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
It's the classic 'bait and switch.'
Jesus was never a salesman. From the beginning he said you have to leave everything behind for him. That doesn't mean we literally do, but should it become necessary, we should be very willing to part with the things dearest to us in order to remain faithful and unashamed of him.
Oh... I missed the /sarcasm closing tag then. (ahem)
It's a fake letter. You notice it says what he is doing wrong, according to the authors personal belief about what is wrong - yet doesn't get into what is the "right way" other than through generic terms as opposed to practical application. The dead giveaway is the phrase "secular music".
This letter is in the spirit of the sort of thing Gobbels would have produced. This thread is really going downhill. I am finding myself wanting to read some of Warrens books to find out what he would say to some of these attacks. It is sort of a "defend the underdog" sort of thing.
If that is what is meant by "felt needs", I agree with you.
You miss his point.
>>Jesus was never a salesman. From the beginning he said you have to leave everything behind for him. That doesn't mean we literally do, but should it become necessary, we should be very willing to part with the things dearest to us in order to remain faithful and unashamed of him.<<
Amen.
the best explanation I have is from the gospel of John. After Christ finished ministering to them that he was the Bread of Life, and all that came with it, many of the disciples grumbled and said "this is a hard life, who can live up to it". They turned and left, and Christ let them go.
He didn't run after them shouting, "WAIT! COME BACK! We're going to install a pool table and ping-pong table next week! What? You don't like the psalms? Well, we can sing something different if you want! What didn't you like about what I said - I'll change it!"
No, he simply let them go, turned to the 12 and said, "Are you going to leave as well?" The reply was, "Where else will we go?"
They knew he had the truth, they knew the way was going to be tough, they knew it wasn't "needs-sensitive", but they stayed, because giving up the world and following Christ was their mission.
One can't not preach the whole counsel of God and be Biblical.
One can't promote, endorse and associate with known false teachers and be Biblical.
One can't consistently take Scripture out of context and be Biblical.
One can't sing Purple Haze in front of an Angel Stadium crowd and be Biblical.
One can't promote other faiths and other faith practices and be Biblical.
One can't deride the Five Fundamentals and be Biblical.
etc.
"If Rick got up and said "you shouldnt' be coming here because of the catchy music, or the coffe, or even the fellowship. You should be coming here because of Jesus. Let me show you in more and more detail the truth about who Jesus is, because frankly, to your natural mind, he is offensive, just as Scripture says. He is a stumbling block. You must leave all your fleshly desires behind, and turn to him alone. You have nothing worthwhile to give him."
Do you know any Pastor who starts a worship service with that disclaimer?
Rick Warren makes a big point in his book PDChurch about 'not forgetting what it's like to think like an unbeliever.' Now that sounds all good because it's true -- except his application of it is where the shell game comes into play. We need to remember how shallow and selfish and devious the unregenerate mind is, and not allow them to accept 'jesus and' or some other version of Jesus which is more comfortable to them, because that is what the unbelieving mind does. Instead, Rick Warren focuses on personal preferences and earthly priorities of the unbeliever and says THAT is what it is like to think like an unbeliever... and because he says it cleverly and wittily and self-deprecatingly, we are left nodding dumbly and saying "ok, great, sign me up!"
And, by the way, shaping the Gospel to meet a person's felt needs is not a loving act.
.
Luk 4:17 "And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave [it] again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears."
He came to heal the brokenhearted, to set at liberty those that are bruised. Those are felt needs.
"Someone will "suffer" if they can't get a latte before the sermon?"
And someone can "suffer" if there is a worship band with guitars. What's your point?
No, he came to fulfill the scriptures - those are mini-parables for salvation. Regaining sight, being set free, restored hearing. Those are spiritual ills.
His entire ministry was about salvation and the repentance of sin. Nothing more, nothing less.
The unsaved cannot fathom that they even need salvation unless the Lord sees fit to reveal that truth to them. They're looking to have physical needs filled, not spiritual.
A very watered-down version of "suffering" if you ask me.
The only true suffering for the unsaved is their seperation from God. That's their only true "felt need". All the rest is worldly filler.
