Rating: 
Summary: Great
Review: This was an excellent, challenging, and easily applicable book. The book is organized into forty 'days' (instead of chapters). The reader is encouraged to read the book in forty days. The reader is also encouraged to read the book with a partner, to keep each other accountable and to be able to share the application of the book with another. The Purpose Driven Life is very readable, Rick Warren wastes no words, and he makes his thoughts clear to the reader. The book is written to be challenging, that is, it requires the reader to respond to God's purposes for the Christian.This is a great book for any Christian. Too often Christianity is not defined in easy to understand terms. This book clearly lays out the purpose of a Christian's life. These purposes are taken from the Bible. I appreciated the over 1,000 scripture references that are scattered throughout the book. I have only two complaints about the book: 1.) The scripture references are endnoted in the back of the book. This made my reading experience inconvenient. I finally began writing the scripture references in the chapter before I read the chapter. This way I did not have to constantly flip back to the end of the book. 2) I perceived that toward the end of the book, the author was stretching himself to get the full forty chapters ('days'). The content in the book was great, but I felt that there were a few chapters that could have easily been condensed into one. By no means are these two complaints reasons to avoid the book. This is one of the few books that I am going to read more than once. I am looking forward to using it with friends and family as a 'discipling tool'.
Rating:
Summary: This is well worth forty days of reading!
Review: I was given this book by a dear Christian friend/mentor. We began our 40 days of reading (one short chapter each day), and as we read, it was a true blessing to share our thoughts on various chapters. This is not an easy book in some regards...it is not a "feel good" book...in fact, it often stepped on my toes. For that I am thankful. Rick Warren has used scripture within his text (from several translations of the Bible) and footnotes well his references. It is a book to read, to read again (and maybe again!). It is a book to share with others. This book is not difficult to understand (no matter where you are in your walk with the Lord). The chapters are short and well written. I highly recommend this book. If you find that you are not captivated by it, please don't give it up....keep reading. You will not be sorry.
Rating:
Summary: Purpose in the present to design your best future
Review: This is a wonderful book which gives meaning and direction to the present moment (which is all there is). I also recommend Optimal Thinking: How to Be Your Best Self to give you the simple tool to define your ultimate purpose and live your best life. These books have given me everything I need and more!
Rating:
Summary: Booklover
Review: I really like the format of this book. We are using it in a home bible study. Highly recommend.
Rating: 
Summary: I disagree
Review: Although this book has some points that will help Christians to become more in tune with their walk, I find that there are many contradictions within the book itself and to the Bible. I don't believe in using one Bible b/c you like it's translation for one issue and another b/c it fits your belief in another area. Only literal translations are God's word and it is never a contradiction to itself like man inspired books are. I don't dispute that Warren has been effective in growing his church, but this book has not helped me in my walk. The contradictory messages leave people confused. The chapter on predestination made many at our church feel that they were no longer accountable for past, present or future, meaning no accountability or responsibility for happenings in our lives. This is something we do not need. I feel that Warren misses the clear separation between our humaness and spirituality and uses free will only when it fits in and not disputes itwhen it does not. God is clear on our humaness and on free will. There is no contradicting this issue, yet it is throughout this book. Relationships, fellowship, and worship are all areas that are contradictory in this book as well and use loose nterpretations of their true meanings. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, especially those who are newly walking with the Lord or are young Christians. Those who are established Christians, and know to read anything man inspired with a grain of salt will have many problems with this book and it's contradictions.
Rating:
Summary: What it's all about
Review: Purpose. This book has purpose. And that purpose is to help the reader find their purpose. Beautifully written. I also recommend the book, The Little Guide To Happiness.
Rating: 
Summary: Many Good Points.
Review: The Purpose Driven Life makes many great points, and I give it four stars instead of five only because some of the writing is weak. One of the worst feelings a person can have is that of purposelessness-- that feeling of drifting through life without any ultimate goals or meaning. The Purpose Driven Life gives us a number of simple principles to help in achieving meaning. The book is not forceful-- instead it allows the reader to think his or her way through and by prayer arrive at the appropriate conclusions. Also recommended: I highly, and I do mean HIGHLY recommend The Wisdom of Shepherds, a book that all wisdom seekers should own.
