Premium Essay

Joel Osteen Research Paper

Submitted By
Words 350
Pages 2
Imagine a man who attends church every Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday. This man claims to be a Christian, and may be heard saying things like “God loves me” and “I feel blessed by God today.” He knows the pastor of his church very well, and he even invited the pastor and his family over for dinner on occasion. This man also loves to get drunk in his favorite bar. He watches pornography when his wife is not home. He only prays when he is in trouble, and the same conditions apply to reading his Bible. Is this man really a Christian?
A man like this is not hard to imagine. This lifestyle exists in most churches today. Perhaps the most extreme example is Lakewood Church in Houston Texas, led by the well known Joel Osteen. While one cannot generalize the massive congregation of Lakewood Church, pastor Osteen’s personal theology is proof enough that a Christian created by culture does exist. When asked if people from other religions and atheists will go to heaven in an interview on Larry King’s talk show in 2005, Osteen responded, “I would present my way, but I’m going to let God be the judge of that. I don’t know.”(Edmundson, p.64) In this interview, Osteen concedes the truth of the Gospel to the pressures of society, therefore allowing culture to shape the direction of …show more content…
A cultural Christian’s theology takes the form of an unfinished puzzle. There are many pieces that may be true, but do not fit together to complete the picture. Many cultural Christians take what they know about God and force them together, creating their own God.(Kauflin p.31) These pieces of God are usually picked up buffet style based on what will fit into a cultural Christian’s current lifestyle. Many times, this God buffet is served by the local

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

No Paper

...This paper will attempt to address the following four types of leadership styles: Transformational, charismatic, transactional, and instrumental. Transformational and charismatic are similar in many ways, these leadership styles are more people oriented. Transactional and instrumental are similar in many ways, these leadership styles are more task oriented. Transformational and charismatic leaders must be careful to keep their focus people oriented or they may be subject to fall in to narcissism. Transactional and instrumental leaders must not be so task focus that they become autocratic and lose their followers. Transactional Leadership is defined as leadership that occurs when one person takes the initiative in making contact with others for the purpose of an exchange of valued things (Burns, Wern 1995) However, further research into this type of leadership according to Bass (1981) transactional leadership is based on the hypothesis that followers are motivated through a system of rewards and punishment.' While transactional leadership is based on a quid pro quo (something for something) relationship, transformational leadership is need based. Kark & Shamir (n.d., p.69) found that transactional leaders address the self –interest concerns of followers by exchanging rewards or recognitions for cooperation and compliance behaviors consistent with task requirements. In the current economy, it is easy to state that both transformation and transactional leadership are widely...

Words: 1358 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

Ihrm

...M A G A Z I N E FA L L 2 0 0 2 Volume 20 Number 2 SPANNING THE GLOBE Duke Leads the Way in International Law Teaching and Scholarship inside plus Duke admits smaller, exceptionally well-qualified class Duke’s Global Capital Markets Center to launch new Directors’ Education Institute from the dean Dear Alumni and Friends, It is not possible, these days, for a top law school to be anything other than an international one. At Duke Law, we no longer think of “international” as a separate category. Virtually everything we do has some international dimension, whether it concerns international treaties and protocols, commercial transactions across national borders, international child custody disputes, criminal behavior that violates international human rights law, international sports competitions, global environmental regulation, international terrorism, or any number of other topics. And, of course, there is little that we do at Duke that does not involve scholars and students from other countries, who are entirely integrated with U.S. scholars and students. Students enrolled in our joint JD/LLM program in international and comparative law receive an in-depth education in both the public and private aspects of international and comparative law, enriched by the ubiquitous presence of foreign students; likewise, the foreign lawyers who enroll in our one-year LLM program in American law enroll in the same courses, attend the same conferences...

Words: 58370 - Pages: 234

Free Essay

Spanning Globe

...M A G A Z I N E FA L L 2 0 0 2 Volume 20 Number 2 SPANNING THE GLOBE Duke Leads the Way in International Law Teaching and Scholarship inside plus Duke admits smaller, exceptionally well-qualified class Duke’s Global Capital Markets Center to launch new Directors’ Education Institute from the dean Dear Alumni and Friends, It is not possible, these days, for a top law school to be anything other than an international one. At Duke Law, we no longer think of “international” as a separate category. Virtually everything we do has some international dimension, whether it concerns international treaties and protocols, commercial transactions across national borders, international child custody disputes, criminal behavior that violates international human rights law, international sports competitions, global environmental regulation, international terrorism, or any number of other topics. And, of course, there is little that we do at Duke that does not involve scholars and students from other countries, who are entirely integrated with U.S. scholars and students. Students enrolled in our joint JD/LLM program in international and comparative law receive an in-depth education in both the public and private aspects of international and comparative law, enriched by the ubiquitous presence of foreign students; likewise, the foreign lawyers who enroll in our one-year LLM program in American law enroll in the same courses, attend the same conferences...

Words: 58047 - Pages: 233

Premium Essay

Presentation Secret of Steve Jobs

...The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience Carmine Gallo Columnist, Businessweek.com New York Chicago San Francisco Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City Milan New Delhi San Juan Seoul Singapore Sydney Toronto Copyright © 2010 by Carmine Gallo. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. ISBN: 978-0-07-163675-9 MHID: 0-07-163675-7 The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: ISBN: 978-0-07-163608-7, MHID: 0-07-163608-0. All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than put a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. Where such designations appear in this book, they have been printed with initial caps. McGraw-Hill eBooks are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and sales promotions, or for use in corporate training programs. To contact a representative please e-mail us at bulksales@mcgraw-hill.com. TERMS OF USE This is a copyrighted work and The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (“McGraw-Hill”) and its licensors reserve all rights in and to the work. Use of this work...

Words: 72152 - Pages: 289

Premium Essay

Leadership

...Leadership Learnings From Bloggers 2008 Edition Leadership Learnings from Bloggers 2008 Edition Released February 2009 Aggregated and produced by Exponential Media, a Division of Exponential Network Leadership Learnings from Bloggers is a collection of blog posts on leadership from over 20 national leaders / bloggers. Disclaimer In selecting the 20+ bloggers for this resource, we choose leaders with experience on the front lines. However, Exponential Network makes no warranties or representations regarding the accuracy, validity or originality of each blogger’s content. Exponential Network is serving as an aggregator of leading bloggers and does not necessarily agree with the opinions and beliefs represented in individual posts. We’ve attempted to include their content verbatim from their web sites except for obvious typographical errors. Statement of Copyright The individual posts in this eBook are the copyright of each author. These authors have agreed to make the aggregation of these posts available free of charge via this eBook. The following conditions apply to the use of this free eBook resource: Share. Just as the authors are sharing this eBook with you, you may copy, distribute and transmit the work to others. Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by each blog post author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes for financial...

Words: 119475 - Pages: 478