I sort of want to play this up as a Christian version of one of those Clint Eastwood Westerns. Two heavyweights come to battle it out. One, Joel Osteen, wearing the white hat and the smile upon his face, is armed with a "Gospel of Prosperity." He is not without his Bible verses. On the other side of the corral we have Mark Driscoll, dressed in black, and he's armed with "Christian realism". The Bible's at his side as well.
However, it's not quite like that. Here you have Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle critiquing Osteen's "Gospel of Prosperity." I gotta' say that I side with Pastor Mark in this battle. I've always thought that the Gospel of Prosperity was going to set people up for failure (something Mark addresses in the last portion of this video). Look, I'm pastor in a community where there are few--very few--REALLY poor persons. There are broken relationship and broken bodies and hurting people who are stuck in addictions and stuck on dead-end roads. I have wealthy friends who have been terribly hurt by loved ones and have terribly hurt others. It's not all "holding hands and singing Kum-Ba-Yah." And, as Mark Driscoll says in the video, I think this is the reality of Jesus' own experience as he walked this earth. He was not unaccustomed to trouble. His very full and rewarding life included lots of pain, grief, and disappointment.
Take a look at the video:
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