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
We need the value and the beauty of democracy, and the beauty of pluralism is there's a free exchange of ideas. Nobody is right all the time. I'm not right all the time. I don't agree with anybody all the time, and I don't even agree with myself all the time.
I could imagine God saying to a lot of us, "Hey, I'm God, and you're not. You're not the general manager of the universe." And the greatest stress reliever is take God seriously, but don't take yourself seriously
I believe in the five solas. One hundred percent believe in the five solas. And I am - to those of you who know about this - I'm a monergist [someone that believes in the doctrine that says spiritual renewal is exclusively the activity of the Holy Spirit].
I wish that those who believe in the doctrines of grace would be more gracious. That's all I'd say... I'm an evangelical. I believe the doctrines of grace.
There's never going to be peace in the world until there's peace in nations. There's never going to be peace in nations till there's peace in communities and families and in individual lives.
The world is always changed by people who don't listen to conventional wisdom. I think we often set our goals too small and try to accomplish them too quickly.
I think any apparent contradiction in scripture is my limited capacity. Me trying to understand God is like an ant trying to understand the Internet. I don't have the brain capacity.
The Bible says that God puts government on earth to punish evildoers. Not good-doers. Evildoers.
People forget that the church is bigger than China. It speaks more languages than the United Nations. It has more volunteers than all the NGOs in the world put together.
The Bible says that governments can