Last week Kalila and I had the pleasure of attending the Tori Amos concert at the Orpheum in Boston.  Park Street Church is literally right across the street from the theater, so we had to walk by it each way coming from and getting to our car parked around the block.  I’ve had a class there before with Dr. Gordon Hugenberger (Senior Minister at Park Street), so I’m always curious as to what is going on whenever I’m around the Common or the Capitol.  So last week we noticed that Park Street is under construction all around the outside and we wondered what exactly they were doing.  We didn’t know if there were structural problems or if they were just doing a face lift.  I went to check the Park Street website, and I was pleasantly surprised that they had redesigned their website.  It is much more visually stimulating than their previous layout and far easier to navigate.  They also have a mini-site that describes their plans to renovate the building leading up to their 200th anniversary in 2009.  Take a peak over at their new site and learn about one of the most important evangelical churches in Boston: www.parkstreet.org.

Ok, I really enjoy the ESV bible translation that was originally introduced in 2001 and has become immensely popular since (due largely, I believe, to good marketing and distributing free copies). One thing I like about the ESV “campaign” is that emblem on the front cover and top of the spine of my particular hardcover partially seen in the picture below:

A few months back however, I met up with my buddy Josh over at the cigar shop “The Federal Tobaccanist” in Portsmouth,NH. We had a great time looking around at their fine pipes and cigars. We were also engaged in a good cigar tutorial by the one of the helpful people that work there. Thus we spent a lot of time in their walk-in humidor checking out their vast aray of quality smokes. As I perused the room one last time before we left, I noticed the inside cover of a box that seemed strangely familiar to me. It took me no more than a second after I stopped to look to recollect where I had seen that design and color scheme. Take a look for yourself:

It was then I realized that one of the higher ups at Crossway involved with the marketing of the ESV must be a cigar smoker. What a clever guy. Josh agreed with me instantaneously. Don’t be fooled by the piety of those involved with the ESV. They are stealing their marketing ideas from a vintage cigar company. Keep that in mind the next time you open your ESV for devotions tomorrow. Hehe.

Here is a rather amusing post by Mel Duncan (Ligon Duncan’s brother) which was posted at the Reformation 21 blog. He is the Director of Church Relations at Ligonier Ministries, founded by R.C. Sproul.  So needless to say, Mel is as Reformed in his theology as they come.  Enjoy.

…I spent last evening with Joel Osteen.

On a dark and stormy night I (and 10,000 others) came to see the charming preacher with bright eyes and a huge smile. I fought mile long traffic to be there…with Joel.

True confession: I came with expectations in hand that “An evening with Joel Osteen” would be bread and circus for the spiritually impoverished. If you want to know my conclusion you’ll have to keep reading through to the end, though in fairness I tried to leave my ref21 hatchet at the door.

I assumed that I would meet those unfortunate souls who at the opening of Joel Osteen’s fifteen city, four nation road show were what we (Reformed types) are so often befuddled by, those teeming hordes of sweet semi-Pelagians who seem to make up the bulk of the American Christian ghetto.

I was expecting to see the poor, uneducated and easy to command, as the Washington Post once famously described evangelicals. People who couldn’t help themselves from being there because they were put under a Vulcan mind meld from their local pastor. I expected to find ancient women with blue hair in attendance from nearby towns like Greer with pre-trib glossy magazines in hand connecting the “ten horns of Revelation” to the activities of nearby Bob Jones University.

I arrived early (taking “Jack Bauer type” precautions that I wouldn’t be followed, and notifying a Ruling Elder in my “CTU friendly” church a head of time), while searching in vain for someone who understood Carl Trueman and had heard of the Ante-Nicene fathers.

Just who exactly comes to a Joel Osteen confab?

I came expecting to find Benny Hinn people and I found instead a Tony Robbins seminar drawing a good representative sample of my community. Indeed, demographically speaking it was astonishingly integrated. It was full of upper middle class Gen X couples (and late boomers) with kids. They came in their tribes of tens and twenties with iPods rather than NIV’s.

