By Mark Dawes, Staff Reporter
Rick Warren
THERE IS a quiet revolution happening in several churches in the world, but particularly in the United States. The seeds of the revolution can be found in two books, The Purpose Driven Church and The Purpose Driven Life. Both books are authored by the Rev. Dr. Rick Warren, senior pastor of the Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, California.
Rick Warren and his wife, Kay, and their infant child moved to the Saddleback Valley area in 1979 to start a church from scratch. He did a house-to-house survey, knocking at each door and asking persons what it was they felt kept people from coming to church. He then announced that he would be convening a special Easter service the following year. About 200 persons showed up. Many got saved. Saddleback Church was truly born. The Saddleback Church, formerly Saddleback Valley Community Church, today has a seating capacity of 3,000, and is located on a 120-acre property. It has a membership of 15,000 and an average attendance of 18,000 in total for its main worship services which are held twice on Saturdays and four times on Sundays. The church has a US$19 million budget and has a full-time staff of about 300, including 13 pastors all with seminary degrees.
The Rev. Dr. Warren is at this time the foremost authority on how to make one's church grow numerically. His success has placed him on the radar of pastors globally all of whom are seeking to learn principles from him to adapt to their own congregations. Several seminary students, particularly those studying the discipline of church growth, have done doctoral studies of his church. Not surprisingly, he has been
heavily featured in both the secular media (including USA Today and the Los Angeles Times) and has been the cover story for such flagship Christian publications such as Christianity Today Magazine and New Man Magazine.
SUCCESS
At this time, the Rev. Dr. Warren, 49, is enjoying much success as an author. The Purpose Driven Church, published in 1995, sold more than a million copies. However, his readership soared to new highs with the publication last year of The Purpose Driven Life which has sold more than 11 million copies and was for several weeks number one on the New York Times bestsellers list.
Since the publication of The Purpose Driven Church, many local pastors and church leaders have armed themselves with copies. Grace Missionary Church and Swallowfield Chapel, are among a growing number of local congregations that have bought into Rick Warren's ideas to the extent that they have undergone far-reaching restructuring. Both churches a few years ago sent representatives to Saddleback's annual conference to hear Rick Warren and others extol and explain the 'Purpose Driven' model for church growth. To date, more than 200,000 pastors have made the trek to that section of California to learn from the Tiger Woods of church growth.
Up to 30,000 churches in America now describe themselves as 'Purpose Driven' the L.A. Times reported last September. The numerical growth in church membership is part of just about every pastor's goal. But argues, the Rev. Dr. Warren, in The Purpose Driven Church, pastors and others often ask the wrong questions to achieve numerical growth. There are five main purposes for the existence of the church, he said. However, churches tend to overemphasise one purpose. When all five purposes are in balance, the church will experience health. When there is imbalance, he said, there will be 'dis-ease' or 'unhealth.' So for a church to grow it must give due emphasis to the five purposes of the church. If churches are healthy, he argues, growth will be a natural occurrence.
"I don't have to command my kids to grow. If I provide them with a healthy environment, growth will be automatic. If growth is not happening, it means something is wrong, because it's the nature of living organisms to grow and the church is a living organism," he said.
In an interview with Leadership Journal, the Rev. Dr. Warren argued, "Health is the result of balance. Balance occurs when you have a strategy and a structure to fulfill everyone of what I believe are the five New Testament purposes for the church - worship, evangelism, fellowship, discipleship and ministry. If you don't have a strategy and a structure that intentionally balances the purposes of the church, the church tends to overemphasise the purpose that the pastor feels most passionate about-- when a church overemphasises any one purpose to the neglect of others, that produces imbalance - unhealth.
That causes a lot of churches to remain stunted."
The Rev. Dr. Warren argued that four things must happen for thing to remain in balance. He told Leadership Journal, "You've got to move people into membership, build them up to maturity, train them for ministry and send them out on their mission. We use a baseball diamond to illustrate that. We've got a scorecard to evaluate progress-- the health of a church is quantifiable."
Part of the magnetism of Rick Warren is that recorded in his books are healthy doses of potent common sense. He points people to the obvious in such a way that one feels almost guilty for not seeing the point all along.
MEGACHURCHES
Pastor Warren regards himself first as a pastor, then a pastors' trainer. For that reason, he has avoided the lure of the doing his own television and/or radio show as many other pastors of megachurches have done. He rarely speaks outside his church and avoids much of the politics in both his denomination and in national life. Another reason for his magnetism, is his folksy manner. He typically wears on Sundays, a Hawaiian shirt, khaki pants and no socks as he preaches in a friendly tone, without oratorical flourish, but laced with great comic timing, says a report from Christianity Today Magazine.
The Rev. Dr. Warren, who is from the Southern Baptist denomination, took off for the first five months of last year to write The Purpose Driven Life. During that time, attendance at Saddleback Church continued to climb thereby making the case that his 'purpose-driven' principles work, no matter who is the pastor.
In The Purpose Driven Life, the Rev. Dr. Warren argues human beings were: planned for God's pleasure; formed for God's family; created to become like Christ; shaped for serving God; and made for a mission. These five eternal purposes, he explains answers the broader question, "What on earth am I here for?"
Self-help books suggest looking within, at your own desires and dreams, but that is the wrong place to start, says the Rev. Dr. Warren. "You must begin with God and his eternal purposes for your life. We are made by God and for God, and until we understand that, life will never make sense," he said. He has structured this latest book to expound on the five purposes over a 40-day period. The book is thus an invitation to churches to undertake a spiritual pilgrimage on the basis of a chapter per day for 40 days or as it being dubbed ' 40 Days of Purpose.' The five purposes of the individual mentioned in The Purpose Driven Life is complementary to the five purposes of the church mentioned in his earlier book.
Up to September, the Los Angeles Times reported on the basis of a mail-in survey that, "more than 2,600 churches in 19 countries have participated-- Saddleback church officials say 180 churches from 15 denominations that completed the 40-days programme showed a 21 per cent rise in attendance, a 16 per cent jump in donations and a 79 per cent increase in the number of small Bible Study groups.
The Purpose-Driven Life has just been named Christian Book of the Year by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. The Purpose Driven Church, now a textbook in many seminaries, is regarded in some quarters as one of the 100 Christian books that changed the 20th Century.
EDITOR'S NOTE: There will be a one-day seminar on '40 Days of Purpose' this Saturday January 3, 2004 beginning at 9 am at the Stony Hill HEART Academy. The presenters will be Rev. Craig Bishop and Rev. Doug Pfeiffer - both of the Branch Creek Community Church, Philadelphia, USA.
Send feedback to mark.dawes@gleanerjm.com.
