bob.blog: plant, dagnabbit...

August 23, 2006

plant, dagnabbit...

Wow... that's, uh... You should totally plant a church!

Maybe if I look at it from back here...

No, really... you should plant a church!

Oh, for pete's sake... plant a freakin' church already!

Oh for the love of all that is holy why will you not send some of those people out and plant a church????

Oh.

Aug 23, 2006 6:08:29 AM | church planting

7 Comments

Everyone criticises Osteen. This particular criticism is one of the few that I completely and wholeheartedly agree with!

Posted by: ftm | August 23, 2006 at 10:08 AM

Osteen...you mean Captian Blinker...man, does that dude blink his eyes a million times or what?

But, my mom loves to listen to him preach, and considering she almost threw me out of the house for becoming a Christian, I'll take it.

The huge church thing doesn't fly for me, either. I guess I see church as a movement of multiplication (I know, I know)...anyway. Funny post, man!

Posted by: Toby | August 23, 2006 at 01:33 PM

Say what you will about Osteen, but I think he's getting people to open their Bibles, and, better yet, buy Bibles--people who haven't before.

Maybe we don't agree with all of his message(s), but he ain't that bad... :-)

Posted by: FTM | August 23, 2006 at 05:48 PM

The only time people pick up their Bibles during their time in Osteen's church is when they hold it over their head and recite the mantra about it. They say, "This is my Bible. I am what it says I am; I have what it says I have; I can do what it says I can do. Today, I will be taught the Word of God. I'll boldly confess. My mind is alert; my heart is receptive; I will never be the same. I am about to receive the incorruptible, indestructible, ever-living Seed of the Word of God. I'll never be the same - never, never, never! I'll never be the same, in Jesus' Name."

If I recited that every week, I think I'd expect a little more Bible and a little less Joel giving me advice on how to be happy in life. How can that many people not see the disconnect?

Posted by: Bob Robinson | August 23, 2006 at 08:02 PM

Hey, weren't they the couple on that TV show "Ed".....???

hmmmmmm...

...from bowling alley lawyer to arena-filling sheepherder... I knew that guy would get another good job soon after the bowling alley tanked.

what was his name?

oh yeah. 'Ed.'

Posted by: Seanno | August 23, 2006 at 11:08 PM

I think it's ok to criticize a guy who goes on Larry King Live and totally avoids tough questions. Did anyone see that interview about 6 months ago? Ridiculous! Exact opposite of when Rick Warren went on. (Say what you will about Warren, the dude gracefully fielded every tough question thrown at him.) I'm not completely anti-Osteen, but the guy does drive me bananas 80% of the time.

Good Post.

Posted by: Jonathan Sutton | August 24, 2006 at 11:28 AM

If you have the chance to speak to that many people...bring them something from God. I saw the beginning of the show this week. They did the mantra about the Bible and then this was Joel's opening line...or close to this. "We've been talking about staying healthy and today I want to talk to you about living at your ideal weight." Nice guy, but...ideal weight?? Come on, Joel!!

Posted by: Brandon | August 28, 2006 at 09:11 PM

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Leeland A huge thank you to Justin Taylor for turning me onto Leeland, whose debut album I have had on repeat all night. Amazing, Coldplay and Keane-like, influenced by rather than ripping off... If you are a fan of either, you might like this... What I love is that it's just good worship music, poetic and yet avoiding the cheezy Jesus is my girlfriend thing many fall into... Theologically deep as well... Amazing to think this music comes out of someone who's 17. Leeland on myspace and iTunes

comment from Drew... Drew left this comment on the Church Planting by Wind and Fire post... Bob, I'm feeling you on this one also. It's a myth that there is a prototypical "church planter" out there. After meeting 30-40 other church planters, I can see an array of differences in personality, leadership quality, direction, and style. Not all were risk-takers, or entrepreneurial, or any other "essential" church planter quality. I tire of the new lists that [endlessly] come out trying to describe these vital parts of a church planter. Here's my hunch: we look at those who do things we haven't considered doing and think, "Man, they're entrepreneurial!" or "Wow, they're a risk-taker!" In reality, they just believe that they're called and are responding to that. It's usually in hindsight that we call people adventurous or entrepreneurial. At least that's what we call the "successful" ones. The unsucessful ones? Weak. Naive. Over-zealous. We're too obsessed with labeling the next thing that "works" and taking it apart to examine it with empirical enthusiasm. We forget the things that line up with what you wrote, Bob. Moses was a known murderer and couldn't speak well. Gideon was a wimp. Should we consider what we're doing...