Posted on 08/29/2006 7:24:18 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
Purpose Driven Pastor Rick Warren recently returned from a 48-day trip around the world, launching P.E.A.C.E. Plans and training tens of thousands of church leaders in nations where Warren's name and best-selling book, The Purpose Driven Life, are far from foreign. Warren was also one of a still small number of faith leaders, as many Christian leaders had indicated, who spoke at the world's largest AIDS conference in Toronto which concluded late last week. After a good 28 hours of rest upon returning home to Saddleback, Calif., Warren spoke with The Christian Post about his global journey and the ever-present AIDS pandemic.
CP: Can you first give a reflection on the 14-nation tour that you recently concluded? Any new revelations or eye-openers?
Warren: I came away from the 48-day trip in 14 nations with a couple of attitudes. One is an attitude of gratitude of what God is doing in the world. It's very exciting to see. I really believe that the future of Christianity is Africa, Asia, and Latin America. It's not North America and it's not Europe. And I think that's very obvious. We saw the church growing in a number of different places. It's very fulfilling to see the Purpose Driven paradigm, the Purpose Driven strategy being used in all kinds of situations - rural, urban, suburban, poor and wealthy places; everything from peasants to presidents.
There were a number of really neat stories. One of them was when I was flying in from Hong Kong to Manila and the flight attendant gave me a copy of the Manila paper. On the front cover was an article about this communist leader who had read The Purpose Driven Life and accepted Christ and was now trying to serve the Lord.
Also in the Philippines we hear about how the police force is using The Purpose Driven Life to train all their police cadets. Over 10,000 police cadets had gone over 40 Days of Purpose and also if you get involved in some kind of scandal or corruption, they send you for retraining through the Purpose Driven Life.
I never get tired of the stories. We have now trained over 400,000 church leaders in 163 countries and we were doing that long before we started the P.E.A.C.E. Plan. I've been training pastors for now 26 years. I've just heard so many stories that have been written to me - everything from little tiny house churches to the largest churches in the world.
CP: Switching gears, I know there's been a lot of buzz about your North Korea trip. I just wanted to touch on that. What, if anything, have you learned from your meetings with South Korean clergy about North Korea? And how do they feel about your speaking there?
Warren: I have been encouraged by the church in South Korea to take any opportunity I can to speak in North Korea. There was an invitation for me to come to North Korea next year and speak at the 100th anniversary of the Pyongyang revival. The committee invited me to come and be a part of that. I haven't heard anything lately on it but I go not for political reasons; I go to share the good news. I go wherever I'm invited and if I get invited there and they don't limit what I say, I'm happy to go. I would look forward to that honor and opportunity.
CP: Were there significantly contrasting views among the clergy in South Korea?
Warren: There may have been, but I didn't hear any. They were all just very happy that the invitation had been opened and offered. I believe it would be the first opportunity for public preaching of the good news in a long time.
CP: Switching gears again, the International AIDS Conference shifted the focus from treatment to prevention. And although the ABC model is what most Christians point to, mainly the first half of the model, U.N. leaders and activists say you can't avoid sex and drugs. But it seems nowadays that even churches are beginning to understand and accept that reality. Would you agree? And are you a strong advocate of the ABC policy?
Warren: I think ABC is good. I think that there is more than ABC. A lot of people who believe in ABC believe that's good but that there are other things too. For instance, a woman could have abstained from sex until marriage. She could be faithful to her husband, but if her husband has AIDS and doesn't tell her, she's still going to get it. So ABC doesn't help her because all three of those are in the control of her husband in many ways.
When I was at the conference I spoke about an alternative - the two acrostics "slow" and "stop." Instead of debating ABC, I think the question to ask is "what is the purpose of prevention?" Tell me what the purpose of prevention is and I'll tell you which strategy you should use. Is your purpose to curb or reduce the pandemic? Or is it to cure it, get rid of it? You have to decide whether your goal is alleviation or whether it's eradication. I came up with two acrostics - "slow" that will slow down the pandemic and "stop" that will stop the pandemic. And a lot of people don't want to stop the pandemic because they're not willing to make the behavioral changes. What they want is to slow it down as long as "I don't have to change my behavior." And many people at the conference didn't think that behavior should change or we should even ask people to change behavior. But that's the role of the church. We have the moral authority to say that behavior change is possible. And you can't talk about AIDS without talking about behavior because it's a primarily behavior-based disease. You don't get it just out of the air.
