars. We’ve seen them on Twitter for $300 a pop.
Selling 4 Kanye West x Joel Osteen Sunday Service tickets at Lakewood Church
300 each
1000 for all pic.twitter.com/XLxtwOUsiq— ~~~ (@takingpayment) November 15, 2019
That makes this listing for them at $199.95 apiece on eBay a bargain.
Additional tickets will go be made available Saturday on Ticketmaster at 10 a.m.
Events at the megachurch typically attract a crowd. The three weekly Sunday services — 8:30 a.m., 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. — usually draw more than 45,000 people. Services last 90 minutes. The venue has seating for 16,800, but there is an overflow area of the super church that will be used for West’s events.
And while thousands go to see the service in person, millions more watch the weekly sermons from home via TV and online. West’s services will be no different. Both of his events will be streamed Live on Facebook, YouTube, LakewoodChurch.com, the Lakewood Church App and on Joel Osteen’s SiriusXM’s radio channel (128).
According to Fox Business, the event is supposed to attract “record crowds” and the Houston Police Department is monitoring the event, along with the church's in-house security team.
“We’ve planned for the event and are working with the church,” Houston Police spokesperson John Cannon said. “[We] know it’s probably going to be more traffic than normal, more crowded than normal. We’ve planned accordingly.”
The report also noted that no threats of any sort have been made ahead of the events — and Ticketmaster warned people going, “NO Weapons Permitted. NO backpacks. NO bags. NO suitcases.”
A spokesperson for Lakewood Church has not yet responded to Yahoo Entertainment’s request for comment about how they’ll be boosting security and otherwise prepping for West.
Osteen extended the invitation to West on Oct. 25 — the same day Jesus Is King dropped. A church rep said Osteen and West became friendly through phone conversations about faith.
It is unclear at this point who will be joining West — in addition to his 150-plus member gospel choir, which includes singers and musicians. It seems more than likely that there will be some Kardashian representation — wife Kardashian, their children and her family members have joined his Sunday Service in the past — and this will be an especially big event.
West’s services in the past have attracted many non-Kardashians too: Brad Pitt, Chance the Rapper, Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom and Courtney Love.
West has sought a high power amid his personal struggles and public breakdown. He put together the Sunday Service Collective the first week of January — and it’s been going strong for the last 11 months as a part-concert/part-religious worship service.
“I’m thinking that we’re gonna do this two or three weeks,” West’s choir director Jason White recently told Rolling Stone. “First week of January, 2019, Kanye’s gonna do this a week or two, he’ll get sick of it and move on.... After the fifth week, we’re adding horns, adding drummers, and I’m like, what is this turning into? Then Mrs. West calls it Sunday Service, and it took on a whole ‘nother spin.”
West brought Sunday Service to the Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival in April, further putting it on the map. Celebrities quickly started attending to see what the fuss was about, leading to even more buzz.
In an interview with Elle in April, Kardashian described Sunday Service as “a healing experience for my husband. It’s just music; there’s no sermon. It’s definitely something he believes in — Jesus — and there’s a Christian vibe. But there’s no preaching. It’s just a very spiritual Christian experience.”
However, she has since said that since he embraced Christianity, it’s made him stricter at home. She has pointed to them clashing over her Met Gala outfit, which he deemed too sexy. She has also said he’d become a stricter parent to their four children, leading Kardashian to take away North’s makeup and remove the TVs in kids’ rooms.
Of West’s change, Kardashian said earlier this month, “He’s been going through this life change,” she said and "I love that beautiful journey,” which she called “such a great example for our kids.”
And while she embraces the new side, she added, “I'm always gonna be me.”
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