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Purpose-Driven® Church, The

Purpose-Driven® Church, The

List Price: $19.99
Your Price: $13.59
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Book of Practical ideas for church leaders
Review: Though I first read this book a few years ago, the principles still remain a part of my ministry. They are not only strong Biblically, but also just plain practical ideas for getting the message of Christ out of the church and into the community.

I believe every pastor and elder should read this book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Book. Easy Read
Review: These days, the average reader is innundated with books that promise to grow their church overnight. Every day a new author publishes a book with a program that all but guarantees you immediate growth from a small country church to a mega-church.

This book isn't like that. Instead of composing a book full of programs to increase the number of people in your church, Rick Warren addresses the real reason many of today's churches aren't growing: Too many churches today are wallowing in a lack of direction and purpose. In this book, Rick Warren explains why direction is important, the process of setting a vision for your church, and how to sell that vision to your church members.

Through this book, Rick Warren will teach you how to increase your church's impact without compromising what you stand for.

This isn't a book for pastors only, but for anyone interested in seeing their church improve their impact, and make a difference in the world. Make this the next book you read.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Useful and thought provoking even for clergy of other groups
Review: Review of Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Church.

Wow! I wish I had had access to this book long ago - like in seminary!

I have long said that if we "do church well" then people will want to come. It is sick churches that keep people away. I also always knew intuitively, if not put it into my ministerial practice, that challenge and growth of the core membership was the key to growth in numbers. Warren has it right on - what kind of congregation can one have when the purpose is not clear? (And we ministers know the answer: confusion and conflict.)

Warren has done us a service in organizing his principles thoroughly and showing us how he applied them in his situation. Thoroughness around an organizing principle! Congruence between intention and action! YES!

Useful and thought-provoking even if one does not agree with Warren's theology. (He's Southern Baptist.) I studied this book with a clergywoman colleague who is a United Church of Religious Science minister who, like me, has also founded and grown congregations. We both found ideas to improve our future work.

Encouraging. I recommend it to client congregations and ministerial colleagues. Good enough to buy on the most limited clergy salary!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good Principles - but not to copycat
Review: This is a great book because it attempts to get back to the five basic purposes of the book. Much of the book describes how these purposes are played out in Saddleback Church in Orange County, CA. Warren is quick to point out that this is not a blueprint to be copied, but too many people have used it that way. While sometimes overly pragmatic and lacking in theological context, the book is helpful in getting readers to examine exactly why they do what they do in church.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I Am Officially Eating Crow.
Review: The primary reason for reading for "The Purpose Driven Church" was that it was the focus of a required class in ministerial training and my job was to disect and critique it. I literally went page by page, idea by idea, Scripture by Scripture in an effort to cross reference, research and use Biblical exegesis to draw my conclusions. I literally tore this book apart word by word. I honestly approached the book with some preconceived notions (which I'm not going to get into) and came away admiring Pastor Rick Warren and I'm not Southern Baptist, in a church that size or ever knew anything about him.

Part of what makes any a book like this divide people is based on what their church going experience is like in spite of exegetical interpretation, whether they correctly apply it or simply stand behind it and hide.

This book is not perfect and isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea. Honestly some of the concepts stretch and challenge my "experience" - which I will futher qualify as what I am comfortable with. However, if what I am comfortable with has not made me a better witness or indeed expanded the kingdom of God perhaps defined to some degree by what has manifested itself in MY local church, then all my scholarly rheteric is foolishness.

Pastor Warren is clear, THIS IS NOT A BLUEPRINT, because what he did IS NOT duplicatable everywhere (He even says that), however, there are PRINCIPLES everywhere to be applied. I read this as a testimony of what God did THROUGH him, in hopes (Rick Warren's) of edifying the reader. The value of this book is if your in leadership (My Opinion), if you're not, you have little to no context of what he's talking about most of the time. It's easy to think of this as "the ends justify the means" gimmick and that notion is to be dispelled soundly. I can say that because that's what I thought it was BEFORE I STUDIED the book.

