Joel Osteen says he is keeping the faith
Critics have called him a God salesman. He been accused of wpatagonia summer saleatering down the Christian Gospel and he has been assailed for portraying a God who is more concerned about the happiness of believers than their adherence to a straight and narrow path.Criticism has rolled off Joel Osteen and done little to prevent him from establishing himself as the nation s most popular broadcast Christian minister and head of the country largest church.In advance of his visit to central Pennsylvania, Osteen, senior pastor of the 40,000 member Lakewood Church in Houston, Tex., recently spoke with PennLive about what he says are the misrepresentations and mischaracterizations of him and his work.Osteen brings his Night of Hope tour to the Giant Center in Hershey Fridaypatagonia men's better sweater ebay night. Tickets for the May 31 event are on sale.Slender and a youthful 49, Osteen looks far from the stereotype of the corpulent televangelist found across the airwaves on Sunday mornings. Osteen is often photographed striking a mega generous smile, dressed in tailored suits and ties that complete the image of a stylish, modern and successful businessman.And business acumen he has.Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Tx., has millions of followers worldwide. SubmittedOsteen has one of the largest if not the largest TV following in broadcast ministry. Millions watch his TV ministry weekly, and millions more have catapulted his six books to the best selling lists time and again. His net worth has been estimated at $40 million.In 2003, Osteen renovated his Houston basedpatagonia better sweater fleece jacket review church, formerly the home of the NBA Houston Rockets, for a reported $105 million to accommodate the thousands who attend his weekly services. His church, in fact, is larger than the Giant Center.Not preachy in the pulpitHis appeal reaches far across the globe. Videos of his sermons are streamed on websites across the world to millions of viewers. Millions download his podcasts from iTunes, and more than 1.6 million follow him on Twitter.Osteen says he has resisted the trappings of success. He leads as normal a life as possible, he sayspatagonia guide jacket quilting0, with his wife Victoria and their two children in Houston, not far from his church. He can afford to do so, but Osteen says he too busy to own season tickets to the Rockets.Osteen runs, ridepatagonia special edition quilt again vests his bike and plays basketball and isn he says, afraid to go out in public and stop to chat with people.are very nice, says Osteen, with his signature Texas drawl. never had one person say one negative thing to me. People stop me but I feel very humbled and honored by all. To me it a very humbling thing that people stop you that you never met. approaches his audience much the same way.talk from the pulpit like I talk to a person, Osteen said. I prepare messages I like to take the practical approach. I don think of talpatagonia outlet store eileenking to the masses. I think about it as, I talked to two or three people, how would I talk to them? answer to that question: Not likely preachy. Osteen takes time out after every public appearance tries to talk to members of his audience but it seldom preachy, he said.don want to come off as real religious, Osteen said. think that turns some people off. I don mean that disrespectfully. Some people aren real religious. I just talking about a relationship with God. often describes himself as a happy person, and insists he would be happy even if he was in financial straits.of my key message is that you are supposed to choospatagonia guide jacket quilting3e each day what kind of day you are going to have, he said. a choice we can all make. In Christian life we all have difficulties. I don do anything that I don preach from the pulpit. You get up every day and thank God. I grateful I alive and grateful for what I have. We not jumping up and down but we are content. candy Gospel?Sooner or later, any conversation with Osteen has to broach the candy Gospel indictment.The evangelical movement has accuspatagonia guide jacket quilting2ed Osteen of diluting the Gospel, replacing a traditionally stern, morals driven message with one focused on feel good, feel happy success, wealth and prosperity.Last year, in his blog fellow Texan pastor The Rev. Dr. H. Gene Straatmeyer wrote: believe Joel Osteen prosperity gospel is one of those great, modern flights away from the deepest streams of faith . Osteen and his crowd of theological adapters slowly but surely went about making the needle eye more attractive for themselves and their followers. They began to bless the acquisition of wealth as a part ofpatagonia guide jacket copy their campaign to assure their followers that God wants the materialistic good times to roll onward and upward and to convince them that pastors like me have it all wrong. his 2012 bopatagonia guide jacket quiltingok Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics,patagonia guide jacket varsity New York Times columnist Ross Douthat argued that megachurches with superstar pastors like Osteen had contributed to the decline of American Christianity. Douthat told The Christian Post that they could lead the faithful to focus on external factors rather than faith.More than once, the press has taken Osteen to task on how his message reconciles with those suffering tragedies and terminal illnesses.are things we don understand, Osteen said. didn make us all robots. We all have choices and some people choose to do bad tpatagonia guide jacket quilting1hings to peoplpatagonia girls jackets for salee. evokes his late father, John Osteen, from whom he inherited the church leadership, to explain his image of God. His father, he said, was loving and kind, but when he npatagonia military clothing 4 cheapeeded to be stern, he was.
