The Book of Joel
“This tree was strong once,” Lonnie said, pointing to a mottled spot on the trunk. “Then it took the sickness. Not much you can do once that sets in except watch it die. And trees kin take a long time to die. Sometimes years. But they’re dying all the while.”
Joel is the 16-year-old heir to the Austin Life Community Church, a congregation with hundreds of in-person attendees. In virtual numbers, the church is one of the most successful megachurches in Texas, with viewers numbering in the millions—all one day to be Joel's parishioners.
Except Joel's not sure that's what he wants.
What Joel thinks he wants is to feel the Lord the way Lonnie Lloyd Simpson does. While Joel works the controls for his mother's sermons, middle-aged Lonnie gyrates, prostrates, and speaks in tongues. Lonnie oozes the Lord's spirit. But when Joel seeks out Lonnie to learn how, he begins to realize that the church he thought he knew didn't become Texas' biggest by accident. Whether it's the Lord's work or the hand of someone else, Joel doesn't know. One thing he does know is that the bodies are piling up, and if he's not careful, he could find himself collateral damage in a struggle for power that will rock the church to its foundations.
“This tree was strong once,” Lonnie said, pointing to a mottled spot on the trunk. “Then it took the sickness. Not much you can do once that sets in except watch it die. And trees kin take a long time to die. Sometimes years. But they’re dying all the while.”
Joel is the 16-year-old heir to the Austin Life Community Church, a congregation with hundreds of in-person attendees. In virtual numbers, the church is one of the most successful megachurches in Texas, with viewers numbering in the millions—all one day to be Joel's parishioners.
Except Joel's not sure that's what he wants.
What Joel thinks he wants is to feel the Lord the way Lonnie Lloyd Simpson does. While Joel works the controls for his mother's sermons, middle-aged Lonnie gyrates, prostrates, and speaks in tongues. Lonnie oozes the Lord's spirit. But when Joel seeks out Lonnie to learn how, he begins to realize that the church he thought he knew didn't become Texas' biggest by accident. Whether it's the Lord's work or the hand of someone else, Joel doesn't know. One thing he does know is that the bodies are piling up, and if he's not careful, he could find himself collateral damage in a struggle for power that will rock the church to its foundations.
“This tree was strong once,” Lonnie said, pointing to a mottled spot on the trunk. “Then it took the sickness. Not much you can do once that sets in except watch it die. And trees kin take a long time to die. Sometimes years. But they’re dying all the while.”
Joel is the 16-year-old heir to the Austin Life Community Church, a congregation with hundreds of in-person attendees. In virtual numbers, the church is one of the most successful megachurches in Texas, with viewers numbering in the millions—all one day to be Joel's parishioners.
Except Joel's not sure that's what he wants.
What Joel thinks he wants is to feel the Lord the way Lonnie Lloyd Simpson does. While Joel works the controls for his mother's sermons, middle-aged Lonnie gyrates, prostrates, and speaks in tongues. Lonnie oozes the Lord's spirit. But when Joel seeks out Lonnie to learn how, he begins to realize that the church he thought he knew didn't become Texas' biggest by accident. Whether it's the Lord's work or the hand of someone else, Joel doesn't know. One thing he does know is that the bodies are piling up, and if he's not careful, he could find himself collateral damage in a struggle for power that will rock the church to its foundations.