Joel Osteen: How Do People Grow Deeper in Your Church? What’s the Biggest Misconce
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Tue, March 04, 2008
- Viewed 102
- (27) comments so far
Question: How did you find your niche, that of offering hope?
Answer: It was just who I am. When I started ministering, that is just what came out of me. It feels natural. I’m at my best when I’m giving people hope and encouragement.
Q. Have you always had an upbeat outlook?
A. I grew up positive. I smiled in my baby pictures. When I played ball, I always told my teammates we could beat this team, even if they were bigger. The world needs more happy people. Everybody has difficulties. But we are supposed to be examples for the Lord.
Q. How do you think God prepared you for ministry?
A. God prepared me during those 17 years I edited my father’s sermons (as producer of the late John Osteen’s television program). I would hear them several times. I was getting the stories and Scriptures in me.
Growing up a preacher’s kid, that’s all I’ve known. That had a big part in it, the seed my parents sowed into me and my (five) brothers and sisters and the integrity I saw in my father and the steadfastness.
Q. You have said you are not a theologian and your sermons are not deep in theology. So how do people who come to your church get deeper into the Word of God?
A. I believe God has a plan for each one of us. I wasn’t trained in seminary; I was trained by my father. (Osteen attended one year at Oral Roberts University before leaving to work with his father.) I put a lot of effort into my sermons. Wednesdays through Saturdays I’m getting ready for Sunday.
At the church, Wednesday nights we have Bible study lessons. Plus we have a whole list of classes and seminars. We have a New Beginnings class for people who make decisions for Christ. God didn’t make all of us alike. What I’m called to do is teach people how to live their everyday lives. When we can make the Bible practical; we can help people live abundant lives.
Q. What do you think attracts people to come to hear you at the church and when you come to places like Kansas City?
A. The message is positive and hopeful and relevant. It speaks to the everyday person. You don’t have to come from a religious background. There are a lot of negative things trying to pull people down. I talk about things that can help us in our everyday lives. I make it simple. When I started ministering, I said I want to make sure that the guys I play ball with can understand me, so I try to talk in everyday terms. I don’t assume that everyone is familiar with the Bible stories.
Q. What is the biggest misconception you think people have of you?
A. Perhaps they don’t realize how many people come to know the Lord through my ministry. Everywhere we go, people stand up to receive Christ or re-commit their lives to Christ. People may think that this ministry is not deep enough. But we are reaching new people. A lot of e-mails come in from people who say they had not been in church before they came.
Q. What is your next big ministry goal?
A. I would like to find ways to reach more people. I’m working on getting the program translated into more languages. The overseas outreach is growing. My books have been translated into 30 languages. The first book, “Your Best Life Now,” sold a million copies in Korea. Every week people attend services from other countries. Some tell me they fly in just to attend.
Q. What is a typical week for you?
A. Mondays and Tuesdays I try to take off. Wednesdays I read and study and pray. I have a stack of notes for potential sermons. I get a theme, and once I feel good about a simple thought, I read and find stories on that. I get up real early and write my sermon on Thursdays. Fridays I finish writing it and take three hours to go over it. I really get it down in me. Saturday I study it for several hours and finish getting it down in me. I have a real good memory. I rest Saturday afternoon before the Saturday night service, and I also preach two Sunday morning services. Sunday afternoon I edit the sermon for the television broadcast. I’m just used to doing that. That’s how I started.
YOUR RESPONSE: What do you think of the interview? Anything stand out to you?
Recently, the Southern Illinoisan had the opportunity to interview Joel Osteen and ask him some pretty good questions, like: You have said you are not a theologian and your sermons are not deep in theology. So how do people who come to your church get deeper into the Word of God? and What is the biggest misconception you think people have of you? It's an interesting interview I thought you might be interested in reading.
Comments
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chris on Mon, March 10, 2008
You know I have grown up in many churches (both small and large congregations). Both Calvinistic and Armenian, and I have seen the positives and negatives in each. I am a leader in our Baptist church, I am a licensed minister, I have served and done the best with God has given me.
