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
I will really try to get to those.
I must point out, however, that I mainly go by my interpretation of the word when judging the quality of would-be teachers.
I was brought to the Lord through one of Hal Lindseys books, but subsequently caught him in a direct lie in one of his books (A walk through the holy land) regarding his description of a picture which seemed to show ghostly angels wings.
But He was Gods intrument in bringing me to the Lord. Well, him and a series of "coincidences" that followed.
Yep, I totally agree. with both of those being shallow. Doesn't matter. Music is secondary to the preaching. If the preaching and teaching is bad, good music will not save it. If the music is bad, that still can be remedied by proper teaching.
BTW I am only a friend of God if he calls me friend... and that is only if I do what he has commanded - speak the truth with boldness, not catering to fleshly desires of unsaved people.
that's exactly what it was - a crowd mentality. Now, just imagine how it can affect the easily-impressionable?
I've worked with teens who have gone through this. They go on weekend retreats and come back all filled with luv and goodness, and then are right back to debauchery a week later. Nothing changed, and they were sold into thinking that it had. they end up being more jaded and bitter towards Christianity than before they went.
I disagree, quite strongly.
Imagine a church where the organ player simply cannot play, and doesn't seem to be able to improve. Do you "fire" them? If not, what do you do?
My husband Cyrano has said it pretty well. Purpose Driven will not affect those who already really do understand salvation. HOWEVER -- it affects the methods of teaching so that the next generation of believers (spiritually speaking) will not know the truth with clarity. We already have a tendency to do that as human beings, this generational drift. We should not be encouraging it.
It was humor.
Paul met him all by himself on the road to damascus. Many have met him alone in their rooms. Philip met the ethiopian on the road after he was deposited there by the Holy spirit. Are we to relegate evangelism to a church service where we are supposed to be learning more and more how to be sanctified according to the Word of Truth?
People meet him at a roadside diner where someone thought to stop and explain the Gospel to them. The church building and church programs are largely irrelevant. To ascribe such power to earthly structures is superstition, at best. Thank God he is not confined to our silly organizational structures.
Bingo... keep an eye on Sojourners and Jim Wallis, who is also trying to motivate government to join with churches in doing the work of saving the world from itself. (social gospel or social justice)
Rick and he are starting to sound like theological sidekicks.
For what purpose? To point to him as the Christ. I have nothing against ministering to people's REAL needs. I have a BIG problem with ministering to felt needs. That is, those needs that people think are their biggest needs. Do we minister to a drug addict's 'felt need' ? Should we offer cocktails in church for those that really have a need to drink socially or otherwise? At what point do we draw the line? How about those who have a felt need to have boring hymns? Where do their felt needs come into play?
The problem with felt needs is that there are too many conflicting 'felt needs.' All of us have the same REAL need, the need to have our sins forgiven and to be more and more conformed to the image of Christ. That is enough to take up ANY church's entire slough of resources, both time, talent, and treasure.
Ok...
What, to you, is the gospel?
I think it would be clearer to say "felt needs does not equal REAL needs."
thoughts?
>>Obviously you disagree with Gill who insisted that we need to compel them to come into the place where they are then confronted by the word of God, i.e., the house of worship.<<
But I notice you stopped reading there. Had you kept going, you would have noticed he added:
"and quit their former course of living"
As I said earlier - it's kind of hard to quit your former course of living when you're being enticed to come in BY it!
Very sad. With the huge weight and clout the Catholic church has, this has huge ramifications, especically if they buy the socialist gospel stuff along with it. I can see this giant shadow coming -- still far away, but very real.
"Did Paul allow the Judaizers to get away with what they believed then?"
No, but specifically, how is RW doing that? I am just not seeing it yet.
One note -- it's Christ's job, or the Holy Spirit's job, yes. He chooses to work through his Word accurately handled (preached) - the clearer the preaching the more effective the preaching. That is our job... by his grace he has given us this "treasure in earthen vessels" and we should not try to veil Christ and the great offense he is to the natural man in any way. To do so betrays our shame of him.
Absolutely a valid point. I couldn't agree more.
Which of his things have you seen that are 'meat'?
If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad? (1 Corinthians 14:23 KJV)
Actually what sounds like a rarity is where "the whole church be come together in one place". If we glean from that verse that the presence of unbelievers in the assembly is rare then we would likewise have to glean that the assembly of the whole church together in one place itself would have also to be considered a rare event.
That is a copout for believers too scared to stand alone in the world for Christ.
To the weak I became as weak.
I dare say that most Christians fall into that category. So what? If they need the whole church as a crutch for their own evangelical failings, what is the problem? If they think their pastor is better at getting the word out, then what should they do? nothing? Or invite them to church where they can "Taste and see, the Lord is good." ?
EXCELLENT point!
At work, one on one with other employees, as I get into conversations with people and look for openness of heart. I don't get the chance to do that with customers, much. I educate my kids all day long one on one (a la Deuteronomy) but ... frankly it's harder talking to your kids sometimes. The eldest (12) is very quick to understand, the middle one (10) is a totally different personality that really throws me for a loop sometimes and makes it hard to meaningfully communicate. And the 6 year old, he's more like the eldest, so far.
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