My best life now: Joel Osteen
Today I think I’ll come out of the closet, and admit that I have become a regular listener and, yes, a fan, of Joel Osteen, the smiling preacher and bestselling author from Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas.
I haven’t read his books, and I don’t watch him on TV, but I listen to his sermons while I run - 7 or 8 of them over the past several weeks - and (here’s something I rarely say) my life is better because of it.
This doesn’t mean that I endorse everything Joel says, or everything he ever has said, or what he is probably saying right now to make me regret this. Those who criticize Joel for preaching Christianity lite are partially right, though not as right as they think.
Here’s how I like to put it: No Christian should listen ONLY to Joel. But EVERY Christian would do well to listen to him some.
No Christian should listen only to Joel. He just doesn’t get into the Scriptures enough, and there are whole sections of the Bible I can’t imagine him ever preaching on. (Sodom and Gomorrah: When God Blesses You With a Chance to Relocate!)
But every Christian would do well to listen to him some. Joel just has a way of pushing you back up on your feet and refilling your faith tank. It isn’t just positive thinking that he’s teaching, but rather faith-filled thinking. You could call it positive thinking that grows out of your identity in Christ.
In the few messages I have heard, Joel has told us (Us? He has a way of talking to a hundred thousand people one at a time) how God can help us let insults roll off us, how to treat people more considerately, and how each of us is responsible to develop and use the talents God gave us without worrying about the talents he didn’t give us. It’s simple stuff, profoundly preached, and it inspires people to live better lives.
I need to learn from that. Even if I think I preach the Bible more completely than Joel, I want to learn from him how to hone in on inspiration and life-change. Otherwise, why preach?
PS - I also get regular doses of Rob Bell and Andy Stanley too.
Sunday Seven
The blizzard of 1978. A major winter storm smashed northeast Ohio when I was 13. My older brother reminisces about it in this story in the Coshocton Tribune.- Stallone brags about HGH use. Sylvester Stallone got into Rambo shape using human growth hormone and says it’ll be an over-the-counter product in a decade. From the AP.
- Frontline: Growing Up Online. A friend saw this Frontline report on PBS this week and recommended it (You can watch it online). It asks: “Just how radically is the internet transforming the experience of childhood?”
- The life and early death of David Woodley. At age 24, David Woodley led the Miami Dolphins to the Super Bowl. That was in January of 1983. His life was a disaster after that. Elizabeth Merrill beautifully tells his tragic story in this ESPN article.
- Obama isn’t a Muslim. That email that you sent to your 1,000 closest friends about how Obama was sworn in with his hand on the Quran…it’s a lie. In this interview with Christianity Today, Obama talks about his faith, faith-based programs…and abortion.
- Spirit of the Marathon. Not many folks will pay $10 to watch a documentary in the theater, but I did, and I had a great time. This inspiring feature on the many and varied types of people who run marathons was supposed to play for one day only, but now there is another screening planned for February.
- Darth Vader plays blues harmonica. 1.1 million people have seen this funny video already, but maybe you haven’t. The internet was made for this.
Sermon: Our hearts’ desire for MHCC
Sermon: Our hearts’ desire for MHCC. Your ideas (from the survey) and God’s will.
Listen (stream)
MP3 (right-click to download)
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The Plump Girl
We inherited this little booklet from someone in my wife’s family. Fashion Dos and Don’ts for the Plump Girl is a guide from 1943 which is filled with wonderful advice for those who are “short, pudgy” (p.8) and “square, chunky” (p. 10). Pages 46-47 cover “pudgy hands” and “fat feet”, and page 15 (below) deals with the
“fat round face”.
Yesterday’s acceptable terms become today’s insults.
See a couple of pages from the book here.
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Keeping ego out of it
I was filling out the roll sheet last night in the Kindergarten through Second Grade class at church. I asked one girl how to spell her name. I should add here that I am sensitive to name-spelling because my last name is so often misspelled (pluralized). So I said, “Do you spell your name ‘K-R-I-S-T-A’?”
She said: “You CAN spell it that way if you want, but I always spell it ‘C-H-R-I-S-T-A’.”
