Posted on 01/10/2006 10:06:56 AM PST by Terriergal
LAKE FOREST, Calif. - This week, it was the Rose Bowl players' breakfast. This month, it will be the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Then the President's prayer breakfast in Washington, followed by an entertainment industry conference in Los Angeles.
Rick Warren, the Southern Baptist preacher's son from tiny Redwood Valley, Calif., is much in demand these days.
The founding pastor of the Saddleback mega-church south of Los Angeles and the author of the best-selling The Purpose Driven Life, Warren is perhaps the most influential evangelical Christian in America.
With his book - the best-selling hardback nonfiction book in the nation - and Purpose-Driven Life videos and 40-day Bible study plans, Warren has created an unparalleled international network of millions of individuals and 400,000 churches, spanning faiths and denominations.
Now he wants to use his growing influence - and wealth - for an ambitious global attack on poverty, AIDS, illiteracy and disease.
"The New Testament says the church is the body of Christ, but for the last 100 years, the hands and feet have been amputated, and the church has just been a mouth. And mostly, it's been known for what it's against," Warren said during a break between services at his sprawling Orange County church campus.
"I'm so tired of Christians being known for what they're against."
Fresh from preaching to 38,000 congregants during Christmas week services, Warren was looking to the future by invoking the past.
"One of my goals is to take evangelicals back a century, to the 19th century," said Warren, 51, shifting painfully in his chair because of a back sprain suffered during an all-terrain-vehicle romp with his 20-year-old son, Matthew. "That was a time of muscular Christianity that cared about every aspect of life."
Not just personal salvation, but social action. Abolishing slavery. Ending child labor. Winning the right for women to vote.
It's time for modern evangelicals to trade words for deeds and get similarly involved, Warren contends.
At the end of his second sermon last Sunday, he reminded his largely affluent Orange County audience: "Life is not about having more and getting more. It's about serving God and serving others."
That, simply put, is his message. Give your life to God, help others, spread the word. It is the same message that Christians have been preaching for 2,000 years. Warren has updated the language, added catchphrases and five-step guides, but he readily admits "there is not a new idea in that book."
The Purpose Driven Life has sold more than 24 million English-language copies since 2002, with millions more in other languages. It has been popular with Lutherans, Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, with pastors and priests using it as a Bible-study handbook.
The book figured prominently in a hostage drama in Georgia last March. Ashley Smith, held by alleged Atlanta courthouse killer Brian Nichols, said he released her after she gave him methamphetamine and read to him from the book.
Warren "is able to cast the Christian story so people can hear it in fresh ways," said Donald E. Miller, director of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California. He is "a very important figure in evangelical Christianity," part of a "trend we'll see more of," Miller said, citing Warren's independence, social activism, informality and ability to reach across racial and national lines.
"The Gen X-ers are sick and tired of flash and hype and marketing," Miller said. "The soft sell of a Rick Warren is far more attractive to them than a highly stylized TV presentation of the Christian message."
Among evangelicals, Warren is more influential than better-known and more-divisive figures such as religious broadcasters Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell or radio psychologist James Dobson, and is often seen as the heir to the Rev. Billy Graham as "America's pastor."
Scott L. Thumma, a professor of the sociology of religion at Hartford Seminary and the author of a forthcoming book on mega-churches, said polls of church leaders often put Warren in first or second place among most-influential evangelical leaders.
"And one of the interesting things is that he crosses boundaries... . He's not just respected by the evangelical world but by many outside that world," Thumma said.
In North Philadelphia, the Rev. Herbert Lusk, the former Philadelphia Eagles running back who is pastor of the Greater Exodus Baptist Church and a prominent supporter of President Bush, brought Warren to town in November to raise money for aid to Africa. Lusk also tutored many of the Eagles' players and coaches in the Purpose-Driven Life program last year.
Lusk said Warren "took the principles that we preach about every Sunday and packaged them in a way that are palatable for Christians and non-Christians."
"The guy is a preacher's preacher... . He's the leading evangelical in the world, unquestionably," Lusk said.
Broadly defined, evangelicals are Christians who have had a personal or "born-again" religious conversion, believe the Bible is the word of God, and believe in spreading their faith. (The term comes from Greek; to "evangelize" means to preach the gospel.) The term is typically applied to Protestants.
Millions of Americans fit the definition, although estimates vary on exactly how many. Forty-two percent of Americans described themselves as evangelical Christians in a Gallup poll in April, while 22 percent said they met all three measures in a Gallup survey in May. The National Association of Evangelicals says about 25 percent of adult Americans are evangelicals.
