Sunday, August 3, 2008
MID-WEEK CUP WITH DEWEY TASTE THE DIFFERANCE KKIM/DDC/Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Good Morning KKIM Family........
Last night the Starbuck's where Gretchen(Our daughter) works was robbed at gun point..........I have to tell you that sadly I was not surprised. Nobody was hurt but what an emotional ordeal. Police where able to chase the two robbers down as they crashed their getaway car. Gretchen does not know what to think. I told her I cannot believe that my kids are growing up where armed robbery is just part of another day at work. Lars is going to start work at Hollywood Video today and works the late shift, so we are very concerned. What has happened here in Albuquerque like many cities in the U.S. is REPEAT OFFENDERS.......in jail out of jail..in jail and out of jail........the revolving door of justice.......70% of crime in Albuquerque is linked to METH. The other night after softball I stopped in 7-11 and got in line to pay and this young man looked at me and wanted to talk and he smelled of beer.....and he told me he loves Albuquerque because in Sandavol County everybody knows me and I just got of jail....he and his 6 buddies had pulled up in a car and were coming in the store one by one trying to get the clerks to sell them more beer..........but the clerks would not and the one told me that she was going to go out into her car and get her can of mace........I told her to stay put and I would call the police........I feel that these companies need to provide their workers more protection..like at least one security guard. By the way the car load of drunks got away before the police got there (They cannot be everywhere, just down the road they had stopped a truck with 2 drunks in it) I followed the car for a bit before they got onto me.
Our prayers go out to KKIM's Ministry Representative Michelle Archuleta whose father Andy passed away yesterday. Please keep the family in your prayers. It is so tough to loose our dad.......so please keep Michelle and the entire family in your prayers........Michelle's children will miss their Grandpa very much.
Please pray for Michael Ramos who is in the hospital with internal bleeding and the Doctor's cannot find out what is wrong. Michael is the host of the Credit Corner on KKIM.
1 Peter 3:12 says..........
The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and HIS ears are open to their prayers.
Do not worry about tomorrow. Matt. 6:34
Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such city, spend a year there, buy and sell , and make a profit"
whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. James 4 13-14
From Rob and Karen Rowe...........
What Do We Sacrifice for Our LORD? By Rob and Karen Rowe
Here’s what the Bible says:
Isaiah 53:11
“After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.”
1Samuel 15:22
“But Samuel replied: ‘Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”
What sacrifices do we make daily to our LORD?
Is it our time, our money, our compassion; listening. Is it spending time mediating on the Word of God, which is also a privilege?
Here’s what the dictionary says about Sacrifice:
The surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim.
Here are some of my thoughts that I have to share:
Sacrifice, or even a willingness to sacrifice is perseverance in God and Christ IS our strength to endure.
I’d like to hear some of your thoughts on sacrifice…
Love in Christ,
Rob and Karen Rowe
I notice that the good old handshake is dying...Not many people shake hands anymore........or whistle while they work........I was whistling the other day and Sharon said to me, Honey do you remember when people used to whistle all the time while working and having fun??? I found this.........
If handshake is history, what takes its place?
By Joan Morris
Contra Costa Times
Article Launched: 07/09/2008 12:01:00 AM CDT
Please bow your heads in recognition of the passing of the ancient and venerable handshake.
In frail health for years and often seen only at formal occasions or when thanking bank managers for loans, the old grip-and-grin guru finally succumbed earlier this year when the president of the United States was photographed doing a chest bump and a possible future president exchanged a dap with his wife.
It was the final blow to a tradition that has been on the wane since the advent of the leisure suit. But while expected, it nevertheless came about in such a surprising way that we're still reeling and considering what will step into the breach.
Let's take a look at the possibilities.
THE DAP
Origins: The "dap," aka the fist bump, seems to have been born in the muddy battlefields of the Vietnam War. The original version includes lots of other movements, but time has distilled the dap to a vertical or horizontal fist bump.
What it means: Patti Wood, an Atlanta body language expert and author of "Success Signals," says the dap conveys a sense of determination and power. After reviewing images of Democratic presidential candidate Barak Obama exchanging a dap with his wife after learning he had enough delegates to claim the nomination, Wood thought their dap conveyed a sense of being ready to conquer and unified in their quest.
Raise your hand as if making a traditional handshake, but curl your fingers into a fist. Keeping the arm parallel
here is the latest from Frank Haley on the Ruidoso flood..........
Ruidoso, -- Close to 15-million, that is reportedly the dollar estimate to re-build parts of Ruidoso washed away by flooding last weekend. Ruidoso city officials say it could take up to a year to repair the damage. Several bridges were washed away, and hundreds of homes were destroyed. Many campers are still stranded near Bonito Lake but rescue crews in a Black Hawk helicopter should have them rescued later today.
And get this................
Lost land: Midwest flooding strips region of valuable soil as sand, silt pile up in fields
By DEANNA MARTIN, Associated Press
July 27, 2008
MARTINSVILLE, Ind. - Jim Lankford's corn crops used to stretch to the White River. Now the river has stretched itself through his crops.
The river eroded a new route for itself during June's flooding, a channel with steep 12-foot banks at the edge of some of Lankford's corn fields about 30 miles southwest of Indianapolis. The flood spread rocks in other spots, making it look as if Lankford planted soybeans in a gravel road. Elsewhere, silt is piled up like sand dunes and uprooted trees still litter cornfields more than a month after the floods.
"It's the worst I've ever seen in my life for this area," the 62-year-old farmer said.
The flooding that swamped large areas of the Midwest took with it some of the region's most valuable resource: soil.
Now farmers and environmentalists are at odds over what to do with erosion-prone land — take their chances planting crops on marginal land in hopes of good yields and high grain prices, or plant trees, native grasses20or ground cover that act as a natural flood buffer.
The floods may have caused up to $3 billion in crop losses in Iowa and $800 million in crop damage in Indiana, according to estimates from agriculture secretaries in those states.
Erosion damage is harder to tally.
In Wisconsin, flooding damaged about $2.8 million worth of conservation structures, such as dams, levees, ditches and waterways, said Don Baloun, a farm conservationist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resource Conservation Service in Madison, Wis.
Some land in Illinois is still submerged.
"It could be fall for some of our counties on the Mississippi River before we see what kind of damage farmers did experience as far as erosion," said Donald King of Illinois' USDA's Farm Service Agency.
Erosion robs farmers of the nutrient-rich topsoil their growing plants need.
"It takes thousands of years to form one inch of topsoil," said Jane Hardisty, Indiana's state conservationist. "Within a day, we lost it. It's just devastating."
It's also an issue downstream, where sediment diminishes water quality. Scientists think the "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico — oxygen-depleted water off the Texas-Louisiana coast that can't support kill marine life — is likely to be worse this year partly because of the flood runoff.
States have set up programs to keep their soil. Missouri, for0Aexample, has nearly halved its rate of soil loss since the mid-1980s, when it dedicated a special tax that generates $42 million a year for soil-conserving practices such as terraces, retention ponds and grazing rotations.
The conversion of row-crop land to pastures over the last 20 years in northern Missouri also has helped conserve the precious few inches of top soil left in that part of the state, said Bill Foster, who heads the state's soil and water conservation program.
"If we lose very many more inches of soil, we won't be farming," Foster said. "It's critical to keep in place."