Jesus did not heal Him to produce faith...you are comparing apples and oranges.
And felt needs do not equal physical needs...many/most, if not all, felt needs are not in keeping with a Christ-like character and are done away with in the sanctification process.
And most importantly, the Gospel does not need to be shaped by anything in order to be effective...to say so demonstrates a significant level of human arrogance.
Have you read PDL?
You will not find the Gospel accurately represented there... seriously. As a believer, your mind may fill in the gaps left by the writing...but leaving gaps isn't a privilege we have, as Christians entrusted with communicating the Gospel. I'm not expecting you to suddenly say "hey you're right"-- it took me quite a while.
I read it myself several years ago, and said 'hmph. What's the big deal?'
I didn't think of it again for a few years. There were a few questions about what he was trying to say, yeah, but that happened in every book. It seemed like Christianity 101 to me and I wondered why it was so popular. I didn't really recommend it to anyone because I thought it was so shallow, but I didn't condemn it. It only alerted me to the fact that if this kind of thing was such an astronomically big hit, what kind of state must the church at large be in??
I honestly did not think about it again until I saw my pastor pulling political games (I would not have seen it had I not been involved in a subcommittee either) and on expressing my frustration to another council member, was informed that Pastor was all caught up in Purpose Driven Church and a lot of that stuff didn't seem scriptural to him.
So first thing I did was borrow a copy (this book was only given to the council to read as a kind of 'idea generator'-- or at least that's all they'll admit to) and granted, the church was deemed seeker-sensitive from the time we joined. I didn't know what that meant, and it sounded good. But we had different definitions of what it meant and that is the hitch. You have got to be sure you're understanding each other. And that is where Rick's teachings fall short. They are exceedingly vague and in the practical working out of these teachings you suddenly find out that you were not in agreement at all with the church. And then, the ones in power have been given carte blanche to cast you out as a sinner (a la matt 18) because you don't support the ministries of the church.
When I read purpose driven church I knew it was wrong from the start, because in so many places Rick seems to be saying two mutually exclusive things, but like politicians so famously do, in a way that most people will hear (and understand) what they want to hear (and understand) and leave the rest as just 'well, I know what he meant.'
In searching for more information on PDC, I found many critiques of PDL as well, and that got me quite concerned about it as well. Of the two, it's hard to decide which one I think is worse... PDC enables believers to pursue their agendas regardless of opposition, as long as they've convinced themselves their agendas are 'of God.' It emphasizes numbers and demographics in a very worldly way. Christ went out to find the ONE lost sheep, leaving the 99 in the fold. He didn't go to where there were lots of sheep in hopes he could snag a few.
Now, PDL is dangerous for a different reason. I read Warren Smith's _Deceived on Purpose_ and found there is an alarming connection (if not formally, then theologically) with Robert Schuller, who I don't think can even be considered Christian any more. But because Schuller isn't mentioned, what is essentially Schullerism is slipped under the door for many conservative Christians who read Rick's PDL. He also uses many 'new age' terms from the new age 'bible' "The Message," inviting in new agers who then think their beliefs jive with Scripture.
It is incrementally changing the church for the worse. People think to themselves "when they try to push X sin (for example homosexuality) as normal, then the church has gone astray." trouble is, that doesn't happen overnight. It happens incrementally by eroding the foundations of clarity of teaching. (a closely tied phenomenon is 'verbicide' which we all see happen every day by equivocating liberals equating "abortion" with "freedom of choice") This muffling of clear gospel preaching is what Rick is doing. I don't think he means to, and I find him to be genuinely likeable. I also find him to be extremely careless in how he builds on the foundation laid.
1 Cor 3:10-15 "By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.
From the same interview:
"MR. WARREN: A fundamentalist would deny the miraculous today."
It looks like he is speaking of a different five points than the ones your site listed - or at least different explanations of the points.
I'm still having a hard time finding the "sinner's prayer" in scripture. Rick has it in his book as the magical phrase to invoke salvation, but I can't find it elsewhere.
"Close your eyes and repeat after me - now *presto*! You're a Christian, welcome to the club!"
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