House Church Talk - Purpose Driven Church

[David Anderson]

      HI all,

I notice on the jacket of this popular book that the author claims that 
Saddleback Church went from one family to 10,000 members "without owning 
a building" over a period of 15 years. That's interesting to me on two 
accounts. Does he actually believe a church could consist of one family? 
Does he, Rick Warren, encourage churches not to build buildings?

He does address the second issue in the book with the assumption that 
buildings will eventually follow. 

I stood there and thumbed through the pages, knowing that I didn't need 
such a book right then. That's not to suggest that it's filled with 
errors or is totally useless. Far from it. Compared to some of the other 
books in the "devotional section" it looked pretty good.

But think of it, here's the ground-up account of the most successful 
church in the USA in terms of the numbers. It comes across as a how to 
book for others wanting to expand. Yet the issue of church 
structure/leadership is carefully avoided. Warren explains that his views 
on the subject are revealed in a cassette tape and that the purpose of 
the Purpose Driven Church is not to examine such (highly controversial) 
issues. Since he refers to himself as THE Pastor, I suppose I can connect 
most of the dots from there. And since he is trying to appeal to just 
about every denomination under the sun, to highlight any specific kind of 
leadership or structure would necessarily offend more than a few.

Needless to say, there is page after page of ways to get the laity 
involved.

Rick Warren, an apparent marketing genius, also founded pastors.com and 
purposedriven.com... He quickly followed up "Purpose Driven Life" with 
several companion products - things like a P D Workbook, A P D Diary, and 
an "Inspiration for the P D Life" book. Also, a P D Leaders Kit! Churches 
pay thousands of dollars, depending on their size, to do the Purpose 
Driven program.

Like some in the house church circle Rick believes his books are starting 
"a New Reformation." I wonder if it crossed his mind that putting his 
books on the internet to be downloaded without cost would greatly 
increase his audience and thus hasten the coming of his "New Reformation?"

Such a bold move might actually increase his sales in the long run and 
other Christian authors would also be forced to consider the idea of 
freely given, freely receive. Who know where that might go?

Just a few observations from my trip to Wal*Mart, last night, while most 
of you were asleep. You are entirely free to disagree. Who can argue with 
success, anyway? 

    David Anderson