Lakewood church observations

Much has been made in recent days of the Houston, Texas church (Lakewood) that has moved into the recently renovated Compaq center. Fernando Gros has the best compilation I’ve seen yet of links to various commentaries, and he excerpts at length a piece by Jason Byassee that appeared in the Christian Century. Here’s a taste to whet your interest:

“Osteen’s version of the gospel is full of “ifs.” If we enlarge our vision, if we choose to be happy, if we think thoughts and speak words of victory and blessing, if we give of ourselves abundantly—then God will bless us with everything we want. The conditional nature of these sentences is telling. This is not a gospel of grace, in which God acts in spite of our lack of faithfulness to redirect our wants. Instead this is a gospel of reward in which God does nothing until we get our act together. In traditional Christian theology, Protestant and Catholic alike, we can do nothing in and of ourselves to merit God’s favor. Rather, God comes to us in Christ when we are without merit, without ability to please God and without reason to think we can be saved or helped. Such a view of grace is surely part of the grumpy theology Osteen seeks to upend—but it is central to Christianity.”