This past weekend I took my family to Houston for a little vacation and we had a blast! We stayed near the Galleria and did a little shopping, went to a ballgame at Minute Maid park and went to church at Lakewood Church. All of it was so much fun, but the real high-lite was going to church at Lakewood Church, it exceeded our expectations and was so encouraging to all of us.
We had a friend of ours call ahead and let them know that we were coming to visit and all we were hoping for was a reserved seat and maybe a back stage tour, our expectations were pretty low. We arrived to the church an hour early and got a great tour and saw so much of the church and it felt just like RVC. We were all surprised that the church didn't feel impersonal even though it holds about 15,000 people. (That's a guess, I'm not sure what it holds.) RIght before service the ushers brought us to the church auditorium and asked us to sit on the front row! Connor and Logan were impressed that dad must know Joel Osteen or something for us to sit up there!
The worship was fantastic, not RVC style, but people were worshiping God and there was a real presence of God there. Joel and Victoria did a great job making sure it felt like church and not an event in some city even though there were hundreds of visitors there. Joel preached a great sermon on Inside Information and I'll be honest here, I'm going to use some of it in an upcoming sermon series! It was really good and Connor and Logan really paid attention and quoted parts of it back to me during the day. (As a parent of a teen, that's always a good thing!) In addition to all of that, at least 50-100 people responded to the altar call for salvation at the end! After the service was over, one of the pastors said that Joel wanted to say hi to us so could we come to the green room to say hi before we leave. (At this point Connor and Logan thought that dad was super connected or else we were being punked!)
We went to the green room area and met Joel and Victoria and just talked about ministry, the Hillsong conference and how much we enjoyed church today. We also talked about life and family and pastoring. They were so nice (And so were all their staff members.) and they really went out of their way to say hi and make us feel welcome, we all agreed it was the high-lite of our trip. I've got a whole new appreciation for him and his family and his ministry. I just keep thinking, here's a guy that was running a camera at church and now he pastors the largest church in America. When he says anything is possible with God, he really means it!
Awesome report and word Rob. We have been there several times and have been very blessed as well. I'm also challenged by the message and worship. Cool stuff.
Posted by: Bruce Hammond | July 20, 2010 at 12:02 AM