“Rick Warren paid back Saddleback Church every dollar they paid him in salary after his 24th year. He now takes no salary from the church. Saddleback is coming up on its 30th anniversary.
He and his wife determined that their living standards would not change as the result of the book sales.
The Warrens “reverse tithe”. In other words, he lives on 10% of his income and tithes 90.
The 90% of proceeds from the book go to three foundations set up by the Warrens...they get nothing from those foundations.
To date his book has sold 52 million copies.”
Those facts and figures refute the ignorant charges made in this thread.
Other big churches in or near Orange County:
Crystal Cathedral (Robert Shuller)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Cathedral
Calvary Chapel (Chuck Smith)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvary_chapel
Harvest Crusade (Rick Laurie)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvary_chapel
I’m sure fault can be found with them, too.
The Warrens “reverse tithe”. In other words, he lives on 10% of his income and tithes 90.The 90% of proceeds from the book go to three foundations set up by the Warrens..
...
To date his book has sold 52 million copies.
Ah, math... fun!
Lessee... the last book contract I signed... bear with me, it's been a while, and I've been disabled for some years now, so I'm a tad rusty, but as I recall, the author's royalty came to something like three bucks per book sold. Now, it 'twern't a "spiritual" title (unless one worships his computer -- which, being a PC-owner, I don't), but, it was a fairly mainstream house (Addison-Wesley), so I'm guessing the numbers can't be THAT out of line.
Well, anyway, if we use $3/book as a starting point, and we multiply that by, hmm... fifty two million copies sold -- and then we deduct NINETY PERCENT (at the same time throwing out the window all that "Jesus-stuff" about NOT trumpeting your generosity -- and, that business about such folk "having their reward" in that low estate), we come to the pauperseque sum of a mere $15,600,000.
Good Lord, I see your point. How that poor man manages to scrape by on the piddling amount of $15,600,000 is beyond my comprehension. Perhaps the birds are feeding him too? Oh, wait -- that only works for REAL prophets, doesn't it.
Well, regardless, he MUST be managing somehow to live day-to-day on that trivially pathetic sum of $15,600,000, right? For that, we can only admire him. Or something.
PS: I'm assuming (stupidly) that that MERE $15,600,000 is his sole source of revenue, i.e., he has NO other income, derives NO interest or return on investment on that money (meaning he keeps it in non-interest bearing accounts, which any Muslim bank ought to be able to provide him), and so forth.
Otherwise, my guestimate would need to be revised, and as the old saying goes, frankly, my dear, I don't...