Notice that I used the “I” word a lot. Does this mean people have not been blessed of God through me? Do I have a chip on my should. Just because Joel used the word “My” ministry. We want to just throw stones.
I have seen and have been a part of ministry that has been edited for TV. Of a 30 min show you may be editing out 45 min of stuff. And you try to highlight the best that you can. You get the info out that seems important to sharing the message. I can always poke fun, or poke holes in the information that is shared. How many of you have actually attended a service that is “aired for TV.” I also do video editing for the Nuclear Power Plant that I work for. It is a very consuming process and that is for internal things only. I have also been in services where God is really moving yet to watch those same services on Tape. It is not comprehensible to those that watch the tape that were not there.
All I am saying is if you haven’t been to a service (not just Lakeview) but any one who videos the service. You are making assumptions that may be missing the point.
Craig Johnson on Mon, March 10, 2008
Christ is the Hope of Glory. This is the most difficult part of the Osteen machine. A man is not able to give another man hope except in circumstantial and abbreviated stints. The hope of Christ is eternal, ever-lasting and never-ending. This is rarely ever stated by people that object to Osteen. Joel Osteen, motivational speakers, or anyone else does not have the ability to give hope. Hope is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Colossians 1:28 spells out this hope and no man can give you hope. Being a followers of Christ causes you to others-focused and not self-focused. Pagan religions focus is inward and selfish. This is the other major aspect of the Osteen machine. Did you notice in the Gospels that Jesus never had to teach the people to focus on themselves? How were the Law and Prophets summed up? Was it to love ourselves or love the Lord your God? Was it desire things for yourself or to love others as yourself? It would be nice for Osteen to answer those questions.
Dane on Mon, March 10, 2008
“What I’m called to do is try to help people live their everyday lives.”
This was Joel’s answer to the challenge that there is little theological underpinning and depth to his ministry. It really concerns me.
In trying to be fair to Joel (for years now), I have wondered if perhaps the huge gaps in his gospel are solidly covered in classes for believers offered at other times and places in the church.
But as I reflect upon his answers to these types of questions, it seems more and more apparent that solid theological truth is viewed as untimely or unpractical by him. He doesn’t see “deep” biblical teaching as necessary to living everyday life. This ethos is clearly imparted to his hearers and readers.
If by “deep” he means double predestination or premillenialism, that’s one thing. But if he means the truths of man’s sin nature and God’s holiness and the certainty of judgment and the wonder of the atonement of Christ and man’s absolute need for repentance, then he has defintely gone off the radar of true Christianity. He’s preaching another gospel. Paul had some very harsh things to say about preachers like this. It’s not hate it’s heresy.
PT on Mon, March 10, 2008
Ricky - that first post was a classic, loved it!
One item I haven’t seen anyone mention yet, is his description of his ‘work week.’ Todd, I think this in itself is a great topic for a post!
Personally, I’m stricken and saddened by this trend of megachurch ‘preaching pastors’ who spend most if not all of their ‘work week’ doing nothing but preparing one sermon (often with assistants who do most or all the research, editing, and composition). And they are the ones we put on a pedalstal and hold up as examples of ‘great American preachers.’
What ever happened to multiple teachings a week? Biblical counseling? Visiting the poor, sick, homeless, widows and distressed? PRAYER? Mentoring? Serving? Being ‘incarnate’ with the people? Standing against injustice?
CS on Mon, March 10, 2008
PT:
“What ever happened to multiple teachings a week? Biblical counseling? Visiting the poor, sick, homeless, widows and distressed? PRAYER? Mentoring? Serving? Being ‘incarnate’ with the people? Standing against injustice?”
You must be new here. None of that stuff is required or expected. You just have to rake in the money and give people warm fuzzies. CHA-CHING!
—
CS
Dane on Mon, March 10, 2008
PT and CS,
I’m not a Joel fan, but he preaches at least three times each week. Yeah, maybe it’s the same sermon three times, but it’s still a huge emotional investment. Plus he flies all over the place preaching regularly. The NT apostles set aside deacons so they could “give themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word.” The daily distribution of food to the poor widows…wasn’t done by the apostles, at least for long.
