Where is the servant?
I saw an interview with Barbara Walters with Joel Osteen - listed as one of the 10 most fascinating people of 2006. No doubt, Joel has an incredibly "successful" church - it is the largest in the US, has a $75 million budget and an 18,000 seat church. Early on, I watched him and I liked what I heard. It made me feel good. He is attractive and polished and his wife looks like a model. But, after a while, something didn't sit right with me. His message week after week seemed to be the same - "Prosperity...God wants us to be prosperous". It seemed that was the only message I heard from him ... it was all about feeling good and being prosperous. The Walter's interview spoke of Osteen's booming personal wealth (his book has been a #1 best seller). When pressed on this issue, Walters asked him, "You talk a lot about money (shows a clip of him praying for the Lord to bless the audience with bonuses, raises, promotions) - do you think God wants us to be wealthy?" Osteen replied, "God wants to bless us in many ways and certainly wealth is one of those ways." Then Walters says, "You avoid the controversy in your preaching about prosperity - you refuse to address the issues of gay marriage, abortion, etc." That was it - he is avoiding anything that is controversial. It is "feel good" Christianity. He isn't challenging our lifestyle choices. It is all about prosperity - ours and his.

Earlier this month, I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about a watchdog group that audits ministries to make sure they are spending God's money where they say they are. The group found discrepancies in the ministry of Joyce Meyer in St. Louis. They dug up that her ministry has bought 5 houses, a private jet worth $6.5 million and expensive art work for her and her ministry and family to use. Ms. Meyer is unapologetic about the riches she has acquired. She spins a mix of down-home frankness and unabashed exuberance for wealth building. Her latest book is entitled, "Look great, feel great" (is that what Jesus talked about?). In 2005, her ministry had revenues of $109 million. No doubt her ministry does some great things in missionary work and in feeding the homeless and they have responded to the inquiries by selling off the houses. She cut her salary from $750,000 a year to $250,000 but changed the set up for the royalties from her books and tapes. Now these royalties run through a private company she owns. "It is kind of ironic" she says, "I am financially better off doing it this way. It is a blessing."

I am better off....(??)

Where is the servant? What are these ministries about? Enriching the pastor/ceo? Building wealth? Looking great, feeling great? Where is the servant?

I don't mean to be critical but there is a pattern here. It seems many of our "leading" pastors have abandoned what the Gospel says and are promoting ways to build a better life. They have tried to tie their message into wealth - to somehow proves God's pleasure in us by His blessing us with wealth. The more "pleasing" the message, the larger the flock grows. The larger the flock grows, the bigger the pastor's paycheck grows, the bigger the worship centers can grow...

Is that what Jesus did? Did he preach "pleasing" messages? Did he stand in the pulpit and pray for God to bless the flock with material possessions? Did he jet around the country in a private jet hawking books, CDs, DVDs just to have all the royalties run through his private company?

If anything in America, do we need to hear one more word about money? Is that America's problem...that we don't have enough money? Or, is it that we are way too focused on it?

Jesus spoke a lot about money but he didn't talk about how we can get more of it. He warned repeatedly about man's love/lust for money and the ruin it can create. We need to be very careful to what we listen to and the package it is wrapped in.

Soar!