They should have a playoff to determine #1!
Joel Osteen Tops Most Influential Christians in America (Lillian Kwon, Christian Post)
Barbara Walters' most fascinating pastor, Joel Osteen, now tops the list of the 50 Most Influential Christians in America.
Osteen heads one of the largest megachurches in the nation – Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas – and authors a #1 New York Times bestseller, Your Best Life Now. After Walters recently featured him as one of the 10 most fascinating people of the year, the Church Report announced the megapastor as the most influential Christian in its annual report."Always humble, Pastor Osteen gives credit to his wife, his staff and his church family for his success and the many blessings of Lakewood Church," the Church Report stated. "Pastor Osteen has a gift for reaching unreached people with his message of positive thought and God's plan for our lives."
Hmm, you'd think the country's top Christian might give credit to... GOD.
On the other hand, he doesn't reference God or the Bible all that much in his self-help lectures, and he may have been worried that his wife would throw a temper tantrum if he didn't list her first.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/10/07 17:47 | Other | Technorati
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Comments
If he thanked God, people might mistake him for a gangsta rapper.
Posted by Tom Hanna @ 14:46 on 01/11/07
Ha, Tom! You are a very funny magazine.
Posted by Kevin @ 08:01 on 01/12/07
The Church Report has it partially correct, I think. Pastor Olsteen does have a message of positive thought, delivered with his lovable charm and charisma. What he does not deliver, and cannot, is any sort of revelation about "God's plan for our lives". Fact is, Pastor Olsteen doesn't know any more about such a plan than do any of the rest of us. Personally, I reject the idea that such a plan exists in the first place, but people make a lot of money saying otherwise, so maybe they've figured out the plan, at least as it applies to them anyway.
Posted by Dennis @ 06:01 on 01/13/07
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