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Pastor Joel Osteen Interview Deals with Why He’s So Popular

This is the question that was directed to Pastor Joel Osteen of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. Cleveland.com interviewed Osteen and on question stuck out: Why do you think you and your church are so popular?

Joel Osteen’s answer to the question is what we’d expect but take look at what he had to say below:

“It may seem like a strange answer, but I honestly don’t know what the answer is,” Osteen said when asked about his rising popularity which reportedly has made him more famous than preachers like David Jeremiah, John Hagee and Charles Stanley. “Those other preachers are my friends, and they are talented. Maybe God’s hand is on my life. Maybe it’s because I’m a little younger than those other preachers.”

We are not sure about it being his young age that makes all the difference. We think it has a lot to do with his inspirational messages that do not have a ‘preachy’ tone to it. Our society is becoming so adapted to the ‘feel good’ church and not the church that preaches the word without compromise or prejudice.

“I do know this . . . I seem to reach a lot of previously unchurched people. So many people have told me they never went to church until they heard our message of hope that God is a good God who desires to bless those who are faithful and obedient to Him through Jesus Christ,” he added.

It sounds great that he can reach the ‘unchurched’ individuals with his famous hope messages but is anyone being convicted for their wrongdoings or not serving God at all in their lives? Hope is part of the gospel but when he stated in an interview this year that homosexuality was against God but he would officiate a gay wedding, should tell you this is more cult-ish than anything else. There’s a lot of brainwashing going on here.

“When I hear the words ‘prosperity gospel,’ it makes me think of money … and my message is not that people will get rich following Christ…”

Well, yes that is what prosperity gospel is. We are not sure how he handles offerings in his church but he houses tens of thousands of people every Sunday. Anyone can tell that the luxury of his stadium sized church (literally a stadium, that is) does not come cheap. The money is coming from somewhere and usually it’s the church that funds every bit of it.

When we first heard a sermon from Joel Osteen, we have to admit that his kind, gentle, encouraging and hopeful message was alluring. We noticed how we were pulled in simply by his tone and positive outlook. The only thing that ended up being a problem was when he would interview and not be able to answer questions about the word of God. His message of hope ended up being the rock he stood on but when asked the tough questions, he was more the powder puff preacher that could not move from being inspirational to being a messenger of the whole gospel.

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