Rating:
Summary: This book HAS ignited transformation in lives!
Review: I have witnessed this book help transform people and greatly help their lives because it helped them gain insight for why they are here, and to work on changing their life's direction towards a closer walk with the Lord. I have enjoyed watching the reaction of people I know who have experienced growth from reading this book and I have enjoyed reading it as well. It may seem "simplistic" to some, but that in a way is the beauty and power in this book! I have seen this book actually WORK in improving people's lives. I found the authors use of different translations for different passages refreshing, and think it is a very valid way to better understand the meaning of Scripture. I have also greatly enjoyed the writings of John Ortberg. I really enjoyed "If You Want To Walk On Water, You Have To Get Out Of The Boat", and "The Life You Always Wanted".
Rating:
Summary: Reading this book has been a life changing experience
Review: After watching several of my friends make decisions about their lives that were not based on status or money but on what they truley wanted in their lives I admit that I was searching. I saw this book in the store but didn't buy it. It haunted me for a week until I saw a man walking down the street reading the book. I asked him about it and he stood there talking to me about this wonderful book for 15 minutes! Once I started reading it I was hooked. 40 days is not too much time to give to find out what your purpose in life is. It may be too "spiritually" centered for some but for me it was perfect. This should be on everyone's reading list this year.
Rating: 
Summary: Precious Gems Hidden in a Very Flawed Text
Review: The author, Rick Warren, is obviously a fervent Christian who is tired of all the fluff passing as theology in today's pop Christian culture. Early in the book he writes, 'This is not a self-help book. . . . It is about becoming what God created you to be.' How refreshing to find a book that does not simply try to find glean living tips from Scripture, for isn't the Christian life to have an eternal focus? The author even quashes the emotional affirmation that many Christians what to know that God is real. God is real because He is real. Warren wrote, 'God is real, no matter how you feel.' Bravo! For too long we have let our hearts dictate what God is telling us instead of His Word. It is time to rid ourselves of trite hymns like 'You ask me how I know He live, He lives within my heart.' God lives because He is alive, not because my heart feels this to be so! Rick Warren understands this and says to the Christian community--God is God, now recognize that fact. I could go on almost ad infinitum. Yes, the gems in this book are priceless. Sadly, my praise ends here for the book, for it is also a Law-ridden book. The book is decidedly one-sided, focusing too much on what the reader needs to do for God. Yet, the Christian life is one of balance: God doing for us first and we, in turn, responding to his love by loving God and neighbor. Yet what God does in saving us in not a one-time event: the Holy Spirit keeps us in the one true faith because we cannot do so. So the Christian life is not 'OK you're saved--not start doing something for God.' No, God continues to come and strengthen the faith of a Christian in His all-powerful Word. Another tendency was that the author chose Bible texts that seemed unfamiliar. That's all right in itself--but he also chose versions, I think, that promoted his thinking on a particular issue instead of choosing the ones the most clearly said in English what the original text meant. Warren also thinks two dimensionally on faith. For instance, he wrote, 'Baptism doesn't make you a member of God's Family; only faith on Christ does that.' Really? The last time I read my Bible it didn't say that! When Peter preached to the crowd on Pentecost he said, 'Repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus the Messiah for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit' (Acts 2:38). 'We were buried with Him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in a newness of life' (Romans 6:4). 'He saved us--not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit' (Titus 3:5). And we know that this washing is baptism because baptism in the only washing that Christ has commanded His Church to do. And Peter is even clearer: 'God patiently waited in the days of Noah while an ark was being prepared; in it, a few--that is, eight people--were saved through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you (1 Peter 3:20-21). Hmm . . . 'Baptism saves you.' Not my words, but God's. And of course the 'Great Commission': 'Therefore, as you go, disciple all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep everything I have commanded you' (Matthew 28:19-20). So how are others made members of God's family? By baptizing and teaching. Why must he make it seem that faith and baptism are at odds? Can they not be intricately entwined? 'Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned' (Mark 16:16). So this book is a double-sword: when it is good, it is very very good; when it is bad, it is very, very bad.
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