I’m not sure how Lakewood is governed, but I don’t envy the pressure of leading a 20,000+ member congregation. Talk about some emails. You can bet that Joel has some BIG decisions to make quite regularly. Not to mention all the critics like you and me to deal with.
I think it’s fair game to criticize his doctrine, but when you start suggesting he’s prayerless and has no other legitimate ministry demands on his life…it’s getting kind of unfair and ugly.
Peter Hamm on Mon, March 10, 2008
CS,
Please say that was a joke. I was looking for a wink or something.
btw, I am aware of several high-profile “mega-pastors” of the extremely Reformed variety (I will not use names here, you know who I’m talking about, some of you) who I think you would find no fault with theologically who also spend virtually their entire week preparing a weekend message, so there’s plenty of blame on this to go around.
Dane, good point, thanks! Not a big Osteen fan, but I bet he has a busy week…
CS on Mon, March 10, 2008
Dane:
“I think it’s fair game to criticize his doctrine, but when you start suggesting he’s prayerless and has no other legitimate ministry demands on his life…it’s getting kind of unfair and ugly.”
I was being satirical in my response for the sake of humor. However, if you read the response Osteen gave when asked, “What is a typical week for you?” while he did list praying, he omitted several of the things that PT listed, straight from the Bible, such as visiting the poor, widows, and homeless, and counseling. I don’t see anything in the Bible excluding those in the ministry from these actions once their flock reaches a certain size. There can be some relegation, sure, but he didn’t even mention that much.
“Plus he flies all over the place preaching regularly. The NT apostles set aside deacons so they could “give themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word.””
That’s an interesting juxtaposition. The NT saints traveled on foot, on boats, and by the strength of animals. They did so modestly and meagerly, staying in peoples’ houses while abroad, hungry and in jail sometimes, avoiding such persecution as being stoned and the like.
Osteen, on the other hand, flies first class, stays in lavish hotels, and owns a multi-million dollar house. Remember when his wife threw a fit in December of 2005 and they got kicked off of the plane after skiing in Aspen at a resort?
Also, the NT saints preached the true Gospel. Not this prosperity-laden excrement.
—
CS
Dane on Mon, March 10, 2008
C.S.
Sorry if I missed your humor. Honestly, I’m tempted to say something sarcastic in self justification at this point. And I know that’s not the Spirit of Christ in me. God help us.
Again, I don’t like Joel Osteen’s doctrine or extravagant lifestyle either. But I actually feel a love in my heart for him (even at this moment). I pray that God conform Joel to Christ’s image and not mine. Amen.
Dane on Mon, March 10, 2008
Dane,
For the record:
Re-read my post, I clearly generalized to a trend toward a certain ‘type’ of pastor. At no point did I assert that Joel never does any of those other things. However, in his own words, when asked exactly what he does during a typical week he failed to mention any of that. That tells me that either he doesn’t do them, or he considers them not important enough to mention. Either way, that concerns me.
Further, I do personally know pastors who (in some cases proudly) literally do nothing but preach one sermon a week (with help) and a minimal amount of generalized vision and oversight.
My point and question was not to what degree this is true of Joel Osteen, but what thoughts others have about this trend.
BTW, Acts 6 is clear that the appt. of deacons was to allow pastor-elders to focus more fully on prayer and ministering through the Word. In no way is it ever implied that they are excused from these other aspects of ministry. Also, history tells us that the apotles and 1st C. pastor-elders were involved in preaching-teaching far more than one message a week. I believe Scripture is also clear that mentoring, leadership training and Biblical counseling ARE aspects of ‘ministering through the Word.’
PT on Mon, March 10, 2008
User error, sorry. Last post is from PT to Dane. My apologies for the mix-up
Kelly on Tue, May 20, 2008
I love his message and outlook on despserate sitatutions we are often faced with- I find strength and motivation in his messages
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