Maybe it’s because Joel Osteen tells people what they want to hear.
Maybe it’s because his message is so simple. Maybe it’s because he’s right that we’re at our best when we’re being ourselves.
Whatever the reason, Osteen’s appeal, while not universal, is indisputably massive and broad — he’s the pastor of the largest church in the country; appears weekly on his own TV show and at times on almost everybody else’s; and, he often sits atop The New York Times bestseller list.
Then once or twice a month, Osteen, also known as the “Smiling Preacher,” fills up arenas around the country with tens of thousands of people. He will offer “A Night of Hope” with his wife, Victoria, at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Pepsi Center. His guitar-playing 17-year-old son, Jonathan, and singing 13-year-old daughter, Alexandra, will be there too.
“It just feels right to me to get out among different people,” he said. “A lot of people will come to that event who don’t go to church regularly.”
That’s why he adds at least a dozen arena appearances a year to an already full schedule at home. He preaches 40 weekends a year to the 40,000-strong flock at his Lakewood Church in Houston.
His phenomenal success, he says in typical self-effacing style, comes from telling people “stuff they already know.”
Osteen’s morning ritual, reading four or five newspapers on his porch, is one way he tries to find things to say and to stay relevant, he said.
He reads two or three Texas papers, USA Today, The New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
“I get good stories — inspirational stories from newspapers,” he said. “I cut out stuff every day.”
When Osteen, 49, took over his father John’s pulpit in 1999, he had never ministered or been in seminary, he said. His father, who passed away, had been a fiery preacher, having been brought up in the Southern Baptist tradition.
Joel Osteen is not even a little fiery, but he stepped up to fill his father’s shoes.
“I’ve just got to be myself,” he said.
His 78-year-old mother, Dodie, (who will also be on stage at the Pepsi Center) says she’s never seen Joel mad a day in his life.
“I’m sure I have been,” he said, although apparently no incident comes readily to mind.
Osteen’s harshest critics characterize him as a slick purveyor of the prosperity gospel, in which God hands out monetary rewards in this life to obedient followers and preachers.
“I don’t really talk about money,” Osteen said. “Prospering to me is having healthy children, peace in your life, good relationships and getting up in the morning with an expectation of joy. But, yes, I think people should excel in their careers and have enough money not to worry about paying their bills.”
He also teaches about life’s inevitable pain and suffering, he said. He admits that, when confronted with the sadness and problems of the world, he has no ready response.
A father spoke to him recently about the 16-year-old son he lost in a car accident. “I had no answer for him,” Osteen said. “I had no good reason.”
Osteen said he just has faith in a sovereign God who knows what’s best, and he doesn’t try to figure it out. He can’t.
“I don’t concern myself with matters that are too great for me,” he said.
His message, Osteen said, is very simple.
“I tell people stuff they already know,” he said. “God is good. He’s on our side. God made us to be grateful. We have to let go of the bad and get ready for something new.”
Some critics think he should be more of a scold. They accuse him of diluting the tough messages of the Bible and Jesus Christ into a sugary confection.
“There’s a group that thinks I should condemn more, but that’s not me,” Osteen said. “People already know what they’re doing wrong.”
Osteen has evolved over the years, though, he said.
“I’m less judgmental,” he said. “I realize most people weren’t raised like me. But people are 99.9 percent good at heart. I have more compassion.”
Even someone as relentlessly upbeat as Osteen gets down sometimes.
“With success comes responsibility,” he said. “Some people make decisions based on what I say. I feel the weight of that.”
He gets over feelings of discouragement by expressing gratitude to God or helping someone else — that always works, he said.
And if he could hand you one more pearl of wisdom, he said, it’s this:
“Sometimes we get stuck in a rut, and we’re not expecting anything great. You have to have that hope — that expectation — of a better life.”
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com
Meet the man and his family.
What’s going on: Joel Osteen will sign his latest book, “Every Day A Friday,” if it’s purchased at the Tattered Cover.
Time/day: 7 p.m.
Thursday
Site: Tattered Cover Book Store in Lower Downtown, 1628 16th St.
Friday’s main event
“A Night of Hope” with Joel and Victoria Osteen
Time: 7:30 p.m.; doors open at 6 p.m.
Site: Pepsi Center
Tickets: $15; available at the box office or through
