Joel Osteen preaches...Joel Osteen
People will be hard-pressed to find the message of the Gospel of Christ in the preaching of mega-church pastor, Joel Osteen. In his top-selling book, Your Best Life Now, one can easily find a mix of self-help and health-and-wealth gospel. What is difficult to find in the book as in his weekly sermons at Lakewood Church in Houston (where you can "discover the champion in you") is...Jesus.
Many have been calling attention to the absense of the Gospel in Osteen's messages. Now, it is pretty clear what message those who listen to Osteen come away with. Away with the tired, old WWJD (what would Jesus do?) No, we're members of the new church embracing a new meaning for the universal Christian symbol: I.W.J.O. Get yours today!
Good job, Joel. You're getting the message out loud and clear.
HT: Keith Plummer of The Christian Mind
Many have been calling attention to the absense of the Gospel in Osteen's messages. Now, it is pretty clear what message those who listen to Osteen come away with. Away with the tired, old WWJD (what would Jesus do?) No, we're members of the new church embracing a new meaning for the universal Christian symbol: I.W.J.O. Get yours today!
Good job, Joel. You're getting the message out loud and clear.
HT: Keith Plummer of The Christian Mind
Labels: David C. Price
posted by DAVID C. PRICE at 11/08/2005 08:10:00 PM
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5 Comments:
Dude,
That's a good piece of research. Fall's right in line with the Jabez coffe stand I passed once.
Blech!
I think its satire.
But it is hilarious and it is in line with Osteen's ministry.
I think it is ridiculous enough that it should be satire, but I'm not so sure it is. If so, somebody went to extremes to pass it off as real, including setting up a paypal account and selling Osteen's books in the process.
Regardless, as you pointed out, it is in line with Osteen's ministry and might as well be legit. The message is the same.
Hmmm, been attending for a while now and have yet to have a problem finding the message of the Gospel of Christ in Joel's preaching. Not sure what the difficulty is, really.
Greg,
I appreciate you posting a comment here. In response (briefly), a major problem with Osteen's preaching is that the Gospel of Christ is not about our own comfort. It's not about "finding your best life now" the way he preaches it. It's not about health and wealth, overcoming financial difficulties, overcoming a bad day through positive thinking or any of the other number of things I've heard him say (and I have watched him a lot so as to give him the benefit of the doubt).
Not only is the name of Jesus rarely mentioned, the Gospel most certainly is not. To explain what I mean, the Gospel is about Christ...it is God-centered; it is about denying yourself, taking up your cross and following Christ (Luke 9:23). It is about being crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20) and being a servant. The Gospel is not a self-help, twelve steps out of your financial difficulties and into a new life of success. Osteen's Gospel is man-centered--what can God do for you. All I ever hear from him is what God wants to do for you. The Gospel is what God is calling us to do for His glory...even to the point of self-sacrifice, poverty and even death. I don't hear any of those themes from Osteen.
I'm sure Joel Osteen is a very nice guy...he's probably a very caring guy. But from what I've seen and heard from him and read in his book...he's not a preacher of the Gospel of Christ. I know this perhaps sounds offensive to you if you're a big fan of Osteens and I really don't mean to offend you. But for your own sake, you should really consider doing yourself a favor and find a church that preaches the Gospel as it is written in Scripture. You may not find financial independence, but you will find the real Gospel and an inheritance that far outweighs anything Osteen can offer here on earth.
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