re: Megachurch as a business

Most are nothing but "make the preacher rich" vehicles. Most that I know anything about will shun the shite out of you if you don't tithe your 10%. frick that noise.

Rather to giving to the Church and having most of that money go to salaries, buildings and trips, overtip waitress with the money that you'd otherwise tithe with.

The money goes directly to people who really need it and are working to improve their situation.

Also, have you ever seen the budget a megachurch produces for their members? It's very generic and doesn't get into specifics on anything.

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This is Joel Olsteen's house. What do you think about this?

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The house of a huckster who fleeces his flock. There's very little in his teaching or preaching that's even remotely related to Christianity. He has that in common with the others preaching the health/wealth/happy/clappy/name-it-claim-it false gospel.

There's other "mega-churches" or simply large churches that preach a more traditional gospel and which believe Olsteen and his ilk shameful and antithetical to Christianity.

It's probably true, and unfortunate, these churches have made numbers and asses in the pews the measure of success thereby often becoming "seeker sensitive" to the point that they've watered down or comprised the gospel to accommodate people who want an easy Faith or a smorgasbord to pick and choose from.

A commentator on Ezekiel in speaking about the harsh judgment God laid on his Old Covenant priests noted that currently we've gone from shepherds tending smaller, knowable, and manageable flocks to becoming ranchers with large, anonymous, impersonal herds. The preacher/rancher of a large congregation/herd can neither afflict the complacent and comfortable nor comfort the afflicted. Pretty good comment I think.

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And Joel Osteen...makes people feel good and when they feel good they will buy the products he is slingin. I said it before, I don't see people like him any different than a drug dealer.

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There's some truth in that for sure.

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One thing I do not like and I don't know if all of these megachurches do it, is the whole "you have to be saved to get in heaven" BS. That makes no sense to me.

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I don't know how that's presented at those Dallas megachurches. I assume most all do in some fashion or another. I'm not sure what your objection is to salvation.

My objection is that evangelical Protestantism took the ancient Church's sacramental theology and practices and made "salvation" a single moment in time event, often a very dramatic and emotional experience, implying that was THE way to get "saved". I'm simplifying here but that once and done idea of "now I'm saved" sometimes takes the pressure off the necessity of an ongoing life of faith and persevering in obediently following Christ until he calls you home.

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several common elements:

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They all will have, at any given time, a contractor who lost his business for whatever reason (drug problem, being shady, etc) and has suddenly found god, as he tries to revamp his business.

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She mentioned that she has been going to a church in prairieville and that the preacher wears casual clothes and it's a very friendly outgoing church and how nice and wonderful everyone is there

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Sounds horrible.

Is she cute? Single?

Looking for fellowship for sure.

Wink wink

You will probably get more answers if you start a thread. I responded to this thread not even knowing it was bumped.

When you say cult, I doubt she is dealing with Jim Jones where he will take them out of the country and make them all drink the kool-aid, but by definition, all churches can be considered a cult.

Is she trying to get people to go to church with her or talk about getting saved?