Sunday, January 27, 2008. 10 AM
A New Century: A New Reformation
The Sunday Forum: Critical Issues in the Light of Faith
The Very Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd III, host
Rick Warren, author of A Purpose-Driven Life and the founding pastor of California’s Saddleback Church, addresses the need for change in the church in this session of the Sunday Forum.
As a young man, this fourth-generation preacher moved to California to plant a church in 1979. He and his wife had no money, no acquaintances in the area, and nowhere to live, but they did possess a faith that led them to start a congregation. Now, about 22,000 people worship at Saddleback Church every Sunday. More important, they meet weekly in small home-based groups throughout the region. Ministries reach out to address every conceivable need in the community.
Warren says that he recently told a group of business leaders, “The future of the world is not secularism. It’s religious pluralism… The world is becoming more religious, not less. Christianity is growing around the world at a rapid pace through conversion, and Islam is growing at a rapid [rate] due to births…We’re going to have to minister in a context where we…learn how to get along.”
To that end, Warren is trying to increase civility in the world, and he is calling Christians to act on their own teachings. “I think we need a second Reformation in the church about how we behave,” he asserts. “The first Reformation was about creeds. I think the second Reformation needs to be about deeds…If Christians of all stripes…would just practice what we know Jesus taught, the world would be an incredibly different place.”
He calls this second Reformation a “mobilization.” Saddleback is developing a “peace plan” and worldwide mission to promote reconciliation through service. The church is still learning how to succeed. “We’ve learned a thousand ways that don’t work,” Warren confesses, “but we did learn two or three dozen ways that do work.” During 2008, the church intends to make its methods available to any church.
Warren recommends departing from the established public-private model, espousing instead a “public, profit, and parish” approach to solving the world’s most difficult problems. “The church is the most widely distributed organization in the world,” he points out. “The church was global 200 years before anybody started talking about globalization.”
Churches exist in places lacking medical facilities or even a post office. Warren points out that local people place their highest trust in the church because local clergy minister to people in times of greatest need. He asserts that there are 2.3 billion Christians in the world, and that this population dwarfs those of any other religion and of secularists. The size, distribution, and teachings of the church give Christians a unique opportunity to relieve suffering across the globe.
About Dr. Rick Warren
Rick Warren is founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, one of the largest churches in America, with an average weekly attendance of 22,000 persons. In addition to his work as a pastor, Warren also is a global strategist, theologian, and philanthropist whose 2002 bestseller The Purpose-Driven Life has sold over 25 million copies. Time magazine named Dr. Warren one of the “100 most influential people in the world” in 2005.