Acton Institute PowerBlog - Entries from Monday, September 10, 2007

Your Best Life Now: a review of Joel Osteen's best-seller

Monday, September 10, 2007

In my Sunday School class, we finished Exodus last week. Between books, I often do miscellaneous lessons or a topical study. So, before we start Numbers next week, I did the only thing on my miscellaneous docket: a book review of Joel Osteen’s Your Best Life Now.

Now, why would I bother to read Osteen’s book (I already have, more or less, my best life now!)—and why would I devote the time to talk about it in my class? First, a dear friend of mine gave it to me and my wife for Christmas. That’s probably not an uncommon gift to receive, but it is noteworthy because he’s a Southern Baptist minister (not exactly Joel’s usual audience). Moreover, he credits Osteen’s ministry with important changes in his own preaching—in terms of both style and substance.

Second, Hank Hanegraaff is not a big fan of Joel’s, strongly critiquing him on the handful of occasions when I’ve heard him speak on the topic. In particular, he’s labeled him as a “Word of Faith” (WoF) minister who preaches a “prosperity (health & wealth) gospel”. I have tremendous respect for Hank’s ministry through the Christian Research Institute. (CRI’s review of Osteen’s book is not a hatchet job by any means, but I disagree with some of the conclusions.)

So, how do I resolve the views of these two men? Well, for starters, I decided to read Osteen for myself! (Keep in mind that I have never seen/heard Joel in action. For better and for worse, this is only a book report!)

Continue reading "Your Best Life Now: a review of Joel Osteen's best-seller"

Posted by Eric Schansberg in Bible and Theology at 16:44 | Comments (3) | Trackback

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bible and theology, health and wealth gospel, prosperity gospel, rev. joel osteen

The Christian Publishing Market

Monday, September 10, 2007

Some notes from a talk by Sally E. Stuart, author of The Christian Writers Market Guide:

Publisher blogs are increasingly prevalent (for example, IVP).
Authors are sometimes expected to provide fully developed marketing plans.
“Secular” has become a pejorative term, now the preferred term is “General.”
There is a move toward digital publication and dissemination, due to competition, postage, printing costs.
Christian booksellers are facing stiff competition with decreasing margins, in part because Christian books are becoming popular in mainstream outlets like Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Wal-Mart.
Only 44% of Protestants read Christian magazines, which themselves only make up 21% of the magazine reading of the average Protestant.
Christian publishing is the only publishing segment that has been growing in recent years (it is roughly 5-10 percent of the overall market).

Posted by Jordan J. Ballor in Business and Society at 14:17 | Leave a comment | Trackback

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business and society, christian publishing, maranatha christian writers' conference

Helping the "Bottom Billion"

Monday, September 10, 2007

Richard John Neuhaus is calling it “one of the most important books on world poverty in a very long time.” It’s Paul Collier’s The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It. Neuhaus’s discussion is thorough so I won’t reiterate. Suffice it to say that I’m intrigued by the book’s arguments. I’ve always thought the question of when to intervene militarily—self-evidently one of the key foreign policy questions—is also one of the thorniest moral questions. The way one answers it often has ramifications, for good or for bad, for the world’s most vulnerable people. It seems obvious that a strictly libertarian approach (“never intervene”) is callous, not to mention geopolitically foolish, while a vigorously interventionist policy is dangerous in many ways as well as unsustainable in the longterm. In between the two, how does one formulate consistent criteria of intervention, rather than make decisions in an ad hoc fashion, a method too easily affected by the passions of the time, special interests, and so on? I’ve yet to see a satisfying answer.

Posted by Kevin Schmiesing in Effective Compassion at 11:39 | Comments (4) | Trackback

Maranatha Christian Writers' Conference

Monday, September 10, 2007

For the next few days, Ray Nothstine and I will be attending the Maranatha Christian Writers’ Conference in Muskegon, MI. As there’s something of interest to pass along and occasion permits, we’ll keep PowerBlog readers updated throughout the week.

There’s some excellent background on the thirty year history of the conference in this last weekend’s Grand Rapids Press, “Area woman’s passion became ministry.”

Posted by Jordan J. Ballor in News and Events at 07:31 | Leave a comment | Trackback

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maranatha christian writers' conference