The most telling things about "Purpose Driven Church" it that it emphasizes winning lost souls AND developing leaders vocationally and on a voluntary basis; everyone involved according to what their gifts are. Planting Churches; Saddleback has planted almost thirty churches (none like the original, so much for for the blueprint theory). All in all, this is not just an organization but an organism empowered by the Spirit because it blesses the community by reaching the lost, meeting the hurts and needs of people and constantly training and mobilizing workers for the Gospel among many other things. I know that this concept works because our church has grown to some degree, but more importantly I've seen the changed lives up close and personal.

I've been a member of churches where the core of attendees haven't changed over a ten to fifteen year period and people have gotten bent out of shape because someone sat in "their seat". All sitting around looking at the same grim mugs year after year (in other words no growth). Pastor Rick alludes to it I'm not convinced people grow within, and as a result the church staying the same size.

Now again, Did I agree with everything in the book? No, I had a hard time with some of what he did/does, I'm not going to lie to you. Then again to be transparent, who making an impact (Pastor Rick) and who perhaps is being everything they could be? I didn't at all agree with a service full of unbelievers, that's different for me, but different may be better for the new person who accepts Christ for the first time. So as a worship leader what's more important? someone "knowing how to worship" or someone making a decision for Christ? It doesn't take a Masters in Divinity to figure that out.

Warren's "airport" analogy is excellent. If your an extremely conservative church, that's great! nothing at all wrong with that, but I know people that you're never going to reach. Before you tell me about how God can do anything, how many that don't look like you or sound like you do you currently have NOW? Again Pastor Rick makes an pragmatic points about reaching all people while maintaining ethics.

Pastor Rick's "exegesis of his neighborhood" point is excellent! If the church could just get that concept, we may have justified the price of the book alone.

I can understand how some may perceive this as a "gimmick", simple because what one is accustomed to is everything. But the book alludes to an excellent point...what is getting back to "tradition"? the first century, the 14th century, the early to mid 20th century?

The sad truth is effective and fruitfulness have always been met with a critical eye in the venue of "religious" people. The Lord Jesus Himself didn't affect how "religious" people thought nor did He try to convince them. I suppose in every generation, His continuing work still has church attending critics and this one is no different.

Another thing, The metaphor of calling this book "marketing" is a cheap shot and a weak one at that. This is not an exchange of goods and services based on any kind of economic premise. I really wish people would serve there (or any place like it) for a week, free of their own time and then write a review. It's easy to have an opinion on someone or something you know nothing about.

