I entered the words Rick Warren > cheap grace, and got a few hits. This article may interest you:
Spirit-Led or Purpose-Driven? Part 1 by Berit Kjos, November 2003
it can be found at :
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/2003/1-purpose.htm
Here is an excerpt:
" Thousands of small groups using Saddleback's study guide and Teaching Video for the 40 Days of Purpose are led in a slightly longer prayer. They hear Pastor Warren speak these words:
"Do you have a relationship with Jesus Christ? If you aren't sure of this, I'd like the privilege of leading you in a prayer to settle the issue. Let's bow our heads. I'm going to pray a prayer and you can follow it silently in your mind:
'Dear God, I want to know Your purpose for my life. I don't want to waste the rest of my life on the wrong things. Today I want to take the first step in preparing for eternity by getting to know You. Jesus Christ, I don't understand it all, but as much as I know how, I want to open my life to You. I ask you to come into my life and make yourself real to me. Use this series to help me know what You made me for. Thank you. Amen.'
"If you just prayed that prayer for the very first time, I congratulate you. You've just become a part of the family of God."
Is this a response to the gospel? Where is repentance, acknowledgement of need, or confession of personal sin? Where is the cross? The Bible tells us that saving "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." [Romans 10:17-18] But none of the Scriptures that show the gospel are mentioned in this first lesson. Biblically illiterate friends and neighbors who join the group would pray this prayer without any real knowledge of the cross, of the Savior, or of God's view of sin. In fact, the meaning of salvation isn't included in the first lesson. And if it had been there, the context of the lesson would suggest that we are merely saved from a purposeless life -- not from bondage to sin."
"If you just prayed that prayer for the very first time, I congratulate you. You've just become a part of the family of God."
I've never really paid much attention to this guy but the previous passage is full of crap and completely bogus.
It was missing a few things.:
Where was the acknowledgement that God created and rules everything?
Where is the acknowledgement that I have sinned and come short of Heaven?
Where is the prayer that asks Jesus Christ to become my savior and that I accept his gift?
Do all that ... THEN you're a Christian.
" Where is repentance, acknowledgement of need, or confession of personal sin?'
Where does it say that is needed? This is a protestant church, after all. Works not necessary -- futile, actually.
mark
Thanx.
That's the thing -- in order to speak of repentance, and call sinners to repentance, you have to utter the word "sin."
bttt
thank you for this thread and the link to crossroad. i now understand why a "purpose-driven" church treated our family the way it did three years ago.
My number one problem with Warren is his dismal presentation of the Gospel, as you demonstrate. Fooling people into thinking they are saved, when they are not, is the worst thing you can do.