Evangelicals are often equated with fundamentalists or the religious right, which annoys Warren. Although he's politically conservative - opposing abortion and gay marriage and supporting the death penalty - he pushes a much broader agenda and disdains both politics and fundamentalism.
Warren is a friend of President Bush and a repeat visitor to the White House. But he also met for several hours at Saddleback last month with Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, to discuss issues such as poverty and the environment.
"I'm worried that evangelicals be identified too much with one party or the other. When that happens, you lose your prophetic role of speaking truth to power," Warren said. "And you have to defend stupid things that leaders do."
"Politics is always downstream from culture. I place less confidence in it than a lot of folks. I don't think that's the answer... . Politics is not the right tool to change the culture."
With his goatee and penchant for Hawaiian shirts and colloquial language, Warren embodies a laid-back approach to worship that resonates with Americans who have little allegiance to formal denominations or rituals.
His 120-acre hilltop campus, with palm trees, waterfall and meandering brook, is a kind of religious theme park, where worshipers meet in different buildings to suit their musical preferences, while watching simultaneous video feeds of Warren preaching at the main worship center.
Warren's father and grandfather and great-grandfather were all preachers. He followed their path by starting Saddleback in 1980 with his wife, Kay, and a congregation of seven. His ministry prospered in booming Orange County, as Warren went door-to-door, asking residents what they'd like in a church. For 15 years, he and his growing flock were nomads, meeting in schools, homes and other buildings. Construction started on the current campus in 1995, and Warren now has 80,000 names on Saddleback's rolls. Saddleback is a a Southern Baptist church, but it doesn't advertise the fact.
As the money has rolled in from his book, Warren said he has given most of the millions to the church and the three social-service foundations he has established. He stopped taking his $110,000 annual salary and repaid the church for his 25 years of salary since its founding. He and his wife became "reverse tithers," he said, keeping 10 percent of their income and giving away the rest, including $13 million in 2004.
This month, he is leading a trip to Rwanda, to train pastors and distribute medicine and money to battle AIDS and other diseases. It's part of what he calls his global PEACE plan (Plant a church, Equip leaders, Assist the poor, Care for the sick, Educate the next generation).
Last month, he launched the first major evangelical effort to battle AIDS, convening a three-day conference at Saddleback to mobilize American Christians to help AIDS victims and raise money to fight the disease. Part of the battle for Warren is overcoming resistance from evangelicals who view AIDS as strictly a gay disease or even as divine retribution for immoral behavior.
Warren said he sees religious institutions as more powerful forces than governments for solving the world's problems.
"I would trust any imam or priest or rabbi to know what is going on in a community before I would any government agency."
But, powerful as churches can be in working for the powerless, they can't succeed without governments and nongovernmental organizations, Warren said.
Warren predicts that fundamentalism, of all varieties, will be "one of the big enemies of the 21st century."
"Muslim fundamentalism, Christian fundamentalism, Jewish fundamentalism, secular fundamentalism - they're all motivated by fear. Fear of each other."
ONLINE EXTRA
To read the rest of the series on the evangelical movement by Paul Nussbaum, visit http://go.philly.com/religion
One of the other two is this: what is the difference between a lawyer and a catfish? One's a bottom feeding scavanger, and the other is just a fish.
My third favorite is this: why did New York City get all the lawyers, and New Jersey all the toxic waste dumps? New Jersey got first pick.
And, back to the topic of this discussion, I, like Rick Warren, am not a Fundamentalist, even though I am theologically conservative. Like Rick Warren, I value engagement whereas fundamentalists tend to be separatists.
What is the difference between a catfish and a lawyer?
One is a bottom dwelling scum sucking scavenger...
And the other is a fish.
You beat me to it. Same joke. I like mine better.
As separatists they may not be as effective as witnesses for Christ, but I think Warren's referencing them as "enemies" is way over the top. I couldn't help but notice he didn't say the same for the godless liberals (like the Bishops who confirmed Vicky Robinson) who are hell bent on destroying both our churches and our way of life. No criticism there. But those evil fundamentalists...
I got ya covered. Smoke if ya got 'em.
I don't, because I've butted heads with some of them. Imagine a guy who says I am a servant of Satan because I dared to correct the Bible. (I told him that he was misunderstanding a KJV anachronism.) I was an apostate because I left his inconsequential, marginalized sect to join to a "denomination that gathered to men's doctrines, not Jesus Christ." The man said, "Only in [his sect] is there liberty to worship in Spirit and in Truth." I was apostate for telling him that there was a whole world of Christians beside his sect that worship God fully.
