Rick Warren
Rick Warren
Richard Duane "Rick" Warrenis an American evangelical Christian pastor and author. He is the founder and senior pastor of Saddleback Church, an evangelical megachurch in Lake Forest, California, that is the eighth-largest church in the United States. He is also a bestselling author of many Christian books, including his guide to church ministry and evangelism, The Purpose Driven Church, which has spawned a series of conferences on Christian ministry and evangelism. He is perhaps best known for the subsequent book...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth28 January 1954
CitySan Jose, CA
CountryUnited States of America
I'm not looking for peace on earth, though, through a political solution. I'm a pastor.
The point is, there are some things worth dying for. There's no doubt about that. And I would die for my family. I would die for my freedom. I would die for my country.
The Constitution does not guarantee freedom of worship. It guarantees freedom of religion. And this is what I call America's first freedom.
There's a difference between freedom of worship and freedom of religion. Worship is an event that happens inside the house of worship. Religion is a lifestyle. It is a way of living.
I am motivated by the fact that in the next 365 days, 136,000 Californians will die and most of them will go into an eternity without Christ. In the next 365 days, 2.4 million Americans will die; most of them will go into eternity without Christ. In the next 365 days, 74 million people in the world will go into eternity without Christ and without hope. I can't live with that.
The only antidote to materialism is giving, because materialism's all about getting. Every time I give, my heart grows bigger. Every time I give, I become more like Jesus.
Obviously there have been historically many different theories of the atonement and I think each of them has a part. But I think fundamentally it is the substitutionary understanding that God - Jesus took our payment and you can't understand.
I don't believe my interpretation's inerrant. I don't believe anybody else's interpretation is inerrant, but I do believe the scripture is inerrant. I believe in the plenary, verbal plenary inspiration of scripture, without a doubt.
Many of the liberal people tend to say, "Well, the solution is government." I couldn't disagree more. The government cannot solve the problem and never will. I believe the solution to these problems is the church and that the church should be responsible for caring for the sick, and assisting the poor, and educating.
I think a lot of times God takes away your feelings, so you have to depend on faith. And faith is kind of like a tide. It rolls in and rolls out.
The way God teaches us to live by faith is He takes away our feelings.
My whole goal is just to keep myself motivated. If I'm motivated, if I'm on fire, it's going to catch with somebody else.
There's not a person on earth that God doesn't love, but God wants us to learn to love him back.
I'm a pastor of a local church. I'm not a televangelist. I've never had a televised program. I'm a pastor. A pastor's role is to care and comfort, encourage, teach, and everything that I do, even when I meet with world leaders, is from a pastor's heart.