Purpose-Driven® Church, The

Rating:
Summary: I thought we weren't supposed to conform to the world???
Review: I wish I could give this book a minus star because its set a terrible example and is causing many sheep to starve. Rick Warren encourages pastors to run their church like a corporation using statistics and surveys to determine what message to preach and what music to play, etc.. This is so sad and is an example of the state of the church(in the USA) right now. The whole seeker friendly movement is causing much damage to the Body of Christ.

PASTORS, if you want your church to grow then start praying, fasting and seeking God's face again!! Don't run to Egypt!
Stop robbing the people, Pastors. If you want to be a CEO resign from your church and go secular. Otherwise come back to preaching the Cross!
Preach Christ and Him crucified!!

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Summary: The Razor's Edge
Review: My recent reading infuriates me. The book is "The Purpose Driven Church" by Rick Warren. At times, my heart breaks as I consider the misleading, misquoting and misrepresentation of Christ and His Word. At other times, I am furious and amazed that a preacher with a doctorate (albeit from Fuller) can handle God's Word so cavalier. How daring to quote Christ out of context! How brazen to emphasize words that aren't even in the text! How bold to pick and choose particular translations to prove your point! All this is from a revered pastor of the largest church in America. I suppose I am at most times simply aghast.

But at the same time, other portions of the book are touching and sincere. There is a palpable desire to reach the lost. This is why I believe this current pragmatic church movement - "reach the lost at any cost" coupled with "never criticize what God's is [sic] blessing" - is the razor's edge of Christianity. It is a watershed, but that doesn't make it novel. This episode reminds me of Sir Thomas Moore in A Man for All Seasons who realized that if you concede your beliefs, you lose your being. It reminds as well of Charles Spurgeon's battle with his United Baptists or Francis Shaeffer's battle with his heretofore-conservative Presbyterians. This is our defining moment. Yet at this moment, with the exception of John McArthur, most acquiesce while others remain mute - perhaps confused, perhaps uncertain. To be sure, there is a shrill wing that cries foul when Warren uses any translation but King James with shrieks of "Heretic!" I want nothing to do with them. And it may be too late anyhow. The pragmatic movement has formed deep roots - as textual criticisms and intellectualism did a century ago. The impact has already radiated through Christianity although the full affect on the Church is yet to be calculated. I fear it will be many millions.

You may recall a gent named Charles Darwin, a little periodical called The Origin of Species and the ensuing shockwaves delivered and still felt to this day. For the pragmatists, their Darwin is Peter Drucker, expert business evangelist and marketeer. I don't recall the pivotal figure that drank in Origin and transformed Hyde-like into this hideous beast of Christio-modernism. But the hand and draught of pragmatism today is George Barna and Rick Warren.

Barna is particularly astonishing. His own surveys reveal "just 38% of the adult public have confessed their sins and accepted Christ as their savior, [yet] 99% claim they will not go to Hell after they die. In fact, a majority of Americans do not believe that Satan exists and most adults are leery about the existence of Hell." Still, he has promoted a seriously watered down (if not devoid) Gospel that caters to unbeliever's "felt needs". Warren, who's book prompted me, genuinely desires to reach the lost. But he too has turned off the path, also "targeting" the "felt needs" of unbelievers all under the guise of a successful ministry. Would that Warren remember God's admonishment to Joshua: "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." (Joshua 1:8)

Would that he imitate Paul: "For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel - not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.... For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." (1 Co 1:17,2:2)

Warren on one page claims to be drawing a line of which he will not cross - never compromising the Word - and pages later crosses the line and encourages you to come along for the ride. The subtitle of the book is subtly revealing: "Growth without Compromising Your Message & Mission." Notice it is your message and mission that is not compromised, not God's. And your message is left decidedly up to you. Warren's message is intentionally compacted into five "purposes" which he draws from a few passages in Scripture. No biblically based Christian would on the surface disagree with them - they are attractive, satisfying, and ring true. But they are intentionally weakly defined. So it should be no surprise that "hundreds of churches" from "dozens" of denominations have adopted this method and (presumably) purposes. It is easy, inoffensive, and energizing. It is pragmatic in the fullest sense of the word.

It is pragmatic and successful. The book has sold over a million copies, his Saddleback church is packed with well over 15,000 "Saddleback Sam's and Samatha's" in attendance each week. He has launched a web site to "encourage pastors, ministers, and church leaders with tools and resources for growing healthy churches." Apparently everything Warren does has a purpose - and pastor.com charges for it. One wonders how honestly Warren wishes to help others when he charges $4 a sermon (and $4 extra for the accompanying PowerPoint slides). Even "Purpose Driven" is now a registered trademark. Pragmatic to the end, eh?

Rating:
Summary: Finally, A Balanced Approach
Review: Maybe I found this book to be a gift from God because it met my needs. I carefully read this book 3 times cover to cover before attending Rick Warren's seminar in Va. Oct.'03. Two things stood out: 1) The book is great but one should follow up with seminar to get the most out of it. There are gaps in the book that the seminar takes care of. 2) Do NOT attend a seminar till you have first the book or you will be lost. I have read many church growth books over 30 years and can say that this is finally a balanced approach to the subject. A balance between God's Word; man's methods and the Holy Spirit leading.