I've never had a godless liberal say that kind of pablum. Don't get me wrong - the liberals are one of the most serious threats facing modern Christianity. Christ's harshest criticisms, however, were not directed at the liberals of his day, but rather the smug, arrogant, self-satisfied fundamentalists. The Pharisees were more dangerous to the soul than the Saducees.
"Do you know anyone who defines themself as a fundamentalist?
I do. In fact I define myself as a White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant-Right-Wing-Conservative Fundamentalist-Evangelical-Christian-Jesus-Freak. And if that doesn't offend just about everyone, then I'm sorry. I tried."
"Did I say I was a Lawyer too"
I see you are a lawyer so you must be a fundie, but I heard you play a mean guitar so you can't be a real fundie. I think you must be one of those new metafundies I heard of.
In the snow even in July, both ways.
This one's good, one of my favorites,
A... A minister dies and is waiting in line at the Pearly Gates. Ahead of him is a guy who's dressed in sunglasses, a loud shirt, leather jacket, and jeans.
Saint Peter addresses this guy, "Who are you, so that I may know whether or not to admit you to the Kingdom of Heaven?"
The guy replies, "I'm Joe Cohen, taxi driver, of Noo Yawk City."
Saint Peter consults his list. He smiles and says to the taxidriver, "Take this silken robe and golden staff and enter the Kingdom of Heaven."
The taxi driver goes into Heaven with his robe and staff, and it's the minister's turn. He stands erect and booms out, "I am Joseph Snow, pastor of
Saint Mary's for the last forty-three years."
Saint Peter consults his list. He says to the minister, "Take this cotton robe and wooden staff and enter the Kingdom of Heaven."
"Just a minute," says the minister. "That man was a taxi driver and he gets a silken robe and golden staff. How can this be?"
"Up here, we work by results," says Saint Peter. "While you preached, people slept; while he drove, people prayed."
I want to die peacefully and in my sleep... like my father.
Not screaming in panic and fear... like his passengers.
I come from the left wing of the Fundamentaist Movement.
Electric guitars are not only permitted, they are mandatory. The only organs we allow in our blessed sanctuary are Hammond B3's with dual leslie speakers.
Cigarette smoking is prohibited in the fellowhip hall but permitted in the foyer. Only fine cigar smoke is allowed inside the fellowship hall.
Psalm 150.
Marlowe
Two crocadiles were sunning themselves on the banks of the bayou. One says to the other, "wow, do you look good. You must be eating well, how do you do it?" He replies, "I found this great eating place over yonder by that office building. I just lie under a car until the right one comes along and zap, lunch." "Come on I'll show you." So over to the office parking lot they go and out of the building comes a middle age man and zap the croc grabs him and eats him. "Boy that grate" the first croc says, "let me try it". Just then two fat well dressed men in wing tip loafers come out. The croc says "I'll grab them, they look good". The other croc says "don't waste your time". "They are lawyers and after you clean all the cr-p out of them there is nothing left to eat".
Fundamentalist do not fear the world.
That is a hateful statement for Rick Warren to make and one that is made out of malice because it certainly is untrue.
My very good friend Alan S. leaves at 6 a.m. to go to Uganda with Pastor Stark, founder of Madison Baptist Church, and founder or East Africa Missions.
He has a thriving business, and as far as the world would look at it and see, he looks foolish for going. He has everything a man could want or ask for, and yet he as a fundamentalist is going half way around the world to do all he can to help spread the Gospel and minister to people in need.
The sterotyping that Rick Warren does against Christians is divisive, and it's not based in reality.
People ought to wake up and realize that it's not the Gospel according to Rick Warren.
The HMO administrator was trying to get in. He argued & argued; finally SP said OK but only for 3 days.
What do you call a lawyer with an IQ of less than 80?
Your honor!
You may smoke it in the fellowship hall, but you must carefully and reverently place it in the communion cup holder during the invocation.
Do I get the grande latte with double espresso shots?
No, but we do have a 13 step recovery group for caffeine addicts like you.
BTW have you ever had chocolate covered espresso beans? They hide them on an obscure shelf in Starbucks.
I never go on a long trip without them.
I'm not backing off from anything, least of all you.
I don't pretend to judge Rick Warren's heart but I can judge what he does with God's Holy Word. When Biblical truth is forfeited for man's benefit and man willingly drives the faithful away for not adhering to the untruth, apostasy is alive and well and rearing its ugly head.
If the word is too harsh for your tender ears, I suggest you fasten your seat belt. The battle for Christ's church will get much worse.
Take a long look at prophecy. This should really come as no shock to you. Apostasy (Gee, I said it again) will not arrive with lights and sirens. You know the warning of the wolf in sheep's clothing.
I guess you expect the wolf to wear a scary suit and badge identifying himself as such.
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