The Farm Service Agency's Conservation Reserve Program also helps. The $2 billion-a-year federal program pays farmers not to plant crops, instead returning land to its native state. That saves an estimated 450 million tons of soil each year.
However, that program isn't without controversy. Environmental groups recently sought a federal court injunction to stop hay production and cattle grazing on some conservation land. A judge in Seattle ruled that the USDA did not conduct an appropriate environmental review, but said a reversal would be unfair to farmers and ranchers counting on using that land.
Conservation program officials announced earlier this month that farmers in flooded-damaged areas of 16 states could graze livestock on conservation land to help them cope with rising grain prices and flood damage.
"Our CRP land is vital to the balance we promote at US DA between production and preservation," Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said. "I commit this resource knowing that we must redouble our conservation effort at every future opportunity."
One of the program's founders, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., wants to also allow farmers to plant crops on more stable conservation land.
Environmental groups say there are risks to opening up conservation program land to planting. Marginal land planted with ground cover or trees acts as a natural flood barrier, said Sara Hopper, director of agricultural policy for the Environmental Defense Fund. Planting crops could mean less protection against floods, she said.
"It's going to make a bad situation worse, particularly over the long run," she said.
Lankford, the Indiana farmer, faces a difficult decision for his flood-damaged land.
He could replant corn in an effort to make money off the field, but that would take cash to rebuild a breached levee and haul hundreds of truck loads of topsoil to replace his lost land. He could also consider the conservation reserve program, or he could simply abandon the affected field.
Another big flood could come again next year, he said, or not for another hundred years.
"Traditionally, farmers are optimists, and I know I'm that way. They always think 'Well, next year will be better,'" Lankford said.
"You know there's risks. Sometimes it's worse than you think."
Yesterday I had a long talk with Pastor Steve Smotherman of Legacy Church here in Albuquerque about the Prosperity message of Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyer.........What do you think???
Here is a write up that I found on AOL.............
Joel Osteen preaches the virtues of prosperity -- for himself as well as his congregation. A look at the man who may well be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the slumping economy.
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Who will save us? Who will lift us up from crushing credit-card debt and resetting mortgage payments and impending foreclosure, from increasing gas prices and decreasing health-insurance coverage? We are a nation stumbling through our worst fi nancial crisis in a generation and our worst housing market in a lifetime. And so we come, seeking gentle salvation, inspiring prayers, steadying words, soothing notions, and calming thoughts that will allow us to become, in Joel Osteen's words, "victors, not victims."
We are in Greensboro, North Carolina, making our way into the downtown arena through the hot, buggy air, to worship with the pastor who will save us, the man anointed, by one of his congregants, as "Reverend Feelgood." Sixteen thousand will file in this evening, as have millions more to coliseums, concert venues, and baseball stadiums around the country -- all, in a way, his churches. (View a slideshow that tallies the budgets of some of the biggest churches.)
Running a Megachurch
AP
Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston has an average weekend attendance of 45,000 and an annual budget of $72.6 million.
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We are a diverse, representative swath of troubled America: families struggling under debt, husbands and wives seeking reconciliation, young couples on first dates, children dragged by pious grandparents who promise them popcorn and BibleMan action figures. It is religion as escapism, criticized throughout the Bible Belt as "Christianity lite" or "prosperity gospel." But this murmuring crowd, slouching toward a kinder, gentler salvation, is a more telling indicator of the state of our union than consumer durables purchased or capital goods ordered. Unemployment they know; they don't need to wait for the Bureau of Labor Statistics to publish a monthly number. O, but come to Joel, lift your hands to Jesus, banish your negative thoughts, and you can find in these dark times a beacon.
If, in this country, there is great hurting, then Osteen is here to soothe that suffering. He does not wish that pain on any of us, and the sight or thought of it will bring forth from him great torrents of tears -- his eyes clamped20shut, his fingers pressed into narrow eye sockets, his lips pulled back over pink gums as he grimaces. The crying has become a visual touchstone of an Osteen sermon, the born-again equivalent of James Brown's pre-encore collapse from "exhaustion."
Joel feels our pain and has made himself wealthy (reportedly earning $13 million for his last book advance alone) and his church prosperous ($75 million and counting in annual revenue) by urging us to let go of it, to turn it over to God, to accept God's favor so that we may be as prosperous as Joel.
There was always a strain of American Puritanism that pointed to Scripture as justification for asserting that wealth is somehow godly. But ever since evangelical Christianity separated from the mainline faiths in the early 20th century, some preachers have gone further and linked their focus on personal piety to financial success. The big-tent revivals of the 1930s promised the dust-bowl destitute the possibility of finding Jesus and their next meal just by listening to a fire-and-brimstone message. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, televangelists like Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart made prosperity gospel big business, capitalizing on that era's economic uncertainties to win over a new generation of acolytes, before those ministries were brought down by scandal.
Osteen is one of a new breed of televangelists -- Joyce Meyer, T.D. Jakes, and Creflo Dollar are also rising stars -- who are preaching a less sanctimonious, more inclusive message. His chur ch is in that part of the economy that thrives in troubled times, that can count on full pews when wallets are empty and an ever more receptive audience if we do go into a full-on recession.
Osteen hasn't necessarily tailored his message for the downturn. Instead, he has continued his feel-good preaching, his exhortations to focus on the positive and banish negative thoughts, his reminders that God wants you to have a good job, a beautiful home, and decent cash flow. His vast ministry has become, in effect, shelter from the storm. "God wants you to have a big life," Osteen reminds his flock. "That is his blessing. God has a big dream for your life."
We live in a time of miraculous congregations. Osteen's Lakewood Church, in Houston, is the largest in the United States, with 45,000 regular weekly attendees and 7 million more tuning in. His television show is the most-watched inspirational program in America and is seen in 100 countries around the world. He has sold 7 million copies of his two books, 'Your Best Life Now' and 'Become a Better You.' Podcasts of his sermons are downloaded 4.5 million times a month. He preaches to more than 15,000 people at a time in the basketball arena turned sanctuary that is Lakewood Church. His pulpit stands near the spot where Hakeem Olajuwon helped the Houston Rockets win two consecutive N.B.A. titles. But the Rockets, who have since moved across town, never put as many people in the seats as Osteen does.
Osteen will tell you that his20success is a result of Gods favor, that his message is God's message, and that all that he has achieved is a blessing from God. Clearly, he is more than just an inspiring pastor; he is also a master marketer and -- pardon me for saying this, Joel -- a damn good chief executive.
He presides over an empire that takes in tens of millions of dollars a year and has been growing at a boom-time pace. (Though Osteen gives a significant portion of his book and CD earnings to the church, his take is still ample enough to allow him and his family to live in 5,000 square feet of leopard-skinned luxury in one of Houston's tonier neighborhoods.) Rough economic times, Osteen believes, make the business of saving souls that much richer. "I would think that our message would have increased relevancy in a time of economic uncertainty. I think people want to know that God is taking care of you. As it gets darker, I think the brighter message shines."
Joel's father, John Osteen, was a pastor who dissociated himself from the Southern Baptist Church to start his own congregation, Lakewood, in an abandoned feedstore in 1959. It was John who started the family march toward a more gentle Jesus, focusing on the goodness and love of God and downplaying the Old Testament anger and wrath. One of John's prevailing themes, and the underpinning for much of Lakewood's current message, can be found in one of his sermons: "It's God's will for you to live in prosperity instead of poverty. It's God's will for you to pay your bills and not be in debt. It's God's will for you to live in health and not in sickness all the days of your life."
