Stop Sneering and Get to Work
Osteen is, simply, the worst. A theological embarrassment. And yet, if you are a pastor sneering at Osteen I'm pretty confident his church is larger than yours. ... Joel Osteen could speak to this gang-member and criminal, could change his life. Could you or I? And if we can't, maybe we should wipe the sneers off our faces and work at becoming better missionaries. ... Bell observed that Osteen was "parenting" people who never had any parenting, or at least not any good parenting. Many people have never experienced a stable family where they heard constant and unconditional messages of positivity, praise, and encouragement. Most people never grew up hearing "You can do this! You got this! I believe in you!" But you know who says that, over and over? Do you know who believes in you? Joel Osteen. ... Same goes for modern praise music. I can't tell you how many times I've heard seminary-educated pastors and seminary professors sneer at Christian praise music. The music is castigated for being overly individualistic, therapeutic, and sentimental. We sneer and call it "Jesus is my boyfriend" music. ... Instead of sneering at the therapeutic individualism of these songs, their focus upon me and my feelings, take a second to listen to the songs as a missionary, as a cultural anthropologist. Instead of lol lol lol how about we think for a second? To what deep ache in the modern world are these songs appealing to? ... The modern would is suffering, staring into a void of meaninglessness where something true, beautiful and good once existed. Families are broken. Depression, anxiety, suicide, loneliness and addiction at high tide. And if you look out upon all that pain, with a compassionate heart and the mind of a missionary, there really is no mystery as to why Jordan Peterson, Joel Osteen or Hillsong are so popular.