As I’m sure you know, Joel Osteen is the pastor of America’s largest church, Lakewood Church in Houston, and author of the huge bestseller, Your Best Life Now. If you’re tuned in to the larger conversation, you also know that Osteen has drawn plenty of detractors from within the body.
Osteen’s sermons and book have been criticized on many counts, as: (1) self-helpism, (2) Word-Faith positive confessionism, (3) and/or just Christianity-lite, lacking conviction of sin, call to repentance, or admonition to sacrifice or discipleship, as well as containing little substantive exposition of the Scriptures. In his much-publicized Larry King interview, Osteen was unwilling to profess that Christ is the only way.
Osteen also loses points for being a college drop-out with no academic training in Biblical exposition. In a recent sermon on the topic of “saying no,” he gave as an example the time he dropped out of college over the objections of his parents. “I turned out all right,” he told the 30,000 who attend his church, the thousands more who watch him on TV, and the thousands of teenagers and young adults who no doubt follow his lead. He also has been chastized for his opulent lifestyle. In the same sermon referenced previously, he bragged that he and his wife are strict with the kids — they don’t allow the household servants to do everything for them.
Of course, there are many who are quick to stick up for Osteen, and who shoot back that anyone who criticizes Osteen is just jealous of his success.
This blog went online with the stated purpose of commenting on the health of the modern American church (see Is The American Church in Decline?). Naturally, the largest church in America and its pastor are on our radar screen. So far, Rod Heggy and I have said almost nothing about Osteen on this blog. We have been doing our homework, listening to his sermons, and discussing Osteen offline. We don’t want to be cranks, but we don’t want to be cowards. And when we do say something, we want to get it right.
I say all of the above to direct you to the best information I have found online regarding Osteen, during the course of my research. This post was published by Christian blogger Michael Spencer (aka Internetmonk), more than a year ago. He has added several updates to the post since then. The post contains Michael’s own excellent analysis, plus many links to other resources. See: “Outing Joel Osteen: A Challenge to the Evangelical Blogosphere.”