Joel is the second youngest of six siblings, and the one considered least likely to take the pulpit. To say that he was a quiet child would be an understatement. The diminutive boy -- he would grow six inches after he graduated from high school -- was easy to underestimate. As his lifelong friend Johnny McGowan says, "On the basketball court, guys would take a look at Joel and say, 'I'll guard him,' and then Joel would go right by them."
After a year at Oral Roberts University, Osteen dropped out to return to Houston, in part to care for his mother, Dodie, who was then recovering from cancer (a miracle regularly cited at Lakewood Church). He then married his wife, Victoria, and took a formal position at Lakewood, helping out with the television show and the design of the platform, as the stage around the pulpit is known, and eventually becoming the producer of Lakewood's Sunday service. "Victoria would kid me because I would spend four hours adjusting a light," Osteen says. "I learned you can't separate the message from the presentation of that message."
It was perfect training for a 21st-century televangelist. Osteen developed a keen understanding of the television market -- time slots, lead-ins, cost per rating point -- and to this day can tell you the top stations in most of his major markets. So passionate was he about the medium that he invested $2 million of Lakewoods money for a stake in a television station, KTBU, in 1998, and an additional $6 million for the remainder in 2005. The independe ntly operated station would turn out to be a wise purchase, returning $32 million when Lakewood sold it in 2006.
Even as he was making his father's church more successful than ever throughout the mid-1990s, Osteen quietly grew frustrated with his father's reluctance to expand as aggressively as Joel would have liked. "My dad didn't have it in him. He just wouldn't feel comfortable with that." (In fact, Lakewood's rapid expansion has put it $45 million in debt, thanks to a $75 million bank loan that is still far from being paid off.)
Running a Megachurch
AP
Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston has an average weekend attendance of 45,000 and an annual budget of $72.6 million.
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Nevertheless, though three of his siblings were actively involved in the ministry, Osteen never considered taking the pulpit. "He was so uncomfortable onstage," recalls Phil Cooke, a producer and consultant at Lakewood. "He was very uncomfortable in public. He always loved being behind the scenes."
One Sunday, Osteen agreed to deliver the sermon. He doesn't know why and to this day asserts it was a kind of divine intervention, "a strong feeling of God" that compelled him to say yes to his father after saying no so many times. The story is often told of how Osteen gave his first sermon on January 17, 1999, as his father, who was suffering from kidney failure, lay in a hospital bed listening to it over the telephone. John Osteen passed away less than a week later.
Joel Osteen's ascension to the pulpit was fraught with uncertainty. He was so nervous about taking over the ministry that he canceled the time slots he had purchased for his father, assuming that no one would want to watch the telecast anymore. Victoria vetoed that. "You call them back right now," she told him. He did and stayed on the air. At first, Osteen20explains, he just wanted to maintain Lakewood's 5,000-person congregation. It soon became clear, however, that not only was the congregation not shrinking, but the television audience was actually growing. Osteen was proving himself a natural, more personable than his father, easy on the eyes, with a kinder, softer voice.
While Osteen's message wins over the moderate masses, he has become anathema to more-traditional Southern Baptists. His appearance on Larry King Live in 2005, during which he waffled as to whether heaven was barred to Jews, Muslims, and atheists, was posted on YouTube as proof that Osteen doesn't embrace the Gospel. And while Osteen is steadfastly Christian, he defers to God on the more contentious issues, recusing himself from condemning gays, for instance, or women who have had abortions.
Spending time with Osteen and his team, one can sense their discomfort when issues that could anger more-doctrinaire Christians are raised. Don Iloff, his brother-in-law and chief of communications, almost winces when I ask Osteen his views on intelligent design versus evolution. "I believe that God created it all," Osteen says as he stakes out his usual middle ground. "I don't know if it's six literal days or 6 million years."
Osteen's message of prosperity doesn't always go over well either. Fellow megapastor Rick Warren has called the idea that God wants everybody to be rich "baloney." And some conservative Christian ministers have been quick to dismiss Osteen as a lightweight or, worse, a heretic. Osteen adamantly believes that "God wants to give you your own house," explaining, "He's not having financial difficulties. He owns it all."
Much of the criticism of Lakewood, no doubt, stems from resentment at Osteen's ministering to the largest and most financially successful church in America. He certainly makes an easy target, with the talk-show-host grin, the gelled hair, the bleached teeth, and the jocular manner. But there is no denying that his message, and his marketing of that message, is getting out to the world while so many other pastors are preaching to empty pews. Osteen dismisses the notion that he has watered down the Scriptures to win over worshippers. "It's who we are," he says. "The accessibility of my message doesn't bother me a bit. Look, we deal with people who are fighting cancer, fighting to save their marriages, dealing with the death of loved ones. I don't think they need to be beaten down. And I think the success of the message in the marketplace is because we are optimistic, encouraging."
Phil Cooke, a longtime colleague and the author of Branding Faith, says, "Oprah has a brand, Nike has a brand, and Joel Osteen has a brand. Joel has made his brand the inspiration brand."
In person, the 45-year-old Osteen is certainly both optimistic and encouraging. As he sits in the family suite after Sunday services, taking a break before heading up to the editing bay, he has the calm, gentle gravity of a man who never raises his voice and never has t o. Everyone leans in to hear Osteen. With his too-small eyes, a sharp nose, and thin lips with parenthetical dimples on each side, his long, drawn face is like a happy, joyous, and free version of Munch's Scream. In his preacher's slacks, yellow tie, and blue striped shirt, he has a disconcerting habit of seeming to run out of words before finishing his sentences; the effect is that you're always left hanging, waiting for another word that might or might not come.
"Have you read 'Good to Great?'" Victoria asks me at one point, referring to the phenomenally selling business book. "Joel is a level-5 leader. He knows there is more than one way to get to a point, and he lets his people get to the point their way. He's a true level-5 -- great delegator, great empowerer, great big-picture thinker."
Osteen's boldest brainstorm was leasing the Compaq Center from the city of Houston in 2002 and investing $98 million to renovate it. For Osteen, who had always put a premium on the look and feel of the church, renovating and refitting a basketball arena as a sanctuary was both a great opportunity and a daunting challenge.
The scale of the renovation -- a five-floor office annex, two 30-foot waterfalls, and a children's facility capable of hosting 5,000 kids while their parents are in the main sanctuary -- was a logistical challenge better suited to Halliburton than a house of God. Osteen's brother-in-law Kevin Comes, the chief operating officer and a former construction executive, was the20point man on the project, but like almost all of Lakewood's top executives, he deferred to Osteen: "Joel made the decision to do it right the first time. We gutted the place and started over." Osteen was consulted on almost every major decision, responding with his usual quiet nod when he was presented with, for example, the new lighting scheme or platform design.
The resulting church is a modern technological marvel and perhaps the most family-friendly worship venue in the world. Kidslife, the $25 million children's facility, was designed by a group of former Disney staffers and provides care and religious services for the children of parents attending Lakewood. It has the look and feel of a giant version of a McDonald's play area, only with neon lettering that refers to a verse in Philippians on the walls.
