the basic message #E350
7/20/05
As the world celebrates the grand opening of the new Lakewood Church building (formerly the Compaq center), you won't hear much in the way of anything contrary to the "good news" coming out of Houston. But is it really good news, and if so, is it for real? When I visited their website and took a look at the history of Lakewood, the phrase "positive impact" was mentioned in the first and second paragraph. So what's wrong with that? Keep reading.
I recently participated in a business meeting in Houston, and the subject of church came up briefly. Although I know the people pretty well, I've never really talked religion with them. After typing that last line, it dawned on me that I should be ashamed that I haven't seriously talked to them about faith in God through Jesus Christ, but I guess I'm just a coward who doesn't want to rock the corporate boat with religion talk. Back to the story- I made a comment about Lakewood and some discussion ensued about how huge the church had become. I questioned why they're so big and the comment came back that Joel Osteen focuses on the positive and not the negative. I was then told that Osteen talks about good things and not about telling people they're going to Hell. When I heard that I simply replied, "So he's like the Hummer salesman that tells people it'll get 30 miles per gallon? My comments didn't seem to be appreciated, and that concerns me.
I was flipping channels tonight and landed on a program obviously coming from the Compaq Center/Lakewood building. The TV personalities looked familiar, yet I couldn't make the connection to Lakewood. The reason was simple, they were from TBN Broadcasting, whom I consider to be the snake-oil salesmen of the religion business. I won't get bogged down in that pursuit, but suffice to say that when I saw TBN's crew there, I began to have even more doubts about Lakewood's mission. I went to their "What we believe" page on their site and found this:
WE BELIEVE…every believer should be in a growing relationship with Jesus by obeying God’s Word, yielding to the Holy Spirit and by being conformed to the image of Christ.
I agree and support this belief with great fervency. I applaud Lakewood for having this as a belief, but there's just one problem: Any pastor who really follows this belief must have more than just a tad of "negative" in his message. Why? Read it again: Obey God's word. Yield to the Holy Spirit. Conform to the image of Christ. What percentage of Osteen's church can claim to be active in any of these? Over the years, I've asked many pastors a simple question: "What percentage of your congregation, based on your observations, will go to Heaven?" The number that continues to come back is 15-20%. I recently had lunch with an honest Baptist pastor that said "he would only be comfortable being handcuffed to about 10% of his church" upon their collective death. That's a sad state of affairs.
The real issue is this: If Joel Osteen stood on his stage and suggested that perhaps 80% of those seated in his audience would go to Hell, would Lakewood be as successful? I doubt it, and Osteen probably doubts it too. Often, people who get a diagnosis of a terminal illness go into a depression that in many cases negatively affects their already failing health. Does that mean we shouldn't tell them they're dying? Some folks just give up and die, but others fight back. Like who? Tour de France- is that a good hint? Lance Armstrong is one of the most positive thinking people in the world, but did he tell his doctor to shut-up when the doctor told him he had a cancer that might kill him? Nope, Armstrong fought back methodically, meticulously and he beat that demon. Armstrong went on to become one of the most, if not the most successful bicycle racers in the world. He took negative news and made a positive impact out of it. "Positive impact"....wasn't that one of the things Lakewood wants to have on their congregation?
Quite frankly, I think Joel Osteen is a good, honest man. But good honest men are frequently mistaken in their beliefs and actions, and Osteen is helping foster the "I'm okay, you're okay" mentality in a world that's already lukewarm. So am I suggesting a better approach for Osteen is to tell his congregation the hard facts? Would that be better? Quite frankly, I don't know. I'm a big-boy, and I fully realize that the average lukewarm Christian is quickly turned-off by any mention of Hell. So what's the answer? Again, I really don't know, but what I do know is that I have a job to do just like Lakewood thinks they have a job to do. There is a yen-yang going on here that we'll only sort out after we move on to eternity. It's high-stakes gambling at its greatest. We're doing more that betting our lives, we're betting eternity, but how many nominal Christians ever think about eternity in Hell? It's kind of like pulling up to a stranger's car at night and telling him, "You're taillights aren't working". The guy might thank you, or he might tell you to mind your own business...or worse. The wise man will thank you, but wisdom isn't a hallmark within the Christian church.
The TBN crew opined that the Lakewood phenomenon is just a glimpse of the future. In the years ahead, the snake-oil people say, we will see many churches like Lakewood. There's plenty of celebrating going on at Lakewood this week, and there's an unseen character also celebrating as well, but he has a hard time clapping while trying to hang on to his pitchfork