From the moment Paula White steps into the World Congress Center, she’s on: camera-ready makeup, designer suit, black stilettos and pocketfuls of pithy sound bites…

As host of the “Paula White Today” show, White broadcasts to millions of homes a day.

An author, she also is a life coach on “The Tyra Banks Show” and hobnobs with celebrities. Her 22,000-member Tampa church, Without Walls, has been dubbed one of the fastest-growing churches in America. In Lakeland, Without Walls International purchased Carpenter’s Home church and now has a satellite church at that location, Without Walls Central…

White says she received a vision of her future as a preacher shortly after her salvation. Her career got a megaboost when she met Bishop T.D. Jakes, pastor of the Dallas megachurch, the Potter’s House. Jakes, who is black, helped catapult White to superstardom – particularly among black women – when he invited her to speak at his Woman Thou Art Loosed Conference in 2000.

She launched her television ministry a year later. Today, White is one of the most popular preachers on Black Entertainment Television and appears on several other networks including Spike TV and Trinity Broadcasting…

White also has been dubbed a prosperity preacher, a proponent of the “name-it and claim-it” gospel, which purports that people can receive financial, emotional and spiritual blessings if they donate. That message and her penchant for designer clothing and flashy cars have added to the cacophony of criticism.

White drives a Mercedes-Benz and flies around the country in a private jet. She lives in a $2.1 million mansion on Tampa’s Bayshore Boulevard and has a Fifth Avenue condo in Trump Tower in New York City. The ministries took in $39.9 million in 2006, according to an audit of Without Walls and Paula White Ministries released in June by an independent Clearwater accounting firm.

About $28.6 million helped promote the church’s programs, conferences and outreach efforts, the audit said. Other expenses covered management and fundraising… White’s salary was not detailed, but her publicist says she has multiple streams of income outside the ministry…

And for his 50th birthday in June, White sent Jakes a black convertible Bentley. It was intended to be quiet gift, White said, but an overzealous member of Jakes’ ministry shouted out the news at the retail show.

“Some people thought ‘Why would you do that?’ ” White later explained, saying that Jakes is her spiritual father. “I thought, ‘Well, why wouldn’t I?’ That’s not even an option.” (Online source)

See also:

PAULA WHITE LESS THAN TRUTHFUL REGARDING “RABBI” RALPH MESSER

DUNG DROPPINGS IN THE ELEPHANT ROOM: T.D. JAKES—JESUS IS THE PRODUCT

MEGACHURCH PASTORS JOEL OSTEEN AND T.D. JAKES UNITE AND WHY YOU SHOULD CARE