Such a sterling facility is the logical extension of the Osteen brand. Last year, Lakewood generated $76 million in revenue, which amounts to just over $1,600 for every member of its congregation. Its take includes $44 million donated directly by congregants, who are asked to give 10 percent of their gross income; $10 million in product sales and sermon tapes; and $13 million brought in through direct-mail solicitations, up from about $6 million two years ago. The church's greatest expense is the TV airtime it buys: $22 million last year to broadcast the show in more than 100 markets, a 10 percent annual increase in spending that is easy to justify. "Cutting back on airtime would be l ike saying we won't be sending any trucks to deliver our product," Comes says. An additional $13 million goes to administrative costs and salaries, and $9 million a year is spent on facilities and maintenance.
Osteen hasn't drawn a salary from the church since 2005. He bought his own home, for $331,500 in 1994, and pays to have his kids homeschooled. The considerable income from his books and related products (there were 19 spinoff calendars, daybooks, and inspirational pamphlets from his first book) goes to Osteen, who gives much of that -- people inside Lakewood say more than 50 percent of his income -- to Lakewood ministries and other charities. That still leaves O steen with plenty of "God's favor." The operation -- the TV time, the basketball arena, the worship events staged across the country -- should all simply be considered as, Comes points out, the delivery system for getting the product, Joel's message, out to the marketplace. The goal of Lakewood's 350 employees is to facilitate and spread that message. The return is measured in souls saved and lives changed. "We're always looking for ways to get our message out there more efficiently; in that way, we're no different from any other big brand, a Coke or a Starbucks," Iloff says.
But it takes revenue to win souls, and within the organization are constant discussions about how to most efficiently package the message. Osteen's podcasts, which are free, consistently rank in the top 10 on iTunes, and Comes wonders aloud about how to monetize that. The team is not shy about dreaming big -- and commercially. "We sit and try to imagine what our program would look like with a Coca-Cola logo on the front. We're just looking into it," Comes says.
Running a Megachurch
AP
Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston has an average weekend attendance of 45,000 and an annual budget of $72.6 million.
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Still, when it comes down to "message versus revenue," Comes says, "message always wins." At Lakewood, message and revenue tend to work in blessed harmony. Duncan Dodds, Lakewood's executive director, took the podium recently in Greensboro to make a few announcements before Osteen, the choir, the entertainers, and the rest of the Lakewood team began their Night of Hope. "We have great worship at Lakewood," Dodds told the crowd of 16,000 still settling into their seats, "and that worship is for sale on CDs out on the concourse level."
One hears certain words repeated constantly by the Lakewood team. Meals, services, meetings, and even sm oothly flowing traffic over on I-45 are described as awesome. The goal of every operation, sermon, television production, and even expenditure is excellence. And the ultimate purpose of all staffers is to spread the message. That message, functionally, serves as Lakewood's core product. Sure, it is repackaged into books, CDs, DVDs, Bible covers, scented candles, cross necklaces, JESUS FREAK T-shirts, and coffee mugs, but those are all just ways to deliver the message.
The Osteens, like so many American families during the recent real estate boom, spent the better part of the past decade buying, renovating, and selling homes, and became so proficient in the process that Osteen and his wife were able to skip hiring a contractor for their last renovation and go directly to the subcontractors to complete their mansion. Coming off the boom, during which the average American dwelling doubled in size, the Osteens' digs are more modest than one might guess. The house is decorated in a rococo style that Victoria has called "French" and Osteen calls "fancy." Their son, Jonathan, 13, and daughter, Alexandra, 9, are homeschooled, in part because their parents' schedule requires that their weekend be shifted to Monday and Tuesday. During breaks in their lessons, they can play in the elaborate treehouse or the fenced-in rabbit pen behind the house.
As the actual weekend nears, Osteen rises at 5:30 a.m. to work on his sermons, which he delivers twice weekly. Osteen labors over them, speaking the words aloud as he types them into his computer. He considers the writing, shaping, and memorizing of his sermons to be the single most important part of his job. The message supports the whole enterprise, and he frequently turns to God to guide him when the burden of Lakewood, his success, or the scale of the church and business threatens to overwhelm him. "It's just in me, God's favor, faith, and hope."
He believes, resolutely, in the value of the product he is crafting in his office on those quiet mornings. "Very rarely will you find a company that produces a widget where everyone is mentally and spiritually into producing a better widget," Osteen says. "There's a purpose behind what we're doing. We believe in our widget. We're doing more than giving people a good time or a better toothbrush, because it's hard to put in your heart and soul and sacrifice so much to make a better toothbrush."
Being backstage at a Joel Osteen worship event is remarkably similar to being at an N.B.A. game or a rock concert. Beefy security guards tell you where you can and can't go. Crew members chow down on a buffet laid out by a local caterer and bark into walkie-talkies between bites. At some point, black Town Cars head down the long, curving driveway into the belly of the arena and drop off the pastors and performers, who retreat into private suites. The night is a celebration of music, state-of-the-art visual effects, and, of course, Christ. Lakewood spends a great deal of money attracting top gospel and Christian=2 0talent, and music minister Cindy Cruse-Ratcliff leads a team of Grammy Award winners, including gospel singer Israel Houghton. It's a thumping occasion, with people dancing in the aisles and even the security guards singing along to "Come Just as You Are" and "We Have Overcome." Osteen's entire family is in the act. His mother, wife, and children often play parts in the service. But it's Osteen himself we have come to see. He wins the crowd over with wholesome jokes and inspires with his sweet-voiced message. The sermon today is based on the notion of "hitting the DELETE button when you have those negative thoughts." He urges us to banish that voice telling us, "I'll never get that great job. I'll never meet that special someone. I'll never get married." Hit the delete button, he urges, and reprogram your mind. "Just one inferior thought can keep you off balance and away from your God-given destiny."
The crowd is eager, multiracial, and well-intentioned. We want to hear good words, have uplifting thoughts, be inspired by a positive message. Who doesn't? We are here to escape our worries, or even better, to overcome them with hope. These are uncertain times, and we all feel the pangs of doubt. Can we pay our mortgage? Will we keep our job? When will we finally achieve the plus-size life we have been visualizing? Listening to Osteen, it all sounds so easy. Delete those negative thoughts. Focus on the positive. We are victors, not victims.
The highlight of every service is when Osteen ask s those who are willing to turn their lives over to Jesus to stand up in the vast arena and make their commitment right then and there. It is an inspiring moment, filled with raised Bibles and palms outstretched to heaven; Osteen and some of the congregation are in tears. If we have been suffering, if we have been in pain, if we have dealt with financial insecurity, then this standing up, this raising of hands to heaven, this simple vow of faith, Osteen assures us, will start us on the road to wellness and prosperity.
For a moment, as the choir sings, "When the battle is over / and the fighting is done / we'll lay down our armor / the victories all won," and the orange, red, and purple stage lights are flashing, and a halolike luminescence surrounds Osteen as he promises to free us from our fears, to lift us above our doubts, to lead us to prosperity and joy, I think about my own worries, my debts, my career, my woes.
How tempting it would be to just stand and turn my will and life over to Jesus if, in exchange, I will be led down a righteous path of prosperity, taken in hand by Jesus, and Joel, and delivered to my gilded acre of the American dream. Yes, yes, why shouldn't I stand? Because who am I not to want to be saved? Who doesn't need a little bit of Joel in their life, tonight, every night, forever, leading us from this dark place to our promised land? Together, hands joined, shoulder to shoulder, we will march forward into our glorious future . Delete the negative thoughts, Joel preaches. Yes, yes, delete them.
What do you think??? Drop me a line radiodewey@aol.com
May the Love of Christ be with You and Yours this day and always..........Dewey Sharon and family PS Please keep us in your prayers.