My guess is that I was face to face with “Dog the Bounty Hunter,” free-market fundamentalists who were blissfully unaware of the Federal Vision, undecided on the importance of the OT, but definitely unamused by those rascally Calvinists causing trouble in the SBC. Simply because I could, I bought popcorn and Coke and enjoyed the spectacle of Christian roadies doing sound checks on the coliseum floor.

The overall production value of the stage, set and imagery was very good, while at the same time simple and in most ways not overly distracting. There was the obligatory dry ice machine, a few multicolored spotlights and images of the Osteen “rotating open globe thing” that seems to be the symbol of Lakewood Church. In the center of the stage there was RC Sproul’s famous nemesis, the dreaded “portable plexiglass pulpit.” It had one spotlight on it all times (except when the blonde worship leader was singing). There was a box of tissues inside its casing.

The pre-game music was surprisingly toned down (really not unlike that of an RUF meeting). I sensed that the organizers were more worried about turning folks off then they were about meaningfully engaging in crowd prep. I was somewhat proud that those present from my community were on the whole not participatory in the music and theater. Most did not know the words well enough to engage in correct contemporary praise posture. Maybe people at an Osteen event just come to watch?

Why were all these people here? What were they looking for? How had Joel Osteen come to be so important to them? These were the questions I was trying to understand.

My guess is that they came to see this strangely alluring man with his emotionally charged appeal for brotherhood, good works, and hopefulness, who is touching a raw post-modern nerve in the culture; that’s why I came. They also came –unknowingly I think—because Joel Osteen has found a new way to treat their spiritual maladies: ignore root causes and tackle the symptoms.

From the start of the event it was a family affair. The night was opened by Joel Osteen’s brother-in-law, and at different points most of his family present held forth on various matters. His mother, the Venerable Dodi, juxtaposed some classic old school “name it and claim it” with some new fangled power of positive thinking in a moral exhortation centered on recent health issues in her life. She had the line of the night, “If you have a problem, find a verse in there (the Bible) and tell the Almighty what you need.”

Victoria (the Difficult) spoke to us on the fascinating subject of what exactly it means to be married to Joel Osteen. Her story is complicated. She used to work in a jewelry store and then one day (((Joel))) came in to get a watch fixed. She ended up selling him a new watch and soon came marriage and a baby carriage. Joel’s brother (a doctor) asked people to give money to the ministry, after challenging those in the audience to give their tithes first to their local churches. At other points in the show his family in attendance including children, nephews and nieces were recognized to applause. The Osteens, it would seem are the Kennedy’s of the Charismatic Nation.

What would Joel speak about when all the introductions were over with I wondered?

Osteen would speak not once but many times throughout the evening in a succession of unscripted 10 minutes pick–me-up-talks. Each presentation was a variation on the previous theme: “Things are gonna get better… Keep positive.” It was almost entirely bereft of Scripture. In a superfluous way it was very encouraging! I found myself throughout the entire night waiting for the shoe to drop, and saying to myself is this it?

Osteen tells his life story, which in many ways is a classic American success story. He inherited his father’s position (without wanting to) and with one week of preparation takes over the family business. The church grows from 6,000 to over 40,000 in 5 years and has recently bought an $80 Million dollar sporting arena. Osteen strikes me as being amazed as everyone else at own his success and very proud of the family business, Lakewood Church of Houston, now the nation’s largest. Only in America.

The story of Osteen’s success would be a fantastic story of God’s providence if he believed in such a thing. For years he watched the ministry behind a camera, editing and overseeing the development of media. In many ways Joel understood the ministry better than most because he was involved with it in a way that would one day be instrumental in its growth. He also learned a good bit about the charismatic and Pentecostal way of preaching because he listened to these messages everyday in a studio, editing them for television and radio.

Joel’s own sermons are not like those of his fathers (the late John Osteen). They strike me as the next generation of the Charismatic movement. They aren’t about experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit in your life; they are just about encountering your feelings. He talks over and over again about your relationships with other people and in the end he doesn’t really ask you to do anything - except try to change. His language is a mix of manifest destiny and late night infomercial. If I had to characterize the 600 words “sermonettes” I heard I would say “Charismatic emergent, non-threatening, non-spritualized therapeutic language.” Maybe American Idol with Paula as the lone judge.