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Summary: Dangerously Unbiblical
Review: The Purpose-Driven Church is based on the (unbiblical) concept that we should aim to make sinners feel comfortable at church. This concept ignores the fact that the church meeting is not for the sinner (although sinners should be welcomed if they do attend), but for the church, and we should be focusing in those meetings on building up the church.
Dr. Warren SAYS that the gospel should not be compromised, but contradicts himself by compromising it consistently. He speaks of preaching only "positive" messages, despite the fact that there can be no good news without the bad news that we're all sinners and headed for hell. He believes in avoiding the Greek and Hebrew entirely in favor of building "confidence in the English versions". The English versions he uses, however, are usually paraphrases and the poorest of translations, as he uses whatever is most convenient for making his immediate point. In the main text of this book he quotes "Scripture" 194 times. One quote is from the Jerusalem Bible, a Roman Catholic translation. Sixty are from miscellaneous paraphrases, such as the Message, the Contemporary English Version, Phillips, the New Living Translation, etc. One hundred twenty of those are unspecified, which supposedly (according to the title page) makes them from the NIV (the least accurate version which can be called a translation), although the one I looked up was not; it was paraphrased, too. Only thirteen of those quotes were from accurate translations (NASB-8, KJV-3, and NRSV-2). Often his point is dependent upon a word or phrase which only exists in one particular paraphrase. Many other points are dependent on twisting the meaning of Scripture.
If you can get around the awful exegesis and bad doctrine, there are some good things to be gleaned. The idea of writing out your fellowship's vision and keeping members mindful of it is wise. Also, chapters 17-19, about membership, discipleship, and ministry, contain information about commitment chich most churches could benefit from reading.
My overall recommendation, though, is don't buy your own copy; borrow one and read it with a grain of salt. (Oh, and look up all those paraphrased quotes in a real Bible.)

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Summary: McDonald's theology!!!
Review: So now we're reduced to mega-church marketing strategies, and spiffy songs with not much meaning, and "big is better" ideas. What have we come to? Oh, sure, Mr. Warren is in big demand, and maybe he has a great vision, but does his methodology work in other countries, or just in this vast consumer ocean called the United States?

Maybe we ought to really look at what he is asking for, and really ask the question about whether his methods are really biblical or business oriented. Madison Avenue doesn't run the church nor does "feel good" theology stand the test of time. There is a Scripture verse which states to beware when men think highly of you. Maybe Rick should heed this.

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Summary: The right way to think on growing a church
Review: Many of the negative critiques I've read of this book show that the author of the critique didn't read it very well. Rick's first statement is that the Gospel cannot be comprimised. Everything else is fair game. For those who don't believe this, I assume then that your church services are preached in hebrew, aramic and ancient greek as it was written? Cultures change and the method for spreading the word must as well. The purpose driven church is a road map for your church to execute powerfully the great commision.

Rick's book gives a powerful, refreshing insight into how to build a healthy, loving church and fulfill the great commision and execute the two greatest commandments.

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Summary: Good intentions, lacking methodology
Review: Warren no doubt has a passion for bringing the "unchurched" into the church. That certainly is not where I would critique Warren's thinking. Nor would I offer a critique on the fine points of Warren's method. What I would ask readers to take into account is the overarching system of thought that is foundational to Warren's method. Understanding that the Church in North America exists in a consumer society, Warren suggests a marketing plan that, in his view, will most effectively spread the Gospel message. The most troublesome notion here is that the Gospel is reduced to something that the Church is out to market, instead of the Gospel being the driving force behind the life, practice and theology of the Church. Instead of the Gospel itself informing the practices of the Church, a marketing plan, inherent to Warren's five purposes, shapes the vitality of the Church. While Warren's passion to spread the message of Jesus is most admirable, a note of caution to readers should be sounded. The Church may very well be a body of believers who should see the Gospel as a way to live, letting the message of Jesus shape life among the believers and thus being a witness to those on the outside, instead of making the Gospel something to market to the outside, losing sight of the method that is found within the Gospel itself.

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Summary: I hate big churches
Review: Why is everyone rushing to start big churches with thousands of members? How can you possibly have fellowship with thousands of people? I can only know a handful of people. I hate big churches with big crowds and loud, unmemorable music. There is no room for silence or getting to know anyone.

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Summary: Welcome to the mall - I mean church
Review: If Rick Warren and other mega-church advocates had their way every church would consist of insipid contemporary christian pop jingles for music, a message totally void of any discussion of law or judgment or why Jesus had to die on the cross, congregations would all be full of yuppies with cell phones going off during the service, denominational differences would no longer exist, theology would be reduced to a condensed and lite version, etc. Warren has ripped off the marketing bums (the same ones who profile you according to your wealth as determined by your zip code and fill your mailbox with direct marketing) and taken these annoying techniques of salesmen to hypnotize the church into abandoning anything that doesn't build up numbers and tithes. It is a disgusting and typically american approach. Problems about feminism, sexuality, theology, are all brushed aside. Sermons become dumbed down feel good talks. Services become multi media side shows reminiscent of dance clubs. Tasteless and annoying. If this is the future of the church forgive me if I throw up.

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Summary: This Church Leadership Book is a Must
Review: I am at a total loss at some of the negative and nasty reviews some people have written. I found this book very well thought out, intelligent, well written and chock full of applicaple idea that any church could use and needs to use. Whether you wans to find out how to enlarge your congregation or bring the one you are part of to life, this book will have some very importatn ideas for you to use. It inspires and is loaded with sould ideas. See my book, Reading Thomas Merton: His Life and Work,