Rick Warren

Rick Warren
Born	(1954-01-28) January 28, 1954 San Jose, California, United States
Nationality	American
Occupation(s)	Pastor, Author
Spouse	Kay Warren
Website	Rick Warren

Richard Duane "Rick" Warren is the founder and senior pastor of the evangelical megachurch, Saddleback Church, in Lake Forest, California, currently the fourth largest church in the United States. He is also a bestselling author of many Christian books, including his guide to Christian church ministry and evangelism entitled The Purpose Driven Church, which has spawned a series of conferences on Christian ministry and evangelism. He is perhaps most famously known for the subsequent devotional The Purpose Driven Life, which has sold over 20 million copies, becoming one of the best selling non-fiction books of all time.

Warren holds conservative theological and political views. Though maintaining traditional evangelical positions on issues such as the abolition of Pro-Choice legislation and the prohibition of marriage equality in which Warren expresses views adversarial to secular human rights, he has called on the church to also focus its efforts on causes not traditionally associated with evangelicals, such as fighting international poverty and disease, expanding educational opportunities for the marginalized, and caring for the environment. During the 2008 presidential election, Warren hosted the Civil Forum on The Presidency featuring both John McCain and Barack Obama at his church. Barack Obama later asked Warren to give the invocation at his Presidential inauguration which is scheduled to take place on January 20, 2009. That invocation for the Inauguration happens to fall on the federal holiday of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day which is an American observation of the birthday of the slain civil rights activist whose legacy was particularly relevant to this election of Barack Obama.

Biography

Warren was born in San Jose, California, in 1954, the son of Jimmy and Dot Warren. His father was a Baptist minister, his mother a high school librarian. Warren has a sister (Chaundel, who is married to Saddleback pastor Tom Holladay) and had a brother (Jim C. Warren, who died in 2007). He was raised in Ukiah, California, and graduated from Ukiah High School in 1972.

Warren earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from California Baptist University in Riverside, his Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (1979) in Fort Worth, Texas, and his Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California.

According to Warren, his call to full-time ministry came as a 19-year-old student at California Baptist when, in November 1973, Warren and a friend skipped out on classes and drove 350 miles to hear W.A. Criswell preach at the Jack Tar Hotel, in San Francisco. Rick Warren stood in line to shake hands with Criswell afterward.

When my turn finally arrived, something unexpected happened. Criswell looked at me with kind, loving eyes and said, quite emphatically, “Young man, I feel led to lay hands on you and pray for you!” He placed his hands on my head and prayed: “Father, I ask that you give this young preacher a double portion of your Spirit. May the church he pastors grow to twice the size of the Dallas church. Bless him greatly, O Lord.”

Warren held Saddleback's first public service on Easter Sunday, April 6, 1980, with 200 people in attendance at the Laguna Hills High School Theater. Warren's church growth methods led to rapid growth. The church has used nearly 80 different facilities in its 28-year history.

Saddleback did not build its first permanent building until it had 10,000 weekly attenders. When the current Lake Forest campus was purchased in the early 1990s, a 2,300-seat plastic tent was used for worship services for several years, with four services each weekend. In 1995, the current Worship Center was completed with a seating capacity of 3,500. The multi-million dollar Children's Ministry Center and staff office building were completed over the next few years. In June 2008, a $20 million student ministry facility called the Refinery, was completed. The Refinery houses the middle school (Wildside) and high school (HSM) ministries, consisting of nearly 1,500 students.

Warren has worked to shift the evangelical movement away from an exclusive focus on traditional approaches to social issues such as abortion and gay marriage (though he still holds these views), to broader social action instead. Warren's five-point plan for global action, the P.E.A.C.E. Plan , calls for church-led efforts to tackle global poverty and disease, including the spread of HIV/AIDS, and to support literacy and education efforts around the world. In February 2006, he signed a controversial statement backing a major initiative to combat global warming, thus breaking with other conservative, high-profile evangelical leaders, such as James Dobson, who had opposed such a move. Polls have indicated that most evangelicals are skeptical of global warming theories, especially related to human culpability. This decision by Warren remains one of his most controversial and criticized moves.

Warren has been invited to speak at national and international forums including the United Nations, the World Economic Forum in Davos, the African Union, the Council on Foreign Relations, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, TED, and Time’s Global Health Summit. He was named one of "America's Top 25 Leaders" in the October 31, 2005, issue of U.S. News and World Report. Warren was elected by TIME magazine as one of 15 World Leaders Who Mattered Most in 2004 and one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World" (2005). Newsweek magazine called him one of "15 People Who Make America Great", an award given to people who, through bravery or generosity, genius or passion, devote themselves to helping others.

On August 16, 2008, Warren drew greater national attention by hosting the Civil Forum on the Presidency that featured senators John McCain and Barack Obama at Saddleback. The forum marked McCain and Obama's first joint appearance as the presumptive Republican and Democratic presidential nominees and was broadcast live on national television. During the two-hour event, each candidate took the stage separately for about an hour to respond to Warren’s questions about faith and moral issues such as Christianity, abortion, orphans, and human rights. Warren said the goal of the civil forum was to “restore civility in our civil discourse.”

Warren publicly supported California Proposition 8 (2008), which amended the state constitution to ban same-sex marriages by explicitly discriminating against any form of marriage which isn't strictly heterosexual. Warren expressed his desire to prevent the definition of marriage from including any acknowledgement of non-traditional partnerships, and gave interviews expressing his fantasies in which marriage equality is equated in his mind with incestuous pedophilia and/or bigamy. After the measure passed by a narrow margin of voters, Warren's Saddleback Church was targeted by protesters offended by this attack on secular human rights and on equality.

