Cotton Candy Preachers (part II)

This is somewhat of a follow up to one of my earlier posts I put up about 9 months ago. That post was trying more to be funny and get people to recognize a problem. I believe now, more than then, that it is a very GRAVE issue for the church. I was, and still am no writer, but I've said things that I've REALLY wanted to get out there before. And this is one worth reiterating. I wrote this as a comment on a friend's blog and then decided that it was long enough and worth posting here as a stand-alone entry. anyway- here it is:

anyone else feel like we heard someone like Joel Osteen at least once a year in school? They’re called motivational speakers! (Hi kids, my name in Matt Foley and I AM a motivational speaker… I am 35 years old, thrice divorced, I live on a steady diet of government cheese, and I live in a VAN down by the RIVER!!!)

theres’ nothing overtly, or subvertly for that matter, Christian about those resolutions. I’m disturbed by the fact that Joel Osteen has not finished college (or at least, not when he started). He took over Lakewood when his father died after having been a camera man behind the cameras (always feeling a bit shy, he said) for the videoing of the services. (I guess you could say he knows about all aspects of the ministry there, now…) but he had dropped out of college. I just read a convincing answer to a question, which i agreed with anyway, by Keith Drury (see opinion question #6) about how important it is for our pastors to be educated people, especially in the Bible (no offense to Luke- I do not mean simply college class type education, although for most people, that is the easiest and likely only way to measure education).

to quote “I expect my dentist to know what a root canal is. I want my auto mechanic to recognize a carburetor or fuel injection system. I expect my doctor to know which symptoms indicate which sickness. And I, like most people, expect my minister to know the Bible, theology, church history and the practical management of the church.” Is it not wrong that the leader of one of the largest churches in America does not seem to have the foggiest idea of those things? He seems to either:
a) only have the ability to discern the Bible enough to feed the people in his church spiritual milk OR:
b) has the capacity to discern more than milk, but chooses not to feed peopl any more than that,
and Hebrews 5:12-13 is clear that spiritual milk is for babies- grown Christians should not accustom themselves to it!

anyway- sorry to make such a long response. I feel very strongly about this issue- it seems, especially due to the popularity of men like Joel Osteen, that the church in America is headed down a path toward being permanent spiritual children. And spiritual children have the maturity and actions comparable to REAL children… is this not a scary thought for the state of Christianity in America?