Rick Warren, Jimmy Carter to speak at BWA meeting

Thursday, May 13, 2004

Best-selling author Rick Warren and former President Jimmy Carter will headline the 100th birthday celebration of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) at the Baptist World Centenary Congress in Birmingham, England, July 27-31, 2005. Warren is pastor of the Saddleback Baptist Church in Lake Forest, Calif. His book, "The Purpose-Driven Life," has sold over 14 million copies since October 2002.

The global aspect of the meeting is key for Warren who says the 40 days of purpose program has been used in more than 20,000 churches in North America, more than 1,500 churches in the Philippines and thousands more in South America. About 600 churches in the United Kingdom are already involved in this program, and thousands of Baptists in England are expected to attend the BWA meeting to hear Warren.

Former President Carter will teach an international Sunday School class at the meeting. Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and the first recipient of the BWA Human Rights Award, is expected to challenge Christians everywhere in the work for the poor and for justice. BWA President Billy Kim will also address the gathering. Known around the world as an evangelist, Kim's speech will come as he concludes a five-year term as president of the BWA.

Other speakers include Solomon Ishola, head of the Nigerian Baptist Convention, the largest Baptist group in Africa and one of the newest leaders in Baptist life in Africa. Also featured will be Myra Blyth, recently a deputy general secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain. Blyth, a minister who has worked with youth work and in ecumenical areas, is known for her worship with arts and music.

Fausto Vasconcelos, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and president of the Union of Baptists in Latin America, will represent Latin America and Neville Callam, an educator and author, the Caribbean. Tony Campolo, an evangelical activist and author who is especially loved by evangelicals in England, will also be a speaker during the Congress meetings.

All of the preachers will address different aspects of the theme "Jesus Christ Living Water." Bible studies during the meeting will deal with themes of salvation, baptism, the Holy Spirit, compassion, service and cleansing. Focus groups will discuss challenges and changes in today's world. Organizers say the whole meeting will be connected by worship that will feature gathering and praising, discovering and exploring, responding and committing, sending and acting.

"We want a movement of worship that is inspiring, challenging, that flows and it is a complete experience for all who attend," said Tony Peck who leads the Music and Worship Committee for the Congress. Emmett Dunn, Congress director, asked Baptists to pray for the meeting. More information about the meeting can be found on the BWA website at www.bwanet.org.

The Congress, held every five years is expected to attract more than 15,000 people from around the world. "It will be one of the greatest Congresses in history," Kim said. BWA General Secretary Denton Lotz said the meeting "is an opportunity for all Baptists to gain inspiration from the past and renew our commitment to reaching the world for Christ in the new century."
"God has blessed us for 100 years, but we must seek the new path for Baptists to be effective witness in the 21st Century," he said. "I believe the Congress will provide us this challenge."

How One Man's Gospel Tale Became A Global Bestseller
By Paul Harris
The Observer - UK
7-11-4

LAKE FOREST, California -- For one of the most powerful religious figures in America, Pastor Rick Warren looks very casual. Wearing a blue Hawaiian shirt and loafers, he puts his feet up on his office table and cracks a broad grin. 'If I didn't believe in Jesus, I would be a millionaire with a yacht, sitting in the sun on my own island,' he laughs. 'But instead I am a pastor.'

Warren, dubbed 'America's pastor' by the media, has written one of the biggest-selling books of all time, generating tens of millions of dollars. He heads one of America's five largest 'mega-churches' and runs a religious network that spans the globe. If his religion were a business, then Warren would be a Wall Street mogul.

HIS INFLUENCE IS GROWING ALL THE TIME. He now plans to deliver a copy of his religious self-help tract, The Purpose-Driven Life, to every US soldier serving in Iraq. 'Copies are already hitting the sand,' Warren said. HE IS ALSO PREPARING A TRIP TO BRITAIN NEXT YEAR WHEN HE WILL HEADLINE A MEETING OF THE BAPTIST WORLD ALLIANCE IN BIRMINGHAM ALONGSIDE FORMER PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER.

Yet Warren is not a household name. He has crept under the media radar while building his religious empire. HE HAS BEEN A GUEST AT THE WHITE HOUSE, HE MINISTERS PRIVATELY TO SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT FIGURES IN AMERICAN INDUSTRY and was instrumental in helping market Mel Gibson's controversial religious blockbuster, The Passion of the Christ .

The Purpose-Driven Life has sold a staggering 20 million copies worldwide. It is, Warren says, selling a million a month. 'If you took Bill Clinton's book, Hillary Clinton's book, the latest Harry Potter and the Da Vinci Code and added them together, you still would not get the same as The Purpose-Driven Life ,' he boasted. But he turns down many requests for interviews and refuses to appear on television. 'I am America's stealth pastor,' he told The Observer in his first interview with a British newspaper.

Warren sits in a spacious office on the 'campus' of his Saddleback Church in the prosperous Lake Forest suburb of Orange County. He is on a mission that stretches far beyond Saddleback, far beyond America even. That mission is world domination. 'We need a billion footsoldiers,' he said 'IF YOU LOVE JESUS, WE ARE ON THE SAME TEAM.'

America's pastor works through a global network of churches which have participated in his '40 Days of Purpose' campaign, an activist programme that goes along with Warren's book. In Britain alone, more than 1,000 churches have already taken part. To that can be added 1,500 in the Philippines, 400 in Singapore and many hundreds across the world. In total, more than 15,000 churches in dozens of countries have carried out the programme. They span all denominations. 'They can be Catholic, Free Church, Lutheran, Methodist, whatever. We don't put a sign up. You won't know they are in our network,' Warren says.

