was also posted to the ministry website. Joyce Meyer Ministries was one of two ministries to comply with the Senate's requests for financial records. It also made commitments to future financial transparency. Neither party were found to have done any wrongdoing. ECFA accreditation In 2009, Joyce Meyer Ministries received accreditation from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). In an announcement on March 12, 2009, the ECFA said that Joyce Meyer Ministries and Oral Roberts University had met their requirements of "'responsible stewardship', which involves ministries' financial accountability, transparency, board governance and fund-raising practices." 2011 wrongful death lawsuit On May 5, 2009, Christopher Coleman, the chief of security of Joyce Meyer Ministries was arrested on suspicion of murder after police discovered the bodies of Coleman's wife, Sheri Coleman, and two sons at their residence having died of apparent strangulation. On May 10, 2011, after a lengthy trial, Christopher Coleman was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to three life sentences. According to the prosecuting attorney Kris Reitz, the murders were committed as part of a premeditated plan to leave his wife for another woman who he had been having an affair with, according to Reitz, Coleman was concerned that if his extra-marrital affair were made public it would result in him losing his job at Joyce Meyer Ministries. Meyer provided pre-recorded testimony during Coleman's criminal trial. The case was featured in an episode of Forensic Files II on March 6, 2022, titled "Words Matter". The family of Sheri Coleman filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Joyce Meyer Ministries citing that the deaths of the three to be the result of Meyer's negligence as a counselor. According to the suit, Christopher Coleman had anonymously sent several threatening letters to his family as a way to remove suspicion from himself for the murder. The suit also alleged that as counselor for both Christopher and Sheri Coleman, Meyer should have had reasonable suspicion that the letters were sent by Coleman and warned Sheri. The suit was dismissed by Circuit Judge Richard Aguirre in 2013. Selected bibliography (by Joyce Meyer and Deborah Bedford) (by Joyce Meyer and Phil Pringle) See also Prosperity theology Word of Faith References Notes External links 1943 births Living people 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century Christians 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century Christians American Charismatics American Christian writers American evangelicals American self-help writers American television evangelists Charismatic