Jonathan Lamb's Friends Walked Out Mid-Memorial Service, then this Happened

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]Jonathan and Suzie Lamb sat through their mother's memorial service not as grieving family, but as targets of one.

[00:00:06]And when their closest friends could no longer stomach what was happening from the pulpit pulpit, they walked out.

[00:00:12]Security followed them. This is what happened inside Gateway Church on May 18th, 2026 at the public memorial for Daystar Television Network co-founder Joni Lamb. Before we get into what unfolded inside that auditorium, you needed to understand the landscape. Joni Lamb and her son, former Daystar vice president Jonathan Lamb, were on different sides of a family feud that erupted after Jonathan's firing in 2024.

[00:00:37]Jonathan and his wife Suzie alleged their young daughter was abused by a male relative.

[00:00:42]A claim that led to a full rupture between the couple and Daystar leadership. Jonathan was fired after years of strained relations prompted by those allegations, which Joni repeatedly denied. And if the firing wasn't enough, as Joni Lamb lay dying, Jonathan was never called. His wife Suzie wrote publicly, "We weren't informed of anything."

[00:01:01]We were down the road, but weren't given a call to say goodbye.

[00:01:05]She added that the family knew Joni was dying that Wednesday evening and still didn't pick up the phone. The way Jonathan found out his mother had died, a Daystar attorney called him with the news. Let that sink in, not a sibling, not a family elder, the lawyer. So, by the time the public memorial was held on Monday, May 18th, 2026 at Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, Jonathan and Suzie had already been locked out of every intimate moment surrounding their mother's death. What happened at the service itself made things worse.

[00:01:35]Jonathan and Suzie Lamb did attend the memorial, and they brought support, real loyal, long-time friends. Kenyon Coleman is a former Dallas Cowboys defensive end. He and his wife Katie have been close friends of Jonathan and Suzie's for years.

[00:01:49]According to the Roys Report, the Colemans have known Suzie since 2019 and describe a deep bond built during some of the darkest seasons of the Lamb's lives. These are not casual acquaintances. These are people who showed up when no one else did.

[00:02:03]Jonathan and Suzie had invited the Colemans to attend the memorial together, but shortly before the service began, Jonathan Suzie texted the Colemans with news that their friends would not be allowed to sit with them.

[00:02:15]The Colemans were redirected to a completely different section of the auditorium, far from Jonathan and Suzie at a funeral for their best friend's mother, separated by design. Now, let's talk about what was said from the pulpit because this is where things crossed a line that left people walking toward the exit. Franklin and Joni were close. He'd known the Lambs for decades. So, when he took the stage, he carried institutional weight. He represented the Daystar inner circle. He did briefly acknowledge Jonathan. He said, and I'm reading directly from the reporting. say >> [music] >> to Rebecca and I want to say to Rachel and I want to say to Jonathan, we love you.

[00:02:54]I love you preacher's kids.

[00:03:00]You have no idea what they go through.

[00:03:04]If ever we needed to run up under these kids and their husbands, their spouses and and say, "We love you. We didn't love YOU CUZ YOU WERE SO-AND-SO'S KIDS.

[00:03:12]We love you because we see Jesus in you.

[00:03:16]We see calling in you. We see anointing in you. We heard it. We heard every word you said. You moved me to my teeth to to tears."

[00:03:25]And your spouses are equally anointed.

[00:03:29]>> [music] >> Franklin went on to call Joni a velvet brick, the kindest, sweetest, most loyal person imaginable. And then he pivoted into what can only be described as a eulogy that doubled as a rebuttal. He said, quote, And to criticize is the smallest size.

[00:03:46]Especially when somebody's touching the world. Especially when somebody's preaching Jesus in the city, Jesus in the streets, Jesus to the nations, who do we think we are? At some point, we will give an account of every idle word.

[00:04:03]I'm not mad. I'm happy.

[00:04:06]But the Lord told me to preach this at Joni's funeral.

[00:04:14]She lived a life worth remembering, but she had to deal with criticism.

[00:04:21]Always there will be haters. And one of the things you have to overcome to fulfill the call of God on your own ministry and life is pure fear, what people will say about you, how people will criticize you. Franklin also said, Only God knows the whole story.

[00:04:37]Only God know All of you who want to say this, that, and the other, only God knows the whole story. You better be careful. Let me be very clear about what was happening here. A man stood at the podium of a funeral with the grieving son of the deceased sitting in the congregation and used the eulogy as a vehicle to dismiss that son's allegations of abuse cover-up as mere criticism, as hating, as something he would answer to God for. No names were named. They didn't have to be.

[00:05:06]The Colemans had been seated apart from Jonathan and Suzie. They were watching all of this unfold from across the room.

[00:05:12]And at some point during Franklin's message, they reached their limit. They stood up and walked out mid-service. And here's the detail that tells you everything you need to know about the atmosphere inside that building.

[00:05:24]When the Colemans walked out, security personnel followed them. They were followed out of a church at a funeral for walking out. The Colemans also reported that Jonathan and Suzie later told them that their family had not invited them to Joni Lamb's burial, either. Not Jonathan, not his wife, not their closest friends. Excluded from the graveside. After the service, Katie Coleman went to Instagram. And what she wrote is the kind of thing that doesn't come from a place of political strategy or media calculation. It comes from a woman who watched something deeply wrong happen in a sacred space and refused to be silent about it. Here is what she posted in full. I've never seen a man and his family more disrespected than what I witnessed today in the house of God. Shame on you Gent Tesin, Rachel Brown and Daystar. You stood on that platform not to truthfully honor the dead or comfort the living, but to stir the pot in a moment that should have been marked by dignity, grief and respect. No communication about his mother's death, no invitation or information about her burial. What happened today was dishonorable and deplorable. You will all stand before God for this day. We love you JLS, so proud of you guys. That's it. That's the whole post. No caveats, no softening.

[00:06:34]She named Gent Tesin Franklin specifically. She named Rachel Brown, Jonathan's sister who is married to Daystar's son-in-law Josh Brown, the same Josh Brown at the center of the allegations. She named Daystar itself.

[00:06:47]And her verdict? What happened in that building was not grief. It was a performance and it was a disgrace. Let me say something plainly. Funerals have a singular purpose, to honor the dead and to comfort the living. That purpose is sacred across every culture, every faith tradition, every theology. When you use a funeral pulpit to prosecute a family dispute against a bereaved son who is sitting in your congregation, you have abandoned then that purpose entirely. Jonathan Lamb lost his mother.

[00:07:15]Whatever the conflicts, whatever the history, whatever the unresolved accusations, he is a man who was not called when his mother was dying, was not included at her burial, watched his friends get seated in a different section of the building and then sat in a pew while a pastor used the eulogy to characterize his daughter's abuse allegations as the work of a hater.

[00:07:35]And the Colemans? They weren't agitators. They weren't there to cause a scene. They were there to support their friends through one of the hardest days of their lives, and for that they were separated, surveilled, and followed out the door by security. If this is what accountability looks like inside a Daystar circle, punishing grief, managing seating charts like damage control, using eulogies as corrective sermons, then Katie Coleman is right.

[00:08:01]They will stand before God for this day.

[00:08:03]The Daystar story is far from over.

[00:08:05]There are still unresolved questions about the network's future leadership, the ongoing abuse investigation, and what happens to Jonathan and Suzy's relationship with the institution that was supposed to be their family legacy.

[00:08:18]But this chapter, May 18th, 2026 at Gateway Church in Southlake, will be remembered not for the worship songs or the heads of state in attendance. It will be remembered for what was done to a son at his mother's funeral, and for two people who had the integrity to stand up and leave.

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