Last night the Starbuck's where Gretchen(Our daughter) works was robbed at gun point..........I have to tell you that sadly I was not surprised. Nobody was hurt but what an emotional ordeal. Police where able to chase the two robbers down as they crashed their getaway car. Gretchen does not know what to think. I told her I cannot believe that my kids are growing up where armed robbery is just part of another day at work. Lars is going to start work at Hollywood Video today and works the late shift, so we are very concerned. What has happened here in Albuquerque like many cities in the U.S. is REPEAT OFFENDERS.......in jail out of jail..in jail and out of jail........the revolving door of justice.......70% of crime in Albuquerque is linked to METH. The other night after softball I stopped in 7-11 and got in line to pay and this young man looked at me and wanted to talk and he smelled of beer.....and he told me he loves Albuquerque because in Sandavol County everybody knows me and I just got of jail....he and his 6 buddies had pulled up in a car and were coming in the store one by one trying to get the clerks to sell them more beer..........but the clerks would not and the one told me that she was going to go out into her car and get her can of mace........I told her to stay put and I would call the police........I feel that these companies need to provide their workers more protection..like at least one security guard. By the way the car load of drunks got away before the police got there (They cannot be everywhere, just down the road they had stopped a truck with 2 drunks in it) I followed the car for a bit before they got onto me.
Our prayers go out to KKIM's Ministry Representative Michelle Archuleta whose father Andy passed away yesterday. Please keep the family in your prayers. It is so tough to loose our dad.......so please keep Michelle and the entire family in your prayers........Michelle's children will miss their Grandpa very much.
Please pray for Michael Ramos who is in the hospital with internal bleeding and the Doctor's cannot find out what is wrong. Michael is the host of the Credit Corner on KKIM.
1 Peter 3:12 says..........
The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and HIS ears are open to their prayers.
Do not worry about tomorrow. Matt. 6:34
Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such city, spend a year there, buy and sell , and make a profit"
whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. James 4 13-14
From Rob and Karen Rowe...........
What Do We Sacrifice for Our LORD? By Rob and Karen Rowe
Here’s what the Bible says:
Isaiah 53:11
“After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.”
1Samuel 15:22
“But Samuel replied: ‘Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”
What sacrifices do we make daily to our LORD?
Is it our time, our money, our compassion; listening. Is it spending time mediating on the Word of God, which is also a privilege?
Here’s what the dictionary says about Sacrifice:
The surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim.
Here are some of my thoughts that I have to share:
Sacrifice, or even a willingness to sacrifice is perseverance in God and Christ IS our strength to endure.
I’d like to hear some of your thoughts on sacrifice…
Love in Christ,
Rob and Karen Rowe
I notice that the good old handshake is dying...Not many people shake hands anymore........or whistle while they work........I was whistling the other day and Sharon said to me, Honey do you remember when people used to whistle all the time while working and having fun??? I found this.........
If handshake is history, what takes its place?
By Joan Morris
Contra Costa Times
Article Launched: 07/09/2008 12:01:00 AM CDT
Please bow your heads in recognition of the passing of the ancient and venerable handshake.
In frail health for years and often seen only at formal occasions or when thanking bank managers for loans, the old grip-and-grin guru finally succumbed earlier this year when the president of the United States was photographed doing a chest bump and a possible future president exchanged a dap with his wife.
It was the final blow to a tradition that has been on the wane since the advent of the leisure suit. But while expected, it nevertheless came about in such a surprising way that we're still reeling and considering what will step into the breach.
Let's take a look at the possibilities.
THE DAP
Origins: The "dap," aka the fist bump, seems to have been born in the muddy battlefields of the Vietnam War. The original version includes lots of other movements, but time has distilled the dap to a vertical or horizontal fist bump.
What it means: Patti Wood, an Atlanta body language expert and author of "Success Signals," says the dap conveys a sense of determination and power. After reviewing images of Democratic presidential candidate Barak Obama exchanging a dap with his wife after learning he had enough delegates to claim the nomination, Wood thought their dap conveyed a sense of being ready to conquer and unified in their quest.
Raise your hand as if making a traditional handshake, but curl your fingers into a fist. Keeping the arm parallel
here is the latest from Frank Haley on the Ruidoso flood..........
Ruidoso, -- Close to 15-million, that is reportedly the dollar estimate to re-build parts of Ruidoso washed away by flooding last weekend. Ruidoso city officials say it could take up to a year to repair the damage. Several bridges were washed away, and hundreds of homes were destroyed. Many campers are still stranded near Bonito Lake but rescue crews in a Black Hawk helicopter should have them rescued later today.
And get this................
Lost land: Midwest flooding strips region of valuable soil as sand, silt pile up in fields
By DEANNA MARTIN, Associated Press
July 27, 2008
MARTINSVILLE, Ind. - Jim Lankford's corn crops used to stretch to the White River. Now the river has stretched itself through his crops.
The river eroded a new route for itself during June's flooding, a channel with steep 12-foot banks at the edge of some of Lankford's corn fields about 30 miles southwest of Indianapolis. The flood spread rocks in other spots, making it look as if Lankford planted soybeans in a gravel road. Elsewhere, silt is piled up like sand dunes and uprooted trees still litter cornfields more than a month after the floods.
"It's the worst I've ever seen in my life for this area," the 62-year-old farmer said.
The flooding that swamped large areas of the Midwest took with it some of the region's most valuable resource: soil.
Now farmers and environmentalists are at odds over what to do with erosion-prone land — take their chances planting crops on marginal land in hopes of good yields and high grain prices, or plant trees, native grasses20or ground cover that act as a natural flood buffer.
The floods may have caused up to $3 billion in crop losses in Iowa and $800 million in crop damage in Indiana, according to estimates from agriculture secretaries in those states.
Erosion damage is harder to tally.
In Wisconsin, flooding damaged about $2.8 million worth of conservation structures, such as dams, levees, ditches and waterways, said Don Baloun, a farm conservationist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resource Conservation Service in Madison, Wis.
Some land in Illinois is still submerged.
"It could be fall for some of our counties on the Mississippi River before we see what kind of damage farmers did experience as far as erosion," said Donald King of Illinois' USDA's Farm Service Agency.
Erosion robs farmers of the nutrient-rich topsoil their growing plants need.
"It takes thousands of years to form one inch of topsoil," said Jane Hardisty, Indiana's state conservationist. "Within a day, we lost it. It's just devastating."
It's also an issue downstream, where sediment diminishes water quality. Scientists think the "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico — oxygen-depleted water off the Texas-Louisiana coast that can't support kill marine life — is likely to be worse this year partly because of the flood runoff.
States have set up programs to keep their soil. Missouri, for0Aexample, has nearly halved its rate of soil loss since the mid-1980s, when it dedicated a special tax that generates $42 million a year for soil-conserving practices such as terraces, retention ponds and grazing rotations.
The conversion of row-crop land to pastures over the last 20 years in northern Missouri also has helped conserve the precious few inches of top soil left in that part of the state, said Bill Foster, who heads the state's soil and water conservation program.
"If we lose very many more inches of soil, we won't be farming," Foster said. "It's critical to keep in place."
The Farm Service Agency's Conservation Reserve Program also helps. The $2 billion-a-year federal program pays farmers not to plant crops, instead returning land to its native state. That saves an estimated 450 million tons of soil each year.
