Review: A balanced look at a grinning preacher
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 18, 2012
Joel Osteen, an amazing guy in my opinion, is often the subject of discussion among the Christians I know and hang out with.  Lots of folks I know think god is mad at them all the time and Joel is the right hand minion of the Devil!  I actually figured this book would be one the many out there that have all kind of problems with Joel and his ministry, I wanted to get mad at this one and fire off a bunch of letters and facebook posts and all that!  I really just wanted to rant I think!Well, imagine my frustration when I discovered that this book was basically a fair treatment of the Osteen ministry.  Like Mr. Adams I find the tack Mr. Osteen navigates to be well within the confines of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I like his words better than Paul's in other parts of the Bible in fact.  I think Jesus Christ would be pretty happy with what Joel is saying, in fact it seems to me that Joel is saying basically what Jesus did.  Don't be a prisoner of your circumstances, God isn't mad at you, Love your neighbor, enjoy abundant life!  This stuff is from those words written in red in my Bible!Most of the anti-Osteen folks I know talk about what he doesn't do, stuff like remind you that if you screw up God is waiting to fling you into a lake of fire forever to burn in pain and misery.  Sounds different when Jesus explains it.  Sounds different when Joel does too!  Well, Mr. Adams handles it well in this book, he brings out the views of the Anti-Osteen folks politely and then balances it with the real stuff Joel has accomplished.  He found some stuff I wasn't aware of too.  I really never knew that Joel never asked for money on TV!  Never did it, never will!  Amazing to me I guess.Anyway, I loved the book, it was a nice read and flowed along quickly from subject to subject.  If you have wondered a bit about the biggest church in the USA and that grinning preacher that runs it give this book a shot and see a balanced view from a guy with no horse in the race...