On "slow," the four things that will reduce the number of people who have AIDS. First is "supply condoms." And there are some people who think all we need to give condoms to everybody in the whole world and it will solve it. No, it won't solve it. It will slow it down, but it won't stop the pandemic. The "L" in "slow" stands for "limit the number of partners." Limiting the number of partners will definitely reduce the risk of people getting AIDS. "O" is to "offer needle exchanges." If you gave addicts clean needles, they're less likely to get an AIDS infection. The "W" in "slow" stands for "wait for sex." What I mean by that is what a lot of people talk about is delay your first sexual experience. They tell people to put it off as long as possible because they don't believe it's possible for people to live without sex. They're not saying wait until marriage, they're just saying to wait a while.
Those four things will slow the pandemic, no doubt about it. They're very popular and at the conference those four were talked about over and over because they don't require behavioral change. They're not painful. They don't allow you to need much discipline. They're just easy to do. So they're popular and they're easy.
The things that will stop the pandemic are much more difficult and that's why they're unpopular. "S" in "stop" stands for "save sex for marriage." Now nobody can doubt that if everybody did that, AIDS would die in one generation. It would be over in one single generation if people only had sex in marriage. It's just that people don't want to do it. "T" -- this is a real big one -- stands for "train men to treat women with respect." We're not ever going to solve this pandemic until we do that because AIDS is now primarily a female disease driven by male behavior. What I mean by that is more women than men have AIDS now in the world -- about 60 percent. And this has been a big turning point. But it's being driven by men who are unfaithful or passing it on to women. So this is a cultural issue. The only place women are really treated well is when people really take Jesus seriously. And there are even people who claim to be Christians who don't treat women well. And around the world, this is a spiritual problem. Only the Church can teach men how to treat women with respect. The government will never be able to transform a man. Legislation can't. Only Jesus can transform a man.
Forget about Rick Warren and read your BIBLE.Warren is a pinko at best.
A book worth reading:
http://inthenameofpurpose.org/inthename.pdf
"Look - a major American religious leader was invited to speak here! Clearly America lies when it says we are unfree!"
They have "Purpose" in North Korea too, only they call it "Juche."
Well, you know what the solution to the North America problem is, don't you? Everyone must read and memorize "The Purpose Driven Life," and hang on Warren's every word!
/sarc
Seriously, Western Europe and parts of North America could use a reawakening and a true move of the Holy Spirit convicting people of their need for Jesus Christ and salvation from their sins. Don't look for the likes of Warren to be involved in such a "harsh" endeavor, though.
A review of Rick Warren's The Purpose-Driven Life [Excerpted]
Spiritual therapy for the Christian new in faith, but difficult for the informed believer to have patience with.
Help yourself to the milk. ....the advice he gives -- which amounts to "God has a purpose for you" -- is the sort of thing your average Israelite in the Ancient Near East would have taken for granted. Is it not a sad commentary that we need to be reminded of this simple and basic truth 40 different ways by Warren's text?
More here: http://www.tektonics.org/books/warrenr01.html
And here: Self Center http://www.tektonics.org/qt/selfesteem.html
Thanks - it's good to know this even exists!
Didn't know that Mr. Warren was a member of the latex worshiping crowd.
Of course, the Purpose sent Rick to downtown Manila - not to fringe islands and Muslim settlements.
On the other hand, I'd like to hear Warren's opinion on how St. Paul could possibly have been so successful given his ministry's total lack of cute little English anagrams.
LOL!
Good one.
Read later.
The Apostle Paul didn't put on skits or have a 1st century version of a rock band, either. What was he thinking? Didn't he know he was too "heavy" and "boring" for the seekers?
The apostles did just fine.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the message of Christ Crucified for the remission of sin, unto ALL peoples.
There is no "Other Gospel."
Mr. Warren is not a preacher of the Gospel.
Excellent! The Holy Spirit is convicting people to come to Christ through Warren's ministry and books.
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