Never once did I hear the words Gospel, Jesus Christ, Trinity, Sin, Cross (except in Scripture songs sung by performers and in a video testimony played before the Osteens arrived in arena)

So what conclusions can be drawn from An Evening with Joel?

Joel Osteen is the slick and polished face of non creedal American Evangelicalism. Joel is youthful, exuding Opie from Mayberry, aw shucks Americana that is uplifting, believable, and even to this cynic, soothing. Joel Osteen is wonderbread.

Now I recognize that everyone (whether we realize it or not) probably has someone in their life like Joel Osteen, a relentless optimist, who simple mindedly prods one to excellence, selflessness, and endurance. I’m just thinking Joel Osteen is not actually doing this with his people. At the end of the day, Osteen encouraged his crowd not to seek Christ as the solutions to their problems but something else. That something else seemed to be a clever but highly charged view of self. Self-interest, Self-gratification, Self-fulfillment, Self-realization, Self-actualization, with a little bit of sanitized obligatory righteous buzz words thrown in to make it appear evangelically kosher for the uninitiated.

What took place at Osteen’s erstwhile crusade in my city can only be described as the next step in Post Modern Pentecostalism. It is the health and wealth gospel for healthy and wealthy people. If the Christian religion is medicine for souls that are poor and needy than Osteen is a bottle of vitamins in an operating room.

Mel Duncan’s blog can be found at http://riverandrhett.blogspot.com/

I’ve been incredibly busy this past week, and month for that matter. I don’t know if all of you are aware, but starting in July I left working at a certain christian book company to take a position doing credit analysis and collections at a little know gift company located very close to my home. In either case, we are in our busy season so I’ve been working about an hour of overtime per day this week, and that is not even close to the time I really need to get things accomplished. On top of that, I’ve got a friend going through some very difficult times with his family that I cannot speak of here. Let’s call him “A” for now. This required me spending this past weekend with him as he is in a darker time than he can possilbly fathom. Please pray for him and his family. Although they are in Christ, they are seriously desperate for him now to make himself known and savored in their heartbreak. It amazes me how fragile we are at any given time.

While I was gone, my wife Kalila was able to enjoy an October archaeology dig in New Hampshire. However, since it was 20 degrees in the evening up there, she brought back with her a mysterious virus that has slowly been bringing down the household. All the symptoms are creeping their way in: achy bones, sore throats, sneezing, coughing, runny noses, and fatigue. Please pray that God would be merciful to our souls in the midst of our oncoming illnesses.

One major thing that I’ve been busy with the past few weeks has been the development of local church community. God has indeed been gracious to knit a few of us like-minded friends together to start meeting as a house-group in Haverhill,MA. Danny, Cyndie, Jerry, Sue, Moses, James, Josephine, Jim, Allison, Paul, Kalila, and myself began meeting Wednesdays at 7:00 PM at Danny’s home on October 4th under the banner of the centrality of God in the heart of God. We truly believe that Jesus Christ is the most beautiful thing/being/reality in existence and that this is evident as we unfold each passage of Scripture. Our plan is for either Danny or myself to kick things off with an intentional working through of a text for 20, 30 or 40 minutes, while entertaining questions and appropriate discussion. From there, more fellowship, prayer, and perhaps communion as God may lead. We view this time as an extension of our friendship set aside for specifically focusing on God as he has revealed himself in Scripture and feasting on him together. In lieu of this, I have set up the site www.god-centered.com to serve as a way to introduce new people to the community, to provide relevant discussion stemming from our meetings, and to encourage the saints with a host of resources and links. The site is still in progress, so there are many things we are trying to do to get it tip-top. Let me know what you all think. I am really excited about what God has been doing as our recent gathering is in step with, and is overflow of what has been happening in our friendships for the last few years. Please pray that God would encounter us gloriously and delightfully.