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Rick Warren's book The Purpose-Driven Life is more than a major bestseller.  It's also the most prominent manifestation of a "seeker-sensitive" movement that's attempting, for all intents and purposes, to redefine evangelical Christianity. The seeker-sensitive movement is a close analogy to the contemporary conservative movement. In both cases, people who ought to be offering timeless truths that can save individuals and societies are instead using market research to craft a product that appeals to consumers, telling them what they want to hear rather than a truth that is initially painful but ultimately liberating.  Even if you are not a Christian,...

What people such as Bill Hybels and Rick Warren have done is created a genie they cannot put back into the bottle. Thousands of pastors have followed their methods of "do whatever it takes to attract the crowd" without ever considering how this waters down the message of sin and its consequences. These pastors now realize that the "cookie" that attracts the crowd must get bigger and better or the crowd will stop coming. Gimmicks such as a McDonald's theme service, using Christian mimes and comedy nights are a mockery to the house of God because they never challenge the...

LAKE FOREST, CA – When the elders of Saddleback Community Church gathered three months ago to pray over a theme for the Year of Jubilee, Pastor Rick Warren was led by Providence to skip the meeting for an Angels-White Sox matinee. “I had just ordered a soft pretzel and a light beer when the vision literally fell out of the sky,” Warren said. “I thought, ‘Yes Lord, this will be a good year indeed.’” Warren immediately texted Associate Pastor Anson Billings, and one week later the Goodyear blimp flew from the U.S. Open in Oakmont, Pa., to Lake Forest. “What...

Note: Some of the names of people in this article have been changed to protect their identities. Memphis, Tn - It is a typical Sunday morning for a man we will call John. He wakes up early, spends some time reading his Bible over a cup of coffee, prays, and then gets ready to go to church. Only for John, "going to church" doesn't mean the same thing as it does for everyone else who will be going there on this Sunday morning. About a year ago John joined a rather well known and a rather large Southern Baptist church...

July 15, 2007 Warren’s Use of Scripture is No Laughing Matter By Chris Rosebrough Those of you familiar with Rick Warren’s writings are aware that this man is a scripture twister. He constantly rips passages out of context, exegetes bad paraphrases and generally proof texts his own ‘made up’ doctrines. I’m writing a book on this subject called ‘Bible Balloon Animals: How Rick Warren & Other Christian Leaders Twist God’s Word’. The Latest Specimen In Warren’s July 13, 2007 Christian Post article entitled “Learn to Laugh” Warren is up to his usually antics. This article has a perfect example of...

Rick Warren - Is He Scary? "Do secular liberals who applaud and enable Warren know that he aims to recruit '1 billion Christian foot soldiers' who are willing to do 'whatever it takes' to turn the entire planet into a purpose-driven Kingdom of God? That his Purpose-Driven Ministries, he says, has trained more than 400,000 ministers and priests in 162 countries? "Typically, demagogues who dream of making the whole world conform to their single, uncompromising vision wear gaudy military uniforms that give them an immediately threatening veneer. Rick Warren, on the other hand, favors Hawaiian shirts decorated with large pineapples....

http://67.36.84.226/crosstalk/ct050415.asf This is an audio recording of a radio show showing some of the negative fruit of the Purpose Driven church grown movement. The more I study this issue, the more disturbed I am becoming. It is very subtle, because a lot of what is said is biblical okay. But, the underlying methodology and where Warren is driving to is seriously disturbing.

Last week, in the latest of a series of columns I have written about mega-church leader Rick Warren, I wondered out loud about mixed signals coming from Saddleback Church. I was puzzled, because back in November, Warren had told me he was a proud member of the Council on Foreign Relations and had learned much about the Middle East at the organization's briefings. Yet, when concerned individuals wrote to the church seeking to verify that Warren was a member of a group that for 191 years has attacked the idea of nation-states in favor of world government, they were routinely...

The facade is beginning to peel back from the so-called ministry of Southern California Pastor Rick Warren, author of "The Purpose Driven Church" and "The Purpose Driven Life." Unfortunately, many among his ample flock have far too much invested in him, both emotionally and otherwise, to admit their mistakes and cut their losses. Moreover, he certainly faces no possibility of in-depth scrutiny from the "mainstream media," as his brand of "Christianity" poses little or no threat to their liberal social agenda. Yet to the degree that anyone at all questions Warren as anything less than authentic, his response is thoroughly...

Full Title Edited Beacuse of Space Limitations. Should Read: Life Changing Distribution of 'Purpose Driven Life' to Prison Facilities, Hindu Community, and the Police Force in Kenya KENYA, Dec. 14 /Christian Newswire/ -- Rev. Stephen Mairori says, "We thank God for the great transformation we are witnesses in people's lives through the 'Purpose Driven Life' (PDL) book and other Purpose Driven Life materials and programs." Rev. Mairori continues, "We visited two major prisons in Nairobi to present them the PDL books. We managed to meet the senior superintendent in charge and the Chaplains of the two prisons." Over 500 inmates...

That’s right! This is not a joke! Just submit a 250 word essay on how the Ladies' Home Journal or Better Homes and Gardens helped you “make a positive change in your life, such as home remodeling, contacting a long lost friend, etc.” and you might win a “meet and greet at a four-star LA restaurant” with none other than Rick Warren! Essays will be judged on "substance of entry (40%), originality (30%) and clarity of entry (30%)." Brought to you by Chrysler and Better Homes and Gardens.

I am much obliged to Bruce Delay, a talk-show host at KFAQ 1170 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for downloading the audio version of Rick Warren's YouTube video, recorded while in Syria. Now, keep in mind, Warren has been telling the world he was misquoted by the Syrian press when he extolled the virtues of the totalitarian police state. But before anyone questioned his statements, Warren's Saddleback Church had recorded him as he strolled down a Damascus street explaining what a peaceful and tolerant place Syria really is. As soon as I hotlinked to the YouTube video last week and questioned Rick...

Thurman Billings of Madison, Wisconsin, was recovering in a local hospital after trying to read The Purpose Driven Life to a burglar who had broken into his home. “I was inspired by what Ashley Smith did in Atlanta,” Billings said, “but when I told the guy that God made him for a purpose, he just kinda smiled and said, ‘yeah, my purpose is to beat you unconscious and steal your plasma TV.’ Who knew he was a Stoic fatalist?” Despite his injuries and substantial property loss, Billings still credits The Purpose Driven Life with giving the intruder some food for...