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
Did Paul allow the Judaizers to get away with what they believed then?
And our thinking. And our methodology. The church isn't churning out a 'product' that can be measured in numbers, and so therefore should not be using 'demographics' and marketing strategies to try and cause numerical growth.
You make the point against Rick Warren by 'correcting' It'sOurTimeNow, if that is what you were doing.
How about the felt needs of the people who returned a second time to be physically fed? How about the felt need of the woman at the well to avoid talking about her sin, for which she would be publicly ostracized? (five husbands and the one she was living with now was not her husband)
The felt needs of Nicodemus? I would think he would have liked to have his ego stroked, after all he was a pharisee. Jesus challenged him and pointed out his lack of understanding in John 3. There are countless other examples. Did Jeremiah minister to the people's felt needs?
And the felt needs of the people who DON'T like rock music? What about them?
So what happens when a particularly talented goat ends up in leadership?
And what is it that makes them 'see how good it is'? By what criteria is this judgement made?
I agree with Lewis, as if that added anything to the discussion. We are in the world but not of the world, however we are to redeem and use the world's systems and materials to advance the Kingdom, such as money, jobs, education,political systems, management systems, communication systems and defense systems etc. The difference is in the verses from Romans 12 that you quoted. It is by the living sacrifice and the renewing of our minds that we redeem the systems for the Lord's use, not the worlds and by that, robbing the enemy of his own tools.
By the way, I haven't thanked you for posting this article and getting us off of the other threads on Luther and Wheaton that have been going around in circles for the past two weeks. It is refreshing to be debating old chestnuts. I am indebeted to you.
I don't agree with Rush on everything but he is a far better communicator and doesn't leave you sitting "what do you really believe, Rush?"
Besides, Rush hasn't been entrusted with this infinitely precious Gospel.
"Be not many of you teachers, my brethren, knowing that we shall receive heavier judgment. " James 3:1
IN addition, the 'five fundamentals' which Warren poo poo'd as being 'very narrow' are extremely EXTREMELY basic.
And the unjust steward's lord commended him because he had done wisely. For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. And I say to you, Make friends by the mammon of unrighteousness for yourselves, so that when you fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings.
--Luke 16:8-9
It was written by a Pastor who wished that it had been written by a pastor caught up in purpose-driven, seeker-sensitive garbage.
Pilate therefore said to him, "Are you a king then?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this reason I have been born, and for this reason I have come into the world, that I should testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice."
Even Jesus sums up his mission as testifying to the truth.
One can not be a Biblical conservative and cavort with, and/or promote catholic mystics, new agers, contemplatives, false teachers (Cho, Schuller, Manning, Nouwen, Mclaren/emergent church leaders, and etc., etc. etc.), jewish synagouges and so on.
NO we are commanded to compel them to come in to the FOLD of the true Shepherd (by abandoning their sins and realizing their state before God, and turning to him alone!), not into the church building on Sunday morning. Once they are in the fold, they *then* come into a church that is truly honoring the Lord, ideally.
If you equate the church organization with the Kingdom of God, well... you're ripe for the picking for the wolves waiting to exploit you. You *know* churchES can go apostate, but the true church never will. You have got to be able to somehow discern between church visible and church invisible. I cannot explain to you how to do it, but the more you delve into and strive to understand the Word (I wouldn't bother with some of the newer translations, especially the NRSV, the newer NIV versions coming out, etc) by the help of the Holy Spirit, you will know.
Christ performed miracles to fulfill prophecy and prove that He was Deity...not to meet felt needs.
You can look for Catholic churches doing the PDL on the purpose driven website.
Oh man... what a misleading thing to say. You cannot make that statement so broadly. The gathered church does not equal the true church. The goats and wolves will not always go away. Why should they, especially if the food they crave is there? Wolves crave sheep, goats crave social clubs and status. The thing is, Goats can tolerate copper in their diet. Sheep can't. Too much copper will kill them.
How about this:
Matthew 7:6 "Don't give that which is holy to the dogs, neither throw your pearls before the pigs, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces."
I realize he says 'don't judge lest you be judged' at the beginning of this chapter... and then goes on to tell you how to properly judge... and that you should discern between dogs and swine and the believers. So it is not properly interpreted that we should never judge. The Bible is chock full of judgement and commanding us to make judgements. It's called discernment. He then goes on:
v 13ff: "Enter in by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter in by it. How narrow is the gate, and restricted is the way that leads to life! Few are those who find it.
*********"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. *********
By their fruits you will know them. Do you gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?
The Fruit of the purpose driven movement (which is only one flavor of the larger Church Growth movement error) is the starving of the sheep, and putting them out of the camp.
in v 21ff: Not everyone who says to me,'Lord, Lord,' will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will tell me in that day,'Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name, in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty works?' hen I will tell them,'I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.'
Paul "I know that, after I depart, fierce wolves will come among you, not sparing the flock: and that men will arise from among you yourselves, and will speak depraved things, in order to lead disciples away after them" (Acts 20:29-30).
The Spirit speaks explicitly that in the future some will fall away from the faith, embracing deceitful spirits and demonic doctrines, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared (1 Timothy 4:1-2).
Correct, reprove, and encourage with all patience and teaching, for the time will be when they will not tolerate wholesome teaching. According to their own desires, they will accumulate for themselves teachers, to have their ears tickled. They will turn away their ears from the truth, and will go astray after myths (2 Timothy 4:204).
Experience does not change lives. Believing truth changes lives.
Good story. The power of the crowd is amazing.
And terribly dangerous, too, I forgot to add.
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