Robert Tilton
| Robert Gibson Tilton | |
|---|---|
| Born |
June 7, 1946 Dallas, Texas, USA |
| Occupation | Pastor, author, televangelist |
| Employer | Word of Faith World Outreach Center Church |
| Title | Pastor |
| Spouse(s) |
Martha Phillips (m. 1968; div. 1993) Leigh Valentine (m. 1994; div. 1997) Maria Rodriguez Tilton (m. 2002) |
| Children | Amy Kushnir |
| Website | roberttiltonlive.com |
Robert Gibson Tilton (born June 7, 1946) is an American televangelist of the prosperity gospel widely known for his infomercial-styled religious television program Success-N-Life, which at its peak in 1991 aired in all 235 American TV markets (daily in the majority of them), brought in nearly $80 million per year, and was described as "the fastest growing television ministry in America."
Within two years after ABC's Primetime Live examined Tilton's fundraising practices, beginning a series of investigations into the ministry, his program was taken off the air. Tilton later returned to television via his new version of Success-N-Life airing on BET and The Word Network.
According to Tilton's autobiographical materials, he had a conversion experience to evangelical Christianity in 1969 and began his ministry in 1974, taking his new family (including wife Martha "Marte" Phillips, whom he married in 1968) on the road to, in his words, "preach this gospel of Jesus." Tilton preached to small congregations and revivals throughout Texas and Oklahoma. Tilton and his family settled in Dallas, Texas, and built a small nondenominational charismatic church in Farmers Branch, Texas, called the "Word Of Faith Family Church" in 1976. The church also started a local television program then known as Daystar (not related to the Daystar Television Network, though both were started in the Dallas area). Tilton's announcer on Daystar was Miami radio personality and voice-over artist Dave Mitchell, who was based in Dallas at the time.
Tilton's young church was growing steadily, but Daystar failed to expand beyond the Dallas area until Tilton went to Hawaii—his self-described version of Jesus's forty days in the wilderness—and spent time fishing, drinking, and watching an increasingly popular new form of television programming: the late-night infomercial.
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