However, that program isn't without controversy. Environmental groups recently sought a federal court injunction to stop hay production and cattle grazing on some conservation land. A judge in Seattle ruled that the USDA did not conduct an appropriate environmental review, but said a reversal would be unfair to farmers and ranchers counting on using that land.
Conservation program officials announced earlier this month that farmers in flooded-damaged areas of 16 states could graze livestock on conservation land to help them cope with rising grain prices and flood damage.
"Our CRP land is vital to the balance we promote at US DA between production and preservation," Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said. "I commit this resource knowing that we must redouble our conservation effort at every future opportunity."
One of the program's founders, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., wants to also allow farmers to plant crops on more stable conservation land.
Environmental groups say there are risks to opening up conservation program land to planting. Marginal land planted with ground cover or trees acts as a natural flood barrier, said Sara Hopper, director of agricultural policy for the Environmental Defense Fund. Planting crops could mean less protection against floods, she said.
"It's going to make a bad situation worse, particularly over the long run," she said.
Lankford, the Indiana farmer, faces a difficult decision for his flood-damaged land.
He could replant corn in an effort to make money off the field, but that would take cash to rebuild a breached levee and haul hundreds of truck loads of topsoil to replace his lost land. He could also consider the conservation reserve program, or he could simply abandon the affected field.
Another big flood could come again next year, he said, or not for another hundred years.
"Traditionally, farmers are optimists, and I know I'm that way. They always think 'Well, next year will be better,'" Lankford said.
"You know there's risks. Sometimes it's worse than you think."
Yesterday I had a long talk with Pastor Steve Smotherman of Legacy Church here in Albuquerque about the Prosperity message of Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyer.........What do you think???
Here is a write up that I found on AOL.............
Joel Osteen preaches the virtues of prosperity -- for himself as well as his congregation. A look at the man who may well be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the slumping economy.
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Who will save us? Who will lift us up from crushing credit-card debt and resetting mortgage payments and impending foreclosure, from increasing gas prices and decreasing health-insurance coverage? We are a nation stumbling through our worst fi nancial crisis in a generation and our worst housing market in a lifetime. And so we come, seeking gentle salvation, inspiring prayers, steadying words, soothing notions, and calming thoughts that will allow us to become, in Joel Osteen's words, "victors, not victims."
We are in Greensboro, North Carolina, making our way into the downtown arena through the hot, buggy air, to worship with the pastor who will save us, the man anointed, by one of his congregants, as "Reverend Feelgood." Sixteen thousand will file in this evening, as have millions more to coliseums, concert venues, and baseball stadiums around the country -- all, in a way, his churches. (View a slideshow that tallies the budgets of some of the biggest churches.)
Running a Megachurch
AP
Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston has an average weekend attendance of 45,000 and an annual budget of $72.6 million.
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We are a diverse, representative swath of troubled America: families struggling under debt, husbands and wives seeking reconciliation, young couples on first dates, children dragged by pious grandparents who promise them popcorn and BibleMan action figures. It is religion as escapism, criticized throughout the Bible Belt as "Christianity lite" or "prosperity gospel." But this murmuring crowd, slouching toward a kinder, gentler salvation, is a more telling indicator of the state of our union than consumer durables purchased or capital goods ordered. Unemployment they know; they don't need to wait for the Bureau of Labor Statistics to publish a monthly number. O, but come to Joel, lift your hands to Jesus, banish your negative thoughts, and you can find in these dark times a beacon.
If, in this country, there is great hurting, then Osteen is here to soothe that suffering. He does not wish that pain on any of us, and the sight or thought of it will bring forth from him great torrents of tears -- his eyes clamped20shut, his fingers pressed into narrow eye sockets, his lips pulled back over pink gums as he grimaces. The crying has become a visual touchstone of an Osteen sermon, the born-again equivalent of James Brown's pre-encore collapse from "exhaustion."
Joel feels our pain and has made himself wealthy (reportedly earning $13 million for his last book advance alone) and his church prosperous ($75 million and counting in annual revenue) by urging us to let go of it, to turn it over to God, to accept God's favor so that we may be as prosperous as Joel.
There was always a strain of American Puritanism that pointed to Scripture as justification for asserting that wealth is somehow godly. But ever since evangelical Christianity separated from the mainline faiths in the early 20th century, some preachers have gone further and linked their focus on personal piety to financial success. The big-tent revivals of the 1930s promised the dust-bowl destitute the possibility of finding Jesus and their next meal just by listening to a fire-and-brimstone message. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, televangelists like Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart made prosperity gospel big business, capitalizing on that era's economic uncertainties to win over a new generation of acolytes, before those ministries were brought down by scandal.
Osteen is one of a new breed of televangelists -- Joyce Meyer, T.D. Jakes, and Creflo Dollar are also rising stars -- who are preaching a less sanctimonious, more inclusive message. His chur ch is in that part of the economy that thrives in troubled times, that can count on full pews when wallets are empty and an ever more receptive audience if we do go into a full-on recession.
Osteen hasn't necessarily tailored his message for the downturn. Instead, he has continued his feel-good preaching, his exhortations to focus on the positive and banish negative thoughts, his reminders that God wants you to have a good job, a beautiful home, and decent cash flow. His vast ministry has become, in effect, shelter from the storm. "God wants you to have a big life," Osteen reminds his flock. "That is his blessing. God has a big dream for your life."
We live in a time of miraculous congregations. Osteen's Lakewood Church, in Houston, is the largest in the United States, with 45,000 regular weekly attendees and 7 million more tuning in. His television show is the most-watched inspirational program in America and is seen in 100 countries around the world. He has sold 7 million copies of his two books, 'Your Best Life Now' and 'Become a Better You.' Podcasts of his sermons are downloaded 4.5 million times a month. He preaches to more than 15,000 people at a time in the basketball arena turned sanctuary that is Lakewood Church. His pulpit stands near the spot where Hakeem Olajuwon helped the Houston Rockets win two consecutive N.B.A. titles. But the Rockets, who have since moved across town, never put as many people in the seats as Osteen does.
Osteen will tell you that his20success is a result of Gods favor, that his message is God's message, and that all that he has achieved is a blessing from God. Clearly, he is more than just an inspiring pastor; he is also a master marketer and -- pardon me for saying this, Joel -- a damn good chief executive.
He presides over an empire that takes in tens of millions of dollars a year and has been growing at a boom-time pace. (Though Osteen gives a significant portion of his book and CD earnings to the church, his take is still ample enough to allow him and his family to live in 5,000 square feet of leopard-skinned luxury in one of Houston's tonier neighborhoods.) Rough economic times, Osteen believes, make the business of saving souls that much richer. "I would think that our message would have increased relevancy in a time of economic uncertainty. I think people want to know that God is taking care of you. As it gets darker, I think the brighter message shines."
Joel's father, John Osteen, was a pastor who dissociated himself from the Southern Baptist Church to start his own congregation, Lakewood, in an abandoned feedstore in 1959. It was John who started the family march toward a more gentle Jesus, focusing on the goodness and love of God and downplaying the Old Testament anger and wrath. One of John's prevailing themes, and the underpinning for much of Lakewood's current message, can be found in one of his sermons: "It's God's will for you to live in prosperity instead of poverty. It's God's will for you to pay your bills and not be in debt. It's God's will for you to live in health and not in sickness all the days of your life."
