John & Julie Go To Church!

On Sunday we attended Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church. It has been on our list of 'things to do' since early in the year and we finally got there.

What an amazing event. About 42,000 people attend Joel's services each week! There were probably around 12-15,000 people at the one we attended. It is nondenominational, there are no crosses, no religious symbols whatsoever and the church is in a former basketball stadium here in Houston. It has its own undercover parking for 9,000+ cars, child care facilities, resource centre, merchandise shop etc etc..... It starts off like a rock concert with the band playing and people dancing in the aisles and it is all taped and broadcast around the world. His service is seen in 100 countries and is the most watched religious broadcast in America.

Joel is an exceptionally motivating speaker - he is very positive, very inspiring, very uplifting and very magnetic - he certainly had our full attention while he was delivering his sermon. The most amazing part of the whole event was watching the people - seeing the passion they expressed - I think they really connected to his 'life coach' style of presentation and obviously were enjoying every minute.

The experience was a definite eye-opener and one really worth attending - not sure we will become regulars though!!