Thursday, January 19, 2006

A Brand-Name for Lakewood Church

There's a new logo on the side of the Lakewood Church in Houston: Joel Osteen Ministries. You can see the logo here on the website for the same.

You can order your JOM fan merchandise from this independent vendor.

It's time to call out Joel Osteen: It's NOT about YOUR ministry. It's about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Good grief.


16 comments:

mibi52/ The Rev. Dr. Mary Brennan Thorpe said...

More than a little icky. It reminds me of the feeling i get when Sentors start speaking of themselves in the third person. Someone needs to stop reading his own press releases. Or as my sister-in-law would say, "Ish."

reverendmother said...

Oh I don't know, the "Quotidian Grace Center for Christian Discipleship" has a nice ring for a Christan Ed. program.

Not.

spookyrach said...

I especially love the "Evening With Joel" section about halfway down the page.

Good grief is right.

Anonymous said...

"WWJD?"--What would Joel do?

How convenient for Joel that his name begins with J! He can really "fill in" for the Leader that all of his followers forget.(i.e. Jesus)

Jules said...

Oh. My. God.

The mind reels...

the tentmaker said...

I wonder, do you suppose he really doesn't get it?

Anonymous said...

I've been wondering about that!!? It is a HUGE sign too (more ways than one...).

Princess of Everything (and then some) said...

It all just scares me. No wonder people *think* that they know what Christians are. Going to be alot of answering some day isn't there?

Becky Ardell Downs said...

are they actually changing the name of the church???? this is really disappointing to me, because, for some strange reason, I've always sort of held out hope for the Osteens. Even Joel. Even after his wife had that hissy fit on the airplane.

Jody Harrington said...

Becky,

They're not changing the name of the church. At least not yet. It's still Lakewood Church. But now on the side of the old Summit building facing the southwest freeway they have added a giant "Joel Osteen Ministries" logo.

I searched for a new photo of Lakewood showing the logo, but couldn't find one.

jonboy said...

Hey, my name starts with a "J." Can I play Jesus next time?

Karen Sapio said...

Kind of different than how Martin Luther was horrified that some adherants of his teaching were being refered to as "Lutherans", huh??

Greg Hazelrig said...

I know very little about Osteen. But what I've seen of him hasn't been bad theologically. If he's part of the name-it claim-it bunch I'll puke though.

Another guy I don't know a lot about, but didn't think his book was the greatest thing since sliced bread (like everyone else) is Rick Warren. I do beleive, though, that Joel needs to read the first page. In case you're one of the 12 people in America who's never heard of "The Purpose Driven Life", then let me share with you the first sentence/paragraph. And I quote:

"It's not about you."

Jody Harrington said...

That reminds me of a saying from one of my favorite retired ministers:
"Get over it, Get a life, It's not about you."

Greg, I didn't care for Purpose-Driven Life either. My daughters quit going to a young adult class over it, too. They thought it was goofy.

Greg Hazelrig said...

It seems like every church in the country tried to make it there theme or do a Sunday School class or the preacher did sermon series' based on it.

Personally, I think the idea of purpose (and especially it not being about us) is great. I just didn't tend to agree with everything the guy said. Anyway, I'm sure we can look forward to the next installment soon. "The purpose driven universe"...Hey I think I will pose that as a question on my blog.

Anonymous said...

sad :(