Joel is the second youngest of six siblings, and the one considered least likely to take the pulpit. To say that he was a quiet child would be an understatement. The diminutive boy -- he would grow six inches after he graduated from high school -- was easy to underestimate. As his lifelong friend Johnny McGowan says, "On the basketball court, guys would take a look at Joel and say, 'I'll guard him,' and then Joel would go right by them."
After a year at Oral Roberts University, Osteen dropped out to return to Houston, in part to care for his mother, Dodie, who was then recovering from cancer (a miracle regularly cited at Lakewood Church). He then married his wife, Victoria, and took a formal position at Lakewood, helping out with the television show and the design of the platform, as the stage around the pulpit is known, and eventually becoming the producer of Lakewood's Sunday service. "Victoria would kid me because I would spend four hours adjusting a light," Osteen says. "I learned you can't separate the message from the presentation of that message."
It was perfect training for a 21st-century televangelist. Osteen developed a keen understanding of the television market -- time slots, lead-ins, cost per rating point -- and to this day can tell you the top stations in most of his major markets. So passionate was he about the medium that he invested $2 million of Lakewoods money for a stake in a television station, KTBU, in 1998, and an additional $6 million for the remainder in 2005. The independe ntly operated station would turn out to be a wise purchase, returning $32 million when Lakewood sold it in 2006.
Even as he was making his father's church more successful than ever throughout the mid-1990s, Osteen quietly grew frustrated with his father's reluctance to expand as aggressively as Joel would have liked. "My dad didn't have it in him. He just wouldn't feel comfortable with that." (In fact, Lakewood's rapid expansion has put it $45 million in debt, thanks to a $75 million bank loan that is still far from being paid off.)
Running a Megachurch
AP
Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston has an average weekend attendance of 45,000 and an annual budget of $72.6 million.
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Nevertheless, though three of his siblings were actively involved in the ministry, Osteen never considered taking the pulpit. "He was so uncomfortable onstage," recalls Phil Cooke, a producer and consultant at Lakewood. "He was very uncomfortable in public. He always loved being behind the scenes."
One Sunday, Osteen agreed to deliver the sermon. He doesn't know why and to this day asserts it was a kind of divine intervention, "a strong feeling of God" that compelled him to say yes to his father after saying no so many times. The story is often told of how Osteen gave his first sermon on January 17, 1999, as his father, who was suffering from kidney failure, lay in a hospital bed listening to it over the telephone. John Osteen passed away less than a week later.
Joel Osteen's ascension to the pulpit was fraught with uncertainty. He was so nervous about taking over the ministry that he canceled the time slots he had purchased for his father, assuming that no one would want to watch the telecast anymore. Victoria vetoed that. "You call them back right now," she told him. He did and stayed on the air. At first, Osteen20explains, he just wanted to maintain Lakewood's 5,000-person congregation. It soon became clear, however, that not only was the congregation not shrinking, but the television audience was actually growing. Osteen was proving himself a natural, more personable than his father, easy on the eyes, with a kinder, softer voice.
While Osteen's message wins over the moderate masses, he has become anathema to more-traditional Southern Baptists. His appearance on Larry King Live in 2005, during which he waffled as to whether heaven was barred to Jews, Muslims, and atheists, was posted on YouTube as proof that Osteen doesn't embrace the Gospel. And while Osteen is steadfastly Christian, he defers to God on the more contentious issues, recusing himself from condemning gays, for instance, or women who have had abortions.
Spending time with Osteen and his team, one can sense their discomfort when issues that could anger more-doctrinaire Christians are raised. Don Iloff, his brother-in-law and chief of communications, almost winces when I ask Osteen his views on intelligent design versus evolution. "I believe that God created it all," Osteen says as he stakes out his usual middle ground. "I don't know if it's six literal days or 6 million years."
Osteen's message of prosperity doesn't always go over well either. Fellow megapastor Rick Warren has called the idea that God wants everybody to be rich "baloney." And some conservative Christian ministers have been quick to dismiss Osteen as a lightweight or, worse, a heretic. Osteen adamantly believes that "God wants to give you your own house," explaining, "He's not having financial difficulties. He owns it all."
Much of the criticism of Lakewood, no doubt, stems from resentment at Osteen's ministering to the largest and most financially successful church in America. He certainly makes an easy target, with the talk-show-host grin, the gelled hair, the bleached teeth, and the jocular manner. But there is no denying that his message, and his marketing of that message, is getting out to the world while so many other pastors are preaching to empty pews. Osteen dismisses the notion that he has watered down the Scriptures to win over worshippers. "It's who we are," he says. "The accessibility of my message doesn't bother me a bit. Look, we deal with people who are fighting cancer, fighting to save their marriages, dealing with the death of loved ones. I don't think they need to be beaten down. And I think the success of the message in the marketplace is because we are optimistic, encouraging."
Phil Cooke, a longtime colleague and the author of Branding Faith, says, "Oprah has a brand, Nike has a brand, and Joel Osteen has a brand. Joel has made his brand the inspiration brand."
In person, the 45-year-old Osteen is certainly both optimistic and encouraging. As he sits in the family suite after Sunday services, taking a break before heading up to the editing bay, he has the calm, gentle gravity of a man who never raises his voice and never has t o. Everyone leans in to hear Osteen. With his too-small eyes, a sharp nose, and thin lips with parenthetical dimples on each side, his long, drawn face is like a happy, joyous, and free version of Munch's Scream. In his preacher's slacks, yellow tie, and blue striped shirt, he has a disconcerting habit of seeming to run out of words before finishing his sentences; the effect is that you're always left hanging, waiting for another word that might or might not come.
"Have you read 'Good to Great?'" Victoria asks me at one point, referring to the phenomenally selling business book. "Joel is a level-5 leader. He knows there is more than one way to get to a point, and he lets his people get to the point their way. He's a true level-5 -- great delegator, great empowerer, great big-picture thinker."
Osteen's boldest brainstorm was leasing the Compaq Center from the city of Houston in 2002 and investing $98 million to renovate it. For Osteen, who had always put a premium on the look and feel of the church, renovating and refitting a basketball arena as a sanctuary was both a great opportunity and a daunting challenge.
The scale of the renovation -- a five-floor office annex, two 30-foot waterfalls, and a children's facility capable of hosting 5,000 kids while their parents are in the main sanctuary -- was a logistical challenge better suited to Halliburton than a house of God. Osteen's brother-in-law Kevin Comes, the chief operating officer and a former construction executive, was the20point man on the project, but like almost all of Lakewood's top executives, he deferred to Osteen: "Joel made the decision to do it right the first time. We gutted the place and started over." Osteen was consulted on almost every major decision, responding with his usual quiet nod when he was presented with, for example, the new lighting scheme or platform design.
The resulting church is a modern technological marvel and perhaps the most family-friendly worship venue in the world. Kidslife, the $25 million children's facility, was designed by a group of former Disney staffers and provides care and religious services for the children of parents attending Lakewood. It has the look and feel of a giant version of a McDonald's play area, only with neon lettering that refers to a verse in Philippians on the walls.
Such a sterling facility is the logical extension of the Osteen brand. Last year, Lakewood generated $76 million in revenue, which amounts to just over $1,600 for every member of its congregation. Its take includes $44 million donated directly by congregants, who are asked to give 10 percent of their gross income; $10 million in product sales and sermon tapes; and $13 million brought in through direct-mail solicitations, up from about $6 million two years ago. The church's greatest expense is the TV airtime it buys: $22 million last year to broadcast the show in more than 100 markets, a 10 percent annual increase in spending that is easy to justify. "Cutting back on airtime would be l ike saying we won't be sending any trucks to deliver our product," Comes says. An additional $13 million goes to administrative costs and salaries, and $9 million a year is spent on facilities and maintenance.
