Well that was interesting. An hour and 45 minutes to go 40 miles... I gotta get out of L.A.!
Just to recap, I've been a skeptic. All I knew of Joel was from what I have seen on TV. And while I can't say anything he says is wrong, He does leave out a lot of very important stuff - like sin and confession and repentance and forgiveness and salvation... He never reads from the Bible, and it seems his references to scripture are in passing instead of substance. And the testimonials he runs, except for a very few, all praise what Joel has done for them and how wonderful Joel is and how everyone wants to go out and see Joel. My opinion was he's a pretty boy smoke blower. One of those who'll stand before God and plead "Lord didn't we..." and hear "who are you?"
But, I also recognized that all of what I knew about him was what I saw on TV. And we all know how the media is always 'fair and balanced'. But then again you'd think, it's his media... So when he came to town I had to go check it out, see what the assembly was like. You'll know them by their fruit, right?
I was hoping to keep an open mind, but I walked in and of course the first thing is a table hawking their swag. "Hrrmph, money changers" I thought. I went to the bathroom and it was a disgusting mess. "Hrrmph, humans." We went to our seats - well, let me just say that if you get vertigo you do not want to book a seat in the nose bleed section at the Honda Center. It's tight and it's steep, and halfway thru I wondered if I wasn't on a Southwest Airlines flight. Hrrmph indeed.
But it all came together. All those things that were missing on the TV were present in the assembly. His mother was priceless; she didn't ever speak about some non-descript 'gawd'. She spoke about Jesus and said the Name Jesus and you knew what the name of her God is... Jesus! She was also very good in presenting confession and forgiveness. And Joel was more attentive in attributing scripture and those things previously omitted. He even made two passing comments that, while passing to him, directly targeted two very prominent questions I had about him. I didn't sense an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and I noticed a lack of by-name reference, but judging from the condition of the rest rooms I think that was more an audience shortcoming than a ministry shortcoming. Hrrmph humans!
And again, it was in the end a media presentation. Now I'm curious to see what his home congregation is like. That is of course the next step in the path of discernment. Not that I'm rushing out any time soon, it's pretty low on the priority scale at this point. But I'm willing to give Joel the benefit of the doubt until I do. I don't think his TV program paints a fair picture of him, and is doing him a disservice. Maybe that's something he should think about.
There's also the question of preparing a flock for the future - but that's something more discovered in the home assembly.
If you don't like him based upon his TV presence, and I didn't, leave room for a question mark. He presents as a motivational speaker, and yeah, he's that. But there's more to it than that. The TV doesn't tell the whole story.
Hrrmph. TV.
Just to recap, I've been a skeptic. All I knew of Joel was from what I have seen on TV. And while I can't say anything he says is wrong, He does leave out a lot of very important stuff - like sin and confession and repentance and forgiveness and salvation... He never reads from the Bible, and it seems his references to scripture are in passing instead of substance. And the testimonials he runs, except for a very few, all praise what Joel has done for them and how wonderful Joel is and how everyone wants to go out and see Joel. My opinion was he's a pretty boy smoke blower. One of those who'll stand before God and plead "Lord didn't we..." and hear "who are you?"
But, I also recognized that all of what I knew about him was what I saw on TV. And we all know how the media is always 'fair and balanced'. But then again you'd think, it's his media... So when he came to town I had to go check it out, see what the assembly was like. You'll know them by their fruit, right?
I was hoping to keep an open mind, but I walked in and of course the first thing is a table hawking their swag. "Hrrmph, money changers" I thought. I went to the bathroom and it was a disgusting mess. "Hrrmph, humans." We went to our seats - well, let me just say that if you get vertigo you do not want to book a seat in the nose bleed section at the Honda Center. It's tight and it's steep, and halfway thru I wondered if I wasn't on a Southwest Airlines flight. Hrrmph indeed.
But it all came together. All those things that were missing on the TV were present in the assembly. His mother was priceless; she didn't ever speak about some non-descript 'gawd'. She spoke about Jesus and said the Name Jesus and you knew what the name of her God is... Jesus! She was also very good in presenting confession and forgiveness. And Joel was more attentive in attributing scripture and those things previously omitted. He even made two passing comments that, while passing to him, directly targeted two very prominent questions I had about him. I didn't sense an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and I noticed a lack of by-name reference, but judging from the condition of the rest rooms I think that was more an audience shortcoming than a ministry shortcoming. Hrrmph humans!
And again, it was in the end a media presentation. Now I'm curious to see what his home congregation is like. That is of course the next step in the path of discernment. Not that I'm rushing out any time soon, it's pretty low on the priority scale at this point. But I'm willing to give Joel the benefit of the doubt until I do. I don't think his TV program paints a fair picture of him, and is doing him a disservice. Maybe that's something he should think about.
There's also the question of preparing a flock for the future - but that's something more discovered in the home assembly.
If you don't like him based upon his TV presence, and I didn't, leave room for a question mark. He presents as a motivational speaker, and yeah, he's that. But there's more to it than that. The TV doesn't tell the whole story.
Hrrmph. TV.