On December 17, 2008, Barack Obama, at the time the President-Elect, chose Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration ceremony on January 20, 2009. The decision was announced by the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. This decision angered pro-choice and marriage-equality advocates and led to criticism of both Obama and Warren. The same day Beliefnet.com posted an interview in which Warren compared gay marriage to incest, polygamy, and pedophilia and stated that gay marriage rights would lead to hate speech prosecutions of Christians who oppose marriage equality and view homosexual behavior as sin. When Warren referred to millions of innocent people as incestuous pedophiles, numerous news agencies immediately reported his slanderous comments, and also rebroadcast the footage demonstrating his famous prevarication of bigotry in which he overtly maligned the gay and lesbian Americans who were requesting the basic human rights of equality and justice.

Conservative views

Despite Warren's progressive image and focus on social issues, he is closely aligned with conservative evangelical viewpoints. On the eve of the 2004 presidential election, Warren sent an email to his Saddleback congregation telling them that there were five non-negotiable issues that should determine their vote.

1. What does each candidate believe about abortion and protecting the lives of unborn children?
2. What does each candidate believe about using unborn babies for stem-cell harvesting?
3. What does each candidate believe about homosexual marriage?
4. What does each candidate believe about human cloning?
5. What does each candidate believe about euthanasia—the killing of elderly and invalids?

Warren chose not to overtly endorse a candidate, however the message clearly was an encouragement to vote for George W. Bush.

He has stated that gay marriage is not a civil right. In a conversation with atheist author Sam Harris in Newsweek magazine, Warren spoke out against evolution and in favor of creationism, and stated that brutal dictators such as Mao, Stalin, and Pol Pot were all atheists, when questioned on whether religion is beneficial to society. Asked about the difference between himself and Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, Warren claimed that "it's a matter of tone," meaning they hold essentially the same beliefs but simply have differing ways of expressing them. In 2005, during the Terri Schiavo controversy, Warren flatly stated that withholding feeding to Schiavo, a woman in a persistent vegetative state, was "not a right to die issue." He then called Michael Schiavo's decision to remove her feeding tube, "an atrocity worthy of Nazism," and while speculating about Michael's motives, put forward the idea that Michael wanted Terri to die because, if she regained consciousness, she might have "something to say that he didn‘t want said."

Personal

Warren has been married to Elizabeth K. Warren (Kay) for 30 years. They have three adult children (Amy, Josh, and Matthew) and four grandchildren. He considers Billy Graham, Peter Drucker and his own father to be among his mentors.

Warren no longer takes a salary from Saddleback and has repaid all of his salary from the last 25 years back to the church, due to the success of his book sales. He says he now "reverse tithes", meaning giving away 90% of his income and living off 10%.

Ministries

Rick and Kay are directors of the following non-profit organizations:

• Saddleback Church
• Acts of Mercy
• Purpose Driven Ministries
• The Global Fund
• RKW Legacy Partners
• Equipping the Church

Purpose Driven

Main article: Purpose Driven

Over 400,000 pastors and church leaders from around the world have attended a seminar or conference led by Warren and other pastors who share best practices as they seek to be more effective in fulfilling the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. The term "Purpose Driven" refers to these pastors' attempt to balance the five purposes of Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Ministry, and Evangelism in their churches.

Over the years, Christian leaders in 162 countries have used materials which stem from this movement. Through this organization over 400,000 ministers and priests have been trained worldwide in his theology and practical methods. Some 189,000 church leaders subscribe to Ministry Toolbox, the weekly newsletter.

Warren's books have come under criticism from some conservative evangelical Christians who question the practices promoted in these books, claiming that they distort the Gospel and employ questionable tactics. Others express concern over what is described as the divisive nature of Warren's techniques. Wall Street Journal writer Suzanne Sataline cites examples of congregations who have split over Purpose Driven growth strategies and congregations who have expelled members who fought Purpose Driven changes. In an effort to defend Warren, Richard Abanes, a Christian author, journalist, and apologist, has written a book and extensive articles researching many of these criticisms.

Bibliography

• The Purpose Driven Church (ISBN 0-310-20106-3)
• The Purpose Driven Life (ISBN 0-310-20571-9)
• Answers to Life's Difficult Questions (ISBN 0-9660895-2-9)
• The Power to Change Your Life (ISBN 0-9660895-1-0)
• What on Earth Am I Here For? Booklet (ISBN 0-310-26483-9)
• Personal Bible Study Methods (ISBN 0-9660895-0-2)
• Purpose Driven Youth Ministry (ISBN 0-310-21253-7)--Doug Fields

See also

• The Purpose Driven Church
• P.E.A.C.E. Plan
• Celebrate Recovery

External links

• Rick Warren
• Rick Warren's Ministry Podcast
• Purpose Driven Church
• Pastor Rick Warren's 22 min Talk at TED Conference (2006) Monterey, CA
• Event Transcript "Myths of the Modern Mega-Church" with speaker Rick Warren and respondent David Brooks
• New Yorker article on the ministry of Rick Warren by Malcolm Gladwell (retrieved July 20, 2008)
• Rick Warren's Presence at 'Azusa Street' Questioned
• The Global Ambition of Rick Warren at TIME Magazine, August 7, 2008 (retrieved August 11, 2008).