Visiting Lakewood Church the Place

Visiting Lakewood Church

The place of worship that I visited was Lakewood Church. Lakewood Church is located at 3700 Southwest Freeway in Houston, Texas. Lakewood Church is a non-denominational Christian church. It is a megachurch, which means that it is a huge church. Its regular sermons are widely broadcast throughout the United States, and it is the largest of the megachurches in the United States. Lakewood holds three English-language services each weekend. The visit occurred at 5:30 PM on Saturday, November 3, 2007, and lasted through a self-guided tour of the facility, the service, and the compass service afterwards.

Its services are held in a tremendously large building; it used to be a venue for NBA basketball games and large rock concerts. From the outside, the building does not look like a stadium, but more like a large office building. It is well-kept and well-landscaped, and even seems a little out-of-place in its immediate neighborhood, which includes some very rundown office buildings. The Lakewood building is clearly identified as a church, but without any of the traditional trappings that one associates with a Christian church.

Despite the immense size of the church, it managed to convey unexpected warmth to its visitors. First, parking was available in a private garage, which was located immediately next to the facility, which made accessing the building simple and easy. Other worshippers walking into the building were very friendly as I approached, though they did not seem to know their fellow church-goers, which was not surprising given that Lakewood is a megachurch. I was greeted at one of the sets of doors by a young man who welcomed me to Lakewood and asked if I needed any assistance. I did not need assistance, but I noticed that the greeters arranged for assistance to those people who needed it when entering. Immediately inside the church reminded me of a sports arena. There were large directional signs, which would have been out-of-place in a smaller venue. The church offices and smaller ministries, like the children's ministry, were located outside of the main worship hall. The main worship hall was cavernous. The pulpit was at the front of the hall, and large projection screens revealed what was featured on the stage of the pulpit. There was a large golden spinning globe on the pulpit. The room was decorated in shades of blue, and the seats were neither traditional pews nor traditional stadium seating, but closer in comfort-level to movie-theater seating.

Lakewood advertises that everyone is welcome at their church, and my observations of the worshippers entering the building seemed to prove that invitation. I saw people from every ethnic group that I can visually identify enter the building. The majority of people were Caucasian, but there were large numbers of Hispanics and African-Americans worshipping as well. Lakewood also seemed to appeal to all socio-economic classes. The majority of people appeared to be upper middle-class, and they were dressed and coifed to reflect that status. However, I spotted a few people who were clearly upper-middle class. There were also people worshipping in jeans and t-shirts. In addition, simply from observation, there were people from a vast array of lifestyles present. One way that was obvious was in the attire that people were wearing. Some were dressed in conservative clothing, while a few people were dressed in clothing that could almost be labeled "provocative." In addition, there was a couple who were clearly bikers. There were worshippers of all ages present, though the majority of people seemed to be middle-age or younger.

I can not even begin to estimate how many worshippers were present, but the former stadium was almost full to capacity, which means that there had to have been tens of thousands of worshippers there.

Like many worship services, the service began with music. However, there was no mere choir singing at Lakewood; although a choir did sing, the day also featured a performance by a Christian-music band and a singer whom appeared somewhat well-known to the group, though I did not recognize her. After the singing, Pastor Joel Osteen came onto the pulpit. He began his sermon by making a statement about Bibles, which had some elements of ritual because the congregation said the statement with him. The pastor next told a joke, and then launched into his sermon. He talked about "the enemy," which I assumed was the Devil, and it seemed as if the Devil could influence the behavior of others. The main point in his sermon was the people deserve success and should not let "the enemy" convince them that a desire to be successful is wrong. The congregation did not participate in a very dramatic way, but it was clear that they were following the sermon and it seemed more like a conversation than a one-way presentation. In fact, despite the immense size of the church and the audience, Pastor Osteen made the entire thing seem very personal.