If I was in a bad mood, I’d make this an illustration on relativism. But today I see it as a good lesson in self-forgetfulness. 
Risk aversion
I saw this sign at a restaurant in the Turkey Creek area of West Knoxville (Tennessee). This is a totally commercial zone, with nary a neighborhood (and therefore, nary a neighborhood child) for miles.
I’m sure the sign comes from the head office, wherever that may be. Probably every restaurant in the chain carries this sign. I understand this. Sometimes you have to cover your assets.
But what happens when minimizing risk becomes your lifestyle? Hey, it takes guts to meet someone new, quit a job, try to ice skate, invite someone to church, enter a 5K, ask for help, or to put your art out there for the general public to see. Life means little without risk.
This graphic comes from an article called Death by Risk Aversion at Creating Passionate Users. It is meant to describe how products or services offered by businesses get watered down to mediocrity in the name of risk aversion. In my experience, it describes some of our more inane efforts at church to design a program that pleases everyone and avoid as much criticism as possible. (Unfortunately and ironically, Creating Passionate Users, once the best thing on the net, shut down last year after the author received death threats).
Taking risks is so important that we do each other a great service by extending grace for failure. Your kids need to know that failing at something is much better than not trying at all. Your church leaders need to know that risking comfort is much preferred over playing it safe. You need to know it too.
Sunday Seven
Today I preached on creating a culture of life for everyone. The first three links provide some rich food for thought along those lines.
- The seamless garment of life. A Catholic scholar lays out the rationale for linking all life-issues in this article from The Word Among Us.
- Facing the myth of redemptive violence. Walter Wink outlines in great detail this myth that I spoke about this morning. I certainly disagree with some of Wink’s views about Scripture, but I am deeply moved by his take on violence. From Ekklesia.
- Confessing Christ in a world of violence. Before the 2004 elections, many Christian leaders signed this statement, which is an attempt to apply Christ’s teachings to current events of a violent nature. From Sojourners.
- The Commons - Old photos from the Library of Congress at Flickr. I recently mentioned the delightful Shorpy as a source for old photos. Now the Library of Congress is opening parts of its huge photo collection through Flickr. One of the first available sets contains photos from the 1930s and 40s in beautiful color. Via TechCrunch.
- Apostrophe Abuse. Another great blog waging the war for decent punctuation (alongside The “Blog” of Unnecessary Quotation Marks which I recently mentioned). “Thank’s” to Summer for this one.
- Suzanne Pleshette dies at 70. Her crowing achievement wasn’t Newhart or The Birds, but being mentioned in That Thing You Do, a movie that swept away MHCC’s youth group in the late 90s. P.S. - Sam the Butcher died too.
- True art.
Sermon: A culture of life for everyone
Sermon: A culture of life for everyone. Looking at life-issues (abortion, war, capital punishment, etc.) as a seamless garment.
Listen (stream)
MP3 (right-click to download)
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Listen to this! (Recommended audio)
One of my favorite podcasts, The Final Sprint, recently interviewed Mike Huckabee - not about politics (although he does talk some about health care) but about running, exercise, and diet. Huckabee saved his health by losing 110 pounds, eating right, and running (he has completed several marathons). This 26 minute interview is worth a listen.
Huckabee’s food rules include:
- If it comes through your car window, it isn’t food.
- If it didn’t exist a hundred years ago, it isn’t food.
- If you need a chemistry degree to understand the ingredients, eat the box instead.
Seeing ourselves through untrained eyes: Hemant Mehta
As I continue to read through I Sold My Soul on eBay (atheist Hemant Mehta’s exploration of churches) I find myself amused and often embarrassed by his observations. At one contemporary church, for example…
When the band started playing, it was just after the 8:30 start time, but there were fewer than forty people in the church. But by the time the band had finished singing and the pastor got up on stage, the crowd had more than doubled in size. I noticed families with young children walking in without any visible indications of guilt…Was the music so unimportant to them that they decided to come only for the “main event”?…Furthermore, in a small community church such as this one, I imagine people would know one another better than at a larger church. The people in the congregation, therefore, might know the people on stage who were singing and would surely respect them enough to show up on time. I didn’t see that respect being shown, though (pp. 70-71).
When did he visit our church?
