What do you do with Rick Warren?

Where can I find some background on the topic?

I visited their website causing one of my initial flags to go up. They do not have a statement of faith there that I could find.

I noticed a few posts on another thread where you and someone were joisting over this guy.

Is he similar to Willow Creek/Hybels?

If so I could probably write a treatise accompanied by a couple of personal anecdotes.

 

Hadn't heard of the guy, so I looked him up and did some reading.

No statement of doctrine is the LEAST of the problems!

Except for the KJVO stance on this webpage, I think the criticism of Warren is quite sound here:
http://www.despatch.cth.com.au/Books_D/Rick_Warren.htm

From my own thoughts:

It appears he is very much walking in the way of the new ecumenical movements sweeping churches today. Thus, doctrinal statements are 'dangerous.'

The idea of a 'purpose driven church' puts the church in a position of being a super Lions Club or such. That is not what church is; it is, rather, the gathering of believers for the purposes of studying God's Word and worshiping and fellowshipping together. And while the fellowshipping is wonderful, that is NOT the primary purpose! The purpose of a church is not to grow in and of itself, but to help believers grow in the Lord through encouragement, teaching, and prayer.

There is no sign, in any of the writings by Warren or his supporters that I read, of the concept of dying to self and being born again in Christ. Without that, all the help in the world is null and void in the long run.

 

Read the man's book. Then comment.

But let me ask: Can a guy who was endorsed by none other than Criswell be all that bad?

 

I obviously have not read the book, but I did read quite a bit of what he wrote here on the web. I am very uncomfortable with it. It is not that he is 'all that bad,' but that he is not that good in general where doctrinal soundness and biblical mandates are concerned.

Let me put it this way -- anytime I hear or see anyone telling people to look to God because God will heal them, and bless them, and do good for them, etc., I am wary. Not because God is not capable of doing all this -- and He sometimes does. But the point is that God is GOD, and although we certainly need to be changed and healed, the worship of God is because He is GOD and not for what we can get out of it! God is holy, and majestic, and perfect, and fully deserving of our praise and awe and worship no matter what happens to us or how He uses us.

He chose to love us. But even if He hadn't, that doesn't take away from the fact that He is still God.

[ October 02, 2002, 01:41 PM: Message edited by: Helen ]

 

I know just a little about him, and these are his purposes. Worship, wittnessing, fellowship, service, and I can never remember the other one.

Also a part of his purposes. He is very big on new believers class, doctrinal class, everyone being involved in serving the church and each other, for the good of the Kingdom.

I don't know anyhting about his supporters, or anything else on this, but I do know he believes in salvation, being born again, made new.

When the church is functioning properly, is healthy, it will attract people to the gospel, they will want to know what you have that they don't. They will be more open to hearing the gospel.

Helen, I wasn't picking on you by quoting you, it was all there was to answer too, and seemed to have a lot of the general complaints.
I know about Rick Warren, and his book, but haven't read it, I've heard a lot about it.

 

I've read that he is creating a generation of worldly church-goers who have embraced a "feel good" religion and a distaste for sound, balanced, expository preaching of God's Word.

 

B/c I have experienced PtheW's anti-Warrenism in another thread, I am confident where he wants this thread to go. That being the case, I'll go ahead and put in my 2 cents.

I will simply say Rick Warren is incredible. His purpose-driven philosophy of ministry is biblical and Christ-centered. He is a man that God has used in a great way.

I do not agree 100% with Warren all the time, but I do stand in his camp.

All of the misinformed accusations of easy-believism and carnal Christians are misnomers.

Rick Warren went to California as a 25 year old young man committed to building a God-honoring church and God has allowed him to do so.

I pray God will raise up more Rick Warrens to reach their community with the gospel in a clear and relevant way.

Press ahead Rick Warren three thumbs up

 

This is inacurrate. In his chapter on "preaching fro purpose" he advocates expository preaching.

What some seem to eb doing here is assuming that the lack of jargon (like dying to self) means absence of the teaching of dying to self. That is not the case.

 

Friend or at least he should be

 

Let the critic offer the statements to be examined. You have made it clear you vehemently disagree with Warren, so spell it out.

I will simply ask you what I did on the other thread and got no response:

Are you suggesting worship, evangelism, discipleship, ministry, and fellowship are not the purposes of the church?

 

The keyword is sound, balanced, expository preaching of God's Word. While Warren and other church-growth "experts" declare that they are encouraging pastors to change methods while keeping the message the same, such is not the case!

When pastors are encouraged to seek out the perceived needs of unbelievers and fulfill those needs, and when they are instructed to refrain from preaching certain messages or using certain Biblical texts in order to keep from offending or "turning off" the unsaved, then the message, not just the method, has certainly changed.

 

I agree with SbG. We need to hear specific complaints or declarations from critics of RW's before meaningful discussion can ensue.

 

Again, this is inacurate. The message is not changed. It is communicated differently. But until you see Warren instructig people to teach differnt doctrines, then your charge is of base. Starting with where people are in order to reach them witht he gospel is just sound evangeliam.

And Jesus did it.

 

Thanks, but no thanks; not that I would ever "listen" to this man to begin with, after reading the following report, I know I never would. Take heed!

http://fundamentalbiblechurch.org/Foundation/fbcsdlbk.htm

 

Let me get this straight.

You are perfectly willing to take a report without actually checking out its accuracy by goign to the source?

You form your opinions about everything (or everyone) this way? Of course not. But you'll do it here.

Then IMO you forfeit yor right to post on the topic. You have no informed opinion to offer.

 

I've read stuff from those folks for years and they pretty well hit the nail on the head when it comes to warning the people, but I'm done posting... God bless.

 

As far as Rick Warren goes:

His book, THE PURPOSE DRIVEN CHURCH, is a very helpful resource that pastors / churches can use. Overall I would say that the book is quite sound. The greatest weakness of the work is that while he states that worship is the ultimate purpose of the church, he spends very, very little time dealing with that topic and his methodology undermines that ultimate purpose. I think the book is very helpful, but you need to "chew the meat and spit out the bones." By the way, I'm all for biblical church growth, but I'm not a "church-growth" guy (as that term is being used popularly these days, i.e, Saddleback, Willow Creek, Crystal Cathedral, etc.).

Rev. G