Osteen hasn't drawn a salary from the church since 2005. He bought his own home, for $331,500 in 1994, and pays to have his kids homeschooled. The considerable income from his books and related products (there were 19 spinoff calendars, daybooks, and inspirational pamphlets from his first book) goes to Osteen, who gives much of that -- people inside Lakewood say more than 50 percent of his income -- to Lakewood ministries and other charities. That still leaves O steen with plenty of "God's favor." The operation -- the TV time, the basketball arena, the worship events staged across the country -- should all simply be considered as, Comes points out, the delivery system for getting the product, Joel's message, out to the marketplace. The goal of Lakewood's 350 employees is to facilitate and spread that message. The return is measured in souls saved and lives changed. "We're always looking for ways to get our message out there more efficiently; in that way, we're no different from any other big brand, a Coke or a Starbucks," Iloff says.
But it takes revenue to win souls, and within the organization are constant discussions about how to most efficiently package the message. Osteen's podcasts, which are free, consistently rank in the top 10 on iTunes, and Comes wonders aloud about how to monetize that. The team is not shy about dreaming big -- and commercially. "We sit and try to imagine what our program would look like with a Coca-Cola logo on the front. We're just looking into it," Comes says.
Running a Megachurch
AP
Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston has an average weekend attendance of 45,000 and an annual budget of $72.6 million.
1 of 9PHOTOS
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Still, when it comes down to "message versus revenue," Comes says, "message always wins." At Lakewood, message and revenue tend to work in blessed harmony. Duncan Dodds, Lakewood's executive director, took the podium recently in Greensboro to make a few announcements before Osteen, the choir, the entertainers, and the rest of the Lakewood team began their Night of Hope. "We have great worship at Lakewood," Dodds told the crowd of 16,000 still settling into their seats, "and that worship is for sale on CDs out on the concourse level."
One hears certain words repeated constantly by the Lakewood team. Meals, services, meetings, and even sm oothly flowing traffic over on I-45 are described as awesome. The goal of every operation, sermon, television production, and even expenditure is excellence. And the ultimate purpose of all staffers is to spread the message. That message, functionally, serves as Lakewood's core product. Sure, it is repackaged into books, CDs, DVDs, Bible covers, scented candles, cross necklaces, JESUS FREAK T-shirts, and coffee mugs, but those are all just ways to deliver the message.
The Osteens, like so many American families during the recent real estate boom, spent the better part of the past decade buying, renovating, and selling homes, and became so proficient in the process that Osteen and his wife were able to skip hiring a contractor for their last renovation and go directly to the subcontractors to complete their mansion. Coming off the boom, during which the average American dwelling doubled in size, the Osteens' digs are more modest than one might guess. The house is decorated in a rococo style that Victoria has called "French" and Osteen calls "fancy." Their son, Jonathan, 13, and daughter, Alexandra, 9, are homeschooled, in part because their parents' schedule requires that their weekend be shifted to Monday and Tuesday. During breaks in their lessons, they can play in the elaborate treehouse or the fenced-in rabbit pen behind the house.
As the actual weekend nears, Osteen rises at 5:30 a.m. to work on his sermons, which he delivers twice weekly. Osteen labors over them, speaking the words aloud as he types them into his computer. He considers the writing, shaping, and memorizing of his sermons to be the single most important part of his job. The message supports the whole enterprise, and he frequently turns to God to guide him when the burden of Lakewood, his success, or the scale of the church and business threatens to overwhelm him. "It's just in me, God's favor, faith, and hope."
He believes, resolutely, in the value of the product he is crafting in his office on those quiet mornings. "Very rarely will you find a company that produces a widget where everyone is mentally and spiritually into producing a better widget," Osteen says. "There's a purpose behind what we're doing. We believe in our widget. We're doing more than giving people a good time or a better toothbrush, because it's hard to put in your heart and soul and sacrifice so much to make a better toothbrush."
Being backstage at a Joel Osteen worship event is remarkably similar to being at an N.B.A. game or a rock concert. Beefy security guards tell you where you can and can't go. Crew members chow down on a buffet laid out by a local caterer and bark into walkie-talkies between bites. At some point, black Town Cars head down the long, curving driveway into the belly of the arena and drop off the pastors and performers, who retreat into private suites. The night is a celebration of music, state-of-the-art visual effects, and, of course, Christ. Lakewood spends a great deal of money attracting top gospel and Christian=2 0talent, and music minister Cindy Cruse-Ratcliff leads a team of Grammy Award winners, including gospel singer Israel Houghton. It's a thumping occasion, with people dancing in the aisles and even the security guards singing along to "Come Just as You Are" and "We Have Overcome." Osteen's entire family is in the act. His mother, wife, and children often play parts in the service. But it's Osteen himself we have come to see. He wins the crowd over with wholesome jokes and inspires with his sweet-voiced message. The sermon today is based on the notion of "hitting the DELETE button when you have those negative thoughts." He urges us to banish that voice telling us, "I'll never get that great job. I'll never meet that special someone. I'll never get married." Hit the delete button, he urges, and reprogram your mind. "Just one inferior thought can keep you off balance and away from your God-given destiny."
The crowd is eager, multiracial, and well-intentioned. We want to hear good words, have uplifting thoughts, be inspired by a positive message. Who doesn't? We are here to escape our worries, or even better, to overcome them with hope. These are uncertain times, and we all feel the pangs of doubt. Can we pay our mortgage? Will we keep our job? When will we finally achieve the plus-size life we have been visualizing? Listening to Osteen, it all sounds so easy. Delete those negative thoughts. Focus on the positive. We are victors, not victims.
The highlight of every service is when Osteen ask s those who are willing to turn their lives over to Jesus to stand up in the vast arena and make their commitment right then and there. It is an inspiring moment, filled with raised Bibles and palms outstretched to heaven; Osteen and some of the congregation are in tears. If we have been suffering, if we have been in pain, if we have dealt with financial insecurity, then this standing up, this raising of hands to heaven, this simple vow of faith, Osteen assures us, will start us on the road to wellness and prosperity.
For a moment, as the choir sings, "When the battle is over / and the fighting is done / we'll lay down our armor / the victories all won," and the orange, red, and purple stage lights are flashing, and a halolike luminescence surrounds Osteen as he promises to free us from our fears, to lift us above our doubts, to lead us to prosperity and joy, I think about my own worries, my debts, my career, my woes.
How tempting it would be to just stand and turn my will and life over to Jesus if, in exchange, I will be led down a righteous path of prosperity, taken in hand by Jesus, and Joel, and delivered to my gilded acre of the American dream. Yes, yes, why shouldn't I stand? Because who am I not to want to be saved? Who doesn't need a little bit of Joel in their life, tonight, every night, forever, leading us from this dark place to our promised land? Together, hands joined, shoulder to shoulder, we will march forward into our glorious future . Delete the negative thoughts, Joel preaches. Yes, yes, delete them.
What do you think??? Drop me a line radiodewey@aol.com
May the Love of Christ be with You and Yours this day and always..........Dewey Sharon and family PS Please keep us in your prayers.
# posted by Dewey @ 10:59 PM 
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