Houston Report #3: 2nd Baptist Church

Pastor Ed is the minister of 2nd Baptist Church, which (as the name ironically points) is the second largest church in America with a weekly attendance of around 31,000 people. Young came to this church about 30 years ago when (after some sort of hideous event) the attendance had dropped to around 300. This was the largest church in America until another Houston church, Joel O'Steen's Lakewood Church, surpassed it in attendance (Pastor Ed seems to believe that Lakewood is a parachurch, though, and therefore not qualified to pass his reala-church in size).I'm not sure, but I think this is the "Pink Slip Slide" for ministerial staff who don't immediately perform numerical miracles ("Look, Boss, I just multiplied two youth workers and five pizzas into a 5000 teenager convention!"). Seriously, this place is so big that it has three full time painters on staff. All they do is repaint classrooms, etc . . .
Who is the center of this church? I'll give you one guess. Look at the sanctuary. Enlarge it if you like (by double clicking on the picture).
This is the foyer. It looks remarkably like a fancy hotel lobby.

Here is Pastor Ed himself. His passion is scriptural teaching and the re-emergence of a congregation that knows why it believes what it believes. He believes that churches centered on cell groups or small groups don't have good, in depth teaching. "Let me tell you, Sports Fans, it ain't there!", was his refrain. I appreciated his passion for this and found it to be genuine.He continues to uphold Sunday School as a better forum for building scriptural depth. Although, one wonders about this when the 2nd Baptist Church bookstore is hawking "Scripture Candy." After all, what's more biblical than sugar and mints to remind us to think about Jesus' death on a cross and resurrection? I can hear Jesus' parable now, "There once was a Jolly Rancher who went away to a foreign land with his wife, Peppermint Patty. He left one ranch hand with ten bags of gum drops, another with five bags of gummy bears, and another with one Tic-Tac. . ."
At one point Pastor Ed wheeled around on one of our Beeson Pastors and said, "Could you become a Baptist?" as he stood above my seated classmate with his finger pointed down. My classmate responded, "No." At which point, Young began asking for a full account of my classmate's opposition to TULIP Calvinist theology. It put my classmate in a bad position. We all knew that Young was a busy man and that he was being very gracious to offer us an hour of his time. We even knew that he hadn't met with anyone on a Friday in 27 years. We were grateful for his time. In that situation one doesn't want to become confrontational, even when the host is.

Now for my disclaimer. "I don't want to be critical. I am sure that Pastor Ed is Christ-centered, and humble, and his church really does help people in need, and they really do work hard to share the gospel with others and . . . well . . . . . bless his heart."

Okay, enough of that. I was glad he was so willing to meet with us. That was our visit to 2nd Baptist Church and I really do appreciate the time he gave us. I learned many things.