Do you consider Lakewood Church (pastor Joel Osteen) to be a church in the traditional sense of the meaning?

Question

I've watched his weekly program a few times out of sheer curiosity and have not heard a single message that is truly rooted in Christ's teachings. To me he is just a motivational speaker who sprinkles in bible versus the way I use to sprinkle barely relevant quotes into papers when I was in high school. I don't even understand why the "members" have their bibles out during the "service". Probably because they bought the bible in Joel Osteen's gift shop. Between the weak message and the constant barrage of advertisements to buy his book and the dvd of this week's "message", I'm left feeling sorry for those who consider this their way to "Keep Holy the Sabbath".

Please, set me straight if I'm wrong, but only if you have a good argument. I took many theology and philosophy classes in college and am a religious education teacher at my church, so weak arguments aren't going to work on me.

This is in reponse to Carol M's statement that every one of Joel's messages is rooted in Christ. Today his sermon was about not eating fatty foods and staying away from cold cuts because they have nitrites in them. He mentioned two random bible versus without expanding the reasoning for including those versus and only spoke of the bible in terms of how David was stronger because he ate vegetables.

Joel could have easily said somthing like: "God in his goodness and wisdom provides humans with everything they need to survive. This earth, His glorious creation and gift to us, provides all the nutrients we need, and if we simply partake in his bounty as he has given it to us, we will better provide for our bodies." In my "limited theological formation", I was able to create a more Christ-centered, cogent message than Joel Osteen.

Answer 1

He's a good speaker but i have never heard him speak of what's the church doctrine on morals... Remember Jesus said that people would be attracted to ones just to have their ears tickled. Many people look for a religion that caters to them and not the bible.

Answer 2

Not even close. He is an example of a modern celebrity "preacher", who preaches nothing but psychobabble. We have a church like that in my town. I tried it out once because some friends go there. The minister spent the whole sermon talking about why it was all right for women to join the workforce. Not very spiritual or inspiring. And our Unity Church? The Sunday school teacher scared my child by talking about the fact that the world was going to end in 5 billion years by the sun exploding. Needless to say, a 5 year old doesn't know the difference between 5 billion years and 5 years. And then there was the issue of the "life force" being a blue light coming out of the belly button? Give me a break!!!!

Answer 3

No I do not. I lived in Houston most of my life and I went to that church when his father ran it. John Osteen was a preacher, but Joel is a pastor, in the sense of someone who counsels his flock. The church as Joel runs it is more of a group counseling session than a Christian worship center. Also Joel is getting more and more involved in "word of faith movement" (a true theological heresy) taught by others such as Rod Parsley, Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Robert Tilton and such.

Answer 4

Isn't that the church that worships Starbucks? Don't they meet there every morning? I was driving by the other day and saw a crowd of believers out front and lined up clear inside so I stopped to share the joy. I thought perhaps Juan Valdez was there in the flesh. He wasn't, but there were alot of people taking communion with various kinds of coffee drinks saying, "Oh God, this is good", or "Thank you Jesus for coffee". It was a real religous experience for me and brought tears to my eyes witnessing these believers practicing their religion. God Bless you, and God Bless the coffee bean.

Answer 5

most of the folks that can find the money to be on television arent there for God or spiritual growth or to promote the message of christ,, some or all havent even used their own names they are useing pseudonyms and also their churches are modified fan clubs used for support to make more tapes dvds and money , i Love Christ and his true meaning and message but i ignore televangelists they are like locusts come to strip the tree of life , one Rod Parsley or paisley was shown on 60 minutes by a magician and debunker named the amazing randi to have a hearing aid radio his wife who would go into the audiance before the show and ask folks where they were from and their names and why they came ,,she took notes for a prayer group, to pray for them, and then during the service she broadcast the info to give him the word of knowledge,, and he called them up and healed them ,, if Gods Spirit is where any 2 or more are gathered and they had faith, then God healed them ,but on his own ,based on the report i dont believe he could heal a cut with a band aid, and some triple antibiotic cream,, I thank God that he Made me ,,and made me have common sense, to avoid the pitfalls of life and the used car men of spiritual;ity.. an olde dude

Answer 6

1. I agree with you
2. However, a "church" is any place that people with common beliefs gather to worship.

So unfortunately, his "church" is...a church. Not our church but obviously "theirs". I think it's an easy out for most, if not all. Not to mention in my religion, there's not too many multi-millionaire priests (like Osteen is).

Answer 7

I can't set you straight because you are 100% correct in your thoughts about this so-called preacher. I watched him a few times and thought "when is he going to preach?" and he never did!
his father (who started the church) was actually called to preach and he did preach, then when he died, his mother appointed their oldest son to take over (so he was called of mom) and the other brother wouldn't take the job. he told the whole story once and I thought, "I can't believe that you are saying this and people are still here!" I don't know about you, but when I sit down to listen to a preacher of the word, I want 2 things,

1. to know that they were called by God to give this message.

2. that he actually speaks from the word from which is is preaching!

this man is teaching humanism, not the word of God.

Answer 8

He gets people to donate money or to buy advertisements during his show. So basically yes, he is like any traditional church, he is a business.

Answer 9

Everything that Joel Osteen preaches is definately rooted out of Christ's teachings. You clearly have something against Joel for you to say such lies about Him. He is clearly a man following the word of God and sharing it with the world as God had intended Him to do. There never has been a single weak message in any one of Joel Osteen's messages. The only weakness here is your faith in God and in His glorious word. Because Joel Osteen is one of God's greatest preachers of our time today. You can feel God's love pouring out of Joels preaching. He radiates with the Love of God. Praise the Lord , for blessing us with such a great instrument of God.
I dont' care about your teaching credentials or your philosophy and theology experiences. If you disagree with anything that Joel osteen teaches, which comes dirrectly from the word of God, then you are one of those teachers God warns us all about.

Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Matthew 24:11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

Joel Osteen teaches the word of God. He is one of the few preachers of today who do.

1 John 2:5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.

Answer 10

You hit the nail on the head
My husband says the same thing
He says Joel preaches a feel good message with no condemnation

HE NEVER TALKS ABOUT SIN AND PUTTING YOUR FAITH IN CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED.
(my hubby wanted me to tell you this)