Joel is not what I want

For those who don't know, I've spent the last week and a half in Houston and will be here for another week and half more. The state of Texas is very different than other states...on my way from the airport I say a billboard for a talk show that read "Liberals Hate Us" and haven't seen a Kerry-Edwards sticker anywhere. I also went to the Houston mega-church "Lakewood" this past Sunday with my parents. The pastor of Lakewood is Joel Osteen, and he's your typical Sunday morning TV preacher. In fact, I've noticed that most TV preachers come from Texas.
This church is located in the former Compaq Center, once home to the Houston Rockets. The church has 3 services and when we went on Sunday, the place was pretty packed out.
The preacher and his wife look so perfect that they almost look fake:

and the people in the church look like the most difficult choice in life as of late was deciding between generic coffee and Starbucks. I have no problem with people going to churchs like this, in fact my parents really like Joel Osteen and his style of preaching, but it's a little odd to look up at the pulpit and see a big gold spinning globe in place of the cross. It's also a little disconcerting to see a church that spend all its money and energy on a tiny section of the world (and might I add, one that really needs no monetary help) while forgetting the poor and homeless outside of Houston and around the world. I'm sure Joel Osteen does a great job of touching non-believer's hearts all around the US...but to me, it seems like he is only preaching half of the Truth. Yes there is joy in the Lord, and yes He will bless us, but I don't think becoming a Christian means that we will automatically live and walk the comfortable life or that it is God's desire to see us excel at our careers...yet this is what he preaches to his congregation every Sunday.

I think I'm learning that it's really important to pick a church whose goals and interests align with mine. What I mean is, although I agree with all of Lakewood's statements of faith...I also want a church that is involved in the needy areas of the world. And these "extracurriculars" are often not found in the church's faith statements. One of the things I like most about Church of the Open Door (my church in Minneapolis) is its purposeful goal of reaching the poor of Minneapolis and its involvement in giving help to those with AIDS in Africa. I don't think I will ever find "the perfect church" as it is made up of imperfect people with imperfect theology and mindset, so I think it is best to judge a church by its "extra-curriculars" rather than by the basics since 90% of the Protestant churchs out there seem to have the same typical statements of faith.