DAVID WATERS

In a storm, 'the church' is bigger than Joel Osteen's building

David Waters
Memphis Commercial Appeal
Evacuee Will Sutton, left, holds his 11-month son Jayden at the Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017. Joel Olsten and his congregation have set up their church as a shelter for evacuees from the flooding by Tropical Storm Harvey. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Amid a flood of near-biblical proportions, a mega-wealthy megachurch pastor sat in his Houston mansion, refusing to open his 16,000 seat sanctuary to Hurricane Harvey refugees.

Apparently not. Prosperity gospel preacher Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church officially opened its massive doors as a storm shelter Tuesday.

That was two days after a social media storm erupted after the church's Facebook page said the facility, once home to the NBA's Houston Rockets, was "inaccessible" due to "severe flooding."

Much of Houston was inaccessible due to severe flooding from Hurricane Harvey, but that didn't stop the church from being the church.

► More:Joel Osteen: 'We never turned a way' Hurricane Harvey flooding victims

► More:Joel Osteen: Who is the Houston megachurch pastor accused of not sheltering Harvey victims?

Much attention is given to what is done with church buildings after natural or manmade disasters. Many do open their doors to provide displaced persons a warm, dry, safe place to eat, rest and recover.

But more attention should be paid to what "the church" — the people of God — does outside those buildings to rescue, feed, clothe, shelter and more. That's where we see the real church in action.

"They need us. Let's go," Arik Modisette, a 29-year-old construction company sales rep told The New York Times.

Pastor Joel Osteen  of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, speaks to thousands during a Night of Hope with Joel and Victoria at Palace of Auburn Hills, in Auburn Hills, Mich., on Friday, Oct. 24, 2008. KIMBERLY P. MITCHELL/Detroit Free Press

Modisette and four other men, including an Assembly of God pastor, drove 120 miles from Lufkin, Texas, and rescued more than 80 people, six dogs and a cat in a 16-foot flat-bottom boat.

Similar rescue missions were made in Houston and all over storm-tossed Texas. No one reported seeing an ark, but fishing boats, canoes, kayaks and rafts were plying streams and rivers that a week ago were streets and highways.

Neighbors helped neighbors. Strangers helped strangers. Liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans helped each other.

It didn't matter who you voted for, what you believe, whether you were properly documented, who you love, or how much money you have.

People needed help. Other people went to help them.

"I didn't do anything that someone else wouldn't have done for me. I am just thankful that they are OK," William Kelsey told the Houston Chronicle.

Kelsey used his boat to rescue a number of people, including more affluent neighbors Beth and Edd Wolff, who were trapped on their roof.

"Our family, thankfully, has the resources to get out of the flood," Beth Wolff told the Chronicle. "We now have a very keen appreciation for the services which are needed for so many."

Joe Looke and Daniel Webb, both members of City Church in downtown Houstson, loaded 30 SUVs with blankets, water bottles, toilet paper and other supplies and took them to shelters that were lacking.

"Christ says the two biggest charges are to love your neighbor and to love Him, and that's what we're trying to do," Looke told the newspaper.

That's what "the church" did after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the Mississippi River floods of 2011. That's what "the church" is doing now after Hurricane Harvey.

Nicole Richert, children's pastor at Fairfield Baptist Church northwest of Houston, saw Harvey refugees seeking shelter at a gas station.

She didn't take them to her church building. She invited all 16 of them, and their seven dogs, to stay in her home a mile away. "There was no place where they could go," she told the Chronicle.

Osteen should have opened his church's building as a storm shelter as soon as it was safe to do so. But "the church" already had been rescuing and sheltering thousands of storm victims.

"Lakewood will be a value to the community in the aftermath of this storm in helping our fellow citizens rebuild their lives," Osteen said in a statement.

We shall see. Lakewood is where worshippers gather once or twice a week, but "the church" is bigger than Joel Osteen's building.