Added to that is Warren's enormous network of pastors who have received training through his classes or internet site. He has now trained 300,000 pastors across the globe. Some 125,000 of them get his weekly email that includes his latest sermon, which they then can deliver to their congregations.

Warren's family has preaching in its blood. His father is a minister and his great-grandfather was a follower of famous 19th Century English evangelist Charles Spurgeon and came to America as a travelling preacher. Warren grew up in the small town of Redwood Valley in California. At High School his real passion was politics. However, while attending a Christian summer camp as a lifeguard he became inspired to join the church for life. He left for a Baptist seminary in Texas.

After college, Warren says, he and his young wife Kay decided that God was calling them to come back to California. They abandoned their desire to become overseas missionaries and spent their last 1,000 dollars on a U-Haul in which to pack their belongings and moved themselves to Orange County to found Saddleback Church, which now boasts huge car parks and a series of 'park and ride' buses to shuttle worshippers to Sunday services in a sprawling complex of buildings.

Each weekend more than 19,000 turn up to hear Warren preach, attending one of five venues on the landscaped site. Saddleback looks more like a corporate headquarters than a church. It has modern offices, a cafe, outdoor theatres and an artificial hill on top of which are three wooden crosses, standing above a re-creation of Jesus's cave-like tomb.

Warren proudly tells of a visit he recently made to a poor township near Johannesburg in South Africa. He was instantly recognised by the pastor of a small church. 'I was amazed. I said, "You don't even have electricity. How do you know who I am?"' The South African pastor told him that each week he went to the local post office, where a government programme had installed internet access, and downloaded Warren's latest missive before delivering it to his flock.

Warren's use of the internet and his focus on pastors rather than congregations has allowed him to bypass the media on his rise to the top. 'I looked at TV and didn't like what I saw. I didn't want to be a tele-evangelist. It was not authentic,' he said.

The book takes the shape of 40 biblical lessons to be considered at a rate of one a day, AND PROMISES ITS READERS A SPIRITUAL JOURNEY TJHAT WILL CHANGE THEIR LIVES. Just like Warren's conversation, it is peppered with biblical quotations. Its message is clear: its readers must become completely dedicated to God. The book's now famous opening line simply states: 'It's not about you.'

Its religious basis, just like Warren's, is that of a strictly fundamentalist Christian. The book makes no attempt to disguise Warren's belief in the book of Genesis, Noah's Ark and the existence of Hell. Warren also believes in the end of the world as described in Revelations. When it comes to such matters of faith, he suddenly takes on a serious tone. 'I accept the Bible as the word of God. I do believe the Bible is literally true. I believe the stories in it actually happened.'

Such a book was not an obvious bestseller, not even in America's Bible belt. But the book has now been on the New York Times bestseller list for almost two years.Warren gives away 90 per cent of his earnings to Saddleback, living on the remaining 10 per cent. 'I still drive a Ford,' he said. The book and its language have now entered the American mainstream. Attending the unveiling of her portrait in the White House a few weeks ago, Hillary Clinton referred to 'a purpose-driven life' in her speech.

Warren also ministers privately to many influential political people in the capital in both parties, though he won't reveal their names. 'I don't touch politics. I deal with their personal matters,' he said.

He admits he has met President Bush. 'I have been to the Oval Office a couple of times,' he said. Others include figures from business, entertainment and international politics, including two senior members of the European Union and a smattering of African presidents. Warren also worked closely with Mel Gibson to promote The Passion of the Christ, hosting a preview screening at Saddleback that was beamed to thousands of evangelicals on satellite television and included a long interview with Gibson.

And the man who inspired it all is looking far beyond simply enlarging Saddleback. This autumn Warren will roll out his sequel to the 40 Days of Purpose campaign. Called 40 Days of Community, it will involve 15,000 churches which have completed the previous programme. It will send activists into their community to carry out tasks such as feeding the homeless. At the same time, an expected 10,000 more churches are expected to sign up for a re-run of 40 Days of Purpose. 'For me, the 1980s were about establishing us locally. Then the next decade was establishing us nationally. NOW WE HAVE TO GO GLOBAL,' Warren said.

Warren will soon be a stealth pastor no more. 'I never wanted to be a celebrity,' he said. But his huge influence and his church's enormous wealth are putting an end to that. 'I guess I can't really hide away any more,' he said.

The word according to Rick

Don't argue with the Devil He's better at arguing than you are, having had thousands of years to practise. You can't bluff Satan with logic or your opinion, but you can use the weapon that makes him tremble - the truth of God. This is why memorising scripture is essential to defeating temptation. If you have no Bible verses memorised, you've got no bullets in your gun!

Love now, not tomorrow Why is now the best time to express love? Because you don't know how long you will have the opportunity. Circumstances change. People die. Children grow up. You have no guarantee of tomorrow. If you want to express love, you had better do it now.

Always love God, even when he seems distant God is real, no matter how you feel. It is easy to worship God when things are going great in your life but circumstances are not always pleasant. The deepest level of worship is praising God in spite of pain.

Jesus cures death If you have a relationship with God through Jesus, you don't need to fear death. It is the door to eternity. It will be the last hour of your time on earth, but it won't be the last of you. Rather than being the end of your life, it will be your birthday into eternal life.

Care for unbelievers God has never made a person he didn't love. Everybody matters to him. When Jesus stretched his arms wide out on the cross, he was saying: 'I love you this much!' Whenever you feel apathetic about your mission in the world, spend some time thinking about what Jesus did for you on the cross. We must care about unbelievers because God does. God leaves no choice.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1258742,00.html