This is a terrific book and it really made me think....please pass the crow.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Many ideas are practical
Review: In my church we have a problem with retention and very strict traditions. His book shares some creative ways to reach the unchurched. I believe its true some are afraid to bring people to church because the services are more for established members. He did say several times to adapt his ideas to fit within your church guidelines, not to clone his. I found the book very helpful and I am not a Baptist.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Warren helps pastors & churches
Review: Purpose-Driven church, as thousands now know, is a needed call toChristian in America to be about the Father's business. Practical steps, history of his work, a willingness to say (over and over) not to copy him, but to learn what you can, and a Spirit-led record make this a must read for pastors. Churches around the world have used this as a starting point for a revival of worka nd purpose led by God. Get it!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great book. In the top three
Review: I was amazed when I first read this book. Here was some one saying coherently what I have always believed. The book has more of a management slant, but it is a focus long ignored by churches. Every Christian and church needs to read this book and work to apply the principles. No one should use this book as a cookie cutter or master plan for his or her church. Use the book as a guide that can be modified to your needs. Even if you have concerns about his theology, you can separate and adapt the principle from the theology. Read this book and When God Builds a Church by Bob Russell.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: What is church GROWTH?
Review: Is it a numbers game to get the biggest "crowd" possible? I've experienced a number of Purpose-Driven churches, and though Warren's claim is that there is no need to water-down the gospel, it seems that this in fact is what I've seen happen. Though not explicitly encouraged, there is a distinct undertone running through this book recommending that churches must be made palatable and inoffensive to the unbeliever. Also, for those who've grown to love the direct and intimate exchange between yours and the Father's heart during the music/singing/praising portion of the worship service, you'll find the principles and methods for worship unacceptable -- it seems to teach that it's all right to let your congregation drink from a thimble in spite of the tidal wave God is ready to pour out on us. Let's be driven by Spirit and Truth.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: The Pragmatic, Man-Centered Way to Do Church
Review: "Any church that is not obeying the Great Commission is failing in its purpose, no matter what else it does." "A Great Commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will grow a Great Church." So says Rick Warren, a man rooted in the Southern Baptist Convention and senior pastor of Saddleback Valley Community Church in Orange County, California. At first glance, such noble statements and the concept of a purpose driven church seem quite laudable. In the foreword, however, W.A. Criswell, Pastor Emeritus of First Baptist Church, Dallas, writes what discerning Christians should immediately recognize as a red flag: "Rick Warren understands the mind-set of the unchurched of this world. If churches are to be successful in evangelizing our society, which is becoming more pagan by the day, they must learn to think like an unbeliever." In reality, "The Purpose Driven Church" presents a man-centered church ministry based on a pragmatic market study of the unregenerate, rather than a study of the Scriptures. Furthermore, the book has become a best-selling "how-to bible" for the so-called Community Church Movement, AKA the User-Friendly Church Movement, Market-Driven Church Movement, and Church Growth Movement.

The basic premise of this book is that if churches are to be "successful" (experience rapid growth), they must first target those audiences with whom they share a common culture, and then appeal to them (Warren even claims that Jesus targeted the people of Israel because of common cultural bonds, not that the Will of God sent Him there). Through community surveys and marketing techniques that can identify what specifically turns the unchurched on or off, churches can give these folks what they want. In other words, if you please people, they will keep coming back to church. For example, Warren states, "Figure out what mood you want your service to project, and then create it." Warren's ideal is a come-casual, dress-down, informal service that's not much different from hanging out at the local mall (no shirt, no shoes, no problem). Believing that people prefer music they're accustomed to hearing on the radio, he opts for contemporary pop/rock music over traditional hymns with organ music and boasts, "We have attracted thousands more because of our music." That a spirit of entertainment should prevail in services he implies with, "Use more performed music than congregational singing." That a primary function of God and the Scriptures is to meet people's "felt needs" is apparent with, "The ground we have in common with unbelievers is not the Bible, but our common needs, hurts, and interests as human beings. You cannot start with a text and expect the unchurched to be fascinated by it. By starting with a topic that interests the unchurched and then showing what the Bible says about it, you grab their attention." Thus Warren's model sermons for "seeker services" consist principally in addressing "felt needs," together with a sprinkling of pop psychology and amusing anecdotes thrown in. And for those skeptical of organized religion, Warren jokes, "Then you will like Saddleback. We're DISorganized religion!"

Never mind that Warren supports women's roles in public worship. Never mind his cult-like demand that members sign church covenants. Never mind his obvious preference for a host of modern, New Age Bible translations and paraphrases over the Authorized (King James) Bible. And never mind the multitude of New Age evangelicals (including Robert Schuller and Jerry Falwell) who adorn his book with their glib endorsements. The fact remains that churches embracing the philosophy outlined in "The Purpose Driven Church" will certainly attract thousands and will definitely experience exponential growth. But the honest reader must conclude that the real reason for this growth lies in the New Evangelical principle of pragmatism (give people what they want), not in "Thus saith the Lord." The honest reader must also conclude that "The Purpose Driven Church," by teaching churches how to assimilate popular culture to attract those thousands, teaches them instead to become more worldly. In so doing, the book flies in the face of Scripture, especially Romans 12:2 (KJV), which warns that Christians are not to be conformed to the world. And finally, the honest reader must conclude that "The Purpose Driven Church" is an exceedingly dangerous book which must be read with much discernment and in the light of biblical truth.


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