This Church Report article — The 50 Most Influential Churches — examines the fifty largest churches in the United States based on a survey that was sent to 2,000 church leaders with the goal of ranking the nation’s fastest growing churches and churches with more than 2,000 weekend attendance.
Houston is well-represented on the list, with Lakewood Church ranking fifth (are there really four churches that are larger than one that holds its services in a renovated basketball arena?), Fellowship of The Woodlands at no. 17, Second Baptist Church at no. 33, and Windsor Village United Methodist at no. 43. The common thread through all of these mega-churches is that each of them is closely associated with a charismatic leader, and that is certainly true of the Houston contingent — Joel Osteen at Lakewood, Kerry Shook at Fellowship, Ed Young at Second Baptist, and Kirbyjon Caldwell at Windsor Village.
Lakewood Church made news waves throughout the country last week when it held the grand opening of its new renovated facility, which the Houston Rockets’ NBA basketball team used to use as their arena. From 1975 until Lakewood took over, the arena was known first as “The Summit” and then “Compaq Center” for 30 or so years before the Rockets moved the new Toyota Center downtown a couple of years ago.
Despite the rather obvious difficulty of reconciling the essential Christian tenets of sacrificial atonement with Lakewood’s lavish new digs and projected $75 million annual budget, Lakewood’s opening of its new facility was glorified by fawning local news media, which included numerous lengthy local television “news” reports from the facility touting how wonderful everything is about Lakewood.
Now, that may well be true, but it’s also important to know that Lakewood’s approach is not universally admired, even within Christian circles. In this post over at the Reformation 21 blog, Rick Phillips expresses his reservations about Lakewood, including the following:
For all the supposed praising of God, it was all about man: namely, Osteen (plus his father, his lovely wife, and his well-behaved children). Osteen’s wife stood before the vast throng and heaped praise upon her husband for ten minutes. The message: What a great man he is, and if you become like him you can be great, too – in your own little way. Then came Osteen’s sermon. It was all about his father’s example of faith and optimism, which he has exemplified and which resulted in the triumph of having enough money to lease a huge arena. There was almost no reference to the Bible and absolutely no Bible teaching. At one point, I opened my Bible during this litany of self-praise and read aloud the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. See if you can guess which one was Osteen. “Lord, I thank you that I am . . .”
Certainly seems as if someone in the Houston’s news media could have asked Reverend Osteen at least one question about that small issue last week, don’t you think?
For an evalution of Mr. Osteen’s approach from a theological perspective, see this piece.
This assumes that the news media would consider self worship a BAD thing. Maybe you are watching different news sources that I am, but I just don’t see this happening.
The Economist of two weeks ago had a survey on America that included a few paragraphs on megachurches. Their claim was that they succeed by offering something entirely unlike traditional church, more like a corporate self help and community exercise than anything terribly religious. The Osteen quotes seem to bear that out.
Interstingly, the Economist claimed this formula came about from a crude form of market research, not just luck accruing to a some out of control egos.
One thing I noticed when I visited a Dallas area megachurch last year – no religious symbols…anywhere. No crosses in the sanctuary. No stained glass. No stations of the cross (more of a Catholic thing, but still). No pictures of Disciples. No nothing.
However, they did have a Starbucks-like coffee shop in the lobby.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3279248
How empty are those masses, seeking a canned spill from Mr. O; a canned man himself? These sheep will someday fund the Osteen Space Station for Cosmic Truth. Tom, help them!
-Fez
Houston’s churches
Houston’s Clear Thinkers has an interesting post about Houston’s churches, Lakewood and Houston’s other big churches, that’s based on a Church Report article about The 50 Most Influential Churches. For this non-practicing Catho…
Check out the source of this list:
Rising Evangelical Star Jason Christy Leaves Trail of Fraud, Associates Say
By Hannah Elliott
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. Aug. 1 /ABP/ — When young, charismatic Christian publisher Jason Christy was tapped two years ago to lead the powerful Christian Coalition, the group’s leaders praised him for his ability “to inspire and encourage people of faith to action.” But Christy’s business dealings — both before and after his one-month affiliation with the Coalition — instead have inspired former customers and co-workers to file lawsuits charging Christy with defrauding their Christian businesses.
Christy, 36, who apparently had no previous public-policy experience, persuaded the Christian Coalition in 2005 to place him in one of the most visible and powerful positions in evangelical life. But before the coalition’s leaders officially turned over the reins of their 1.2 million-member national lobbying group, they learned of a trail of legal and financial problems that has followed Christy from coast to coast.
Former associates and customers of Christy’s many business ventures — mostly Christian magazines — say he cheated them out of money and threatened them. At least 10 of them have filed lawsuits, Associated Baptist Press has learned, and others have gotten court-issued restraining or protection orders against the Scottsdale, Ariz., businessman.
Christy says all the allegations are false. He and his supporters say “enemies” are spreading lies about him because of soured business relationships. But critics say Christy is a scam artist preying on trusting Christians.
Christy now publishes The Church Report, supposedly a conservative, national print magazine and web site. He has appeared as an analyst on CNN and spoken at megachurches like Robert Schullerís Crystal Cathedral. He hob-nobs with some of the evangelical elite and still has relationships with leaders in highly respected positions, like the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.
This article is continued at Associated Baptist Press News: http://www.abpnews.com/2685.article
Also at The Baptist Standard: http://www.baptiststandard.com/postnuke/index.php?module=htmlpages&func=display&pid=6646 and
Christianity Today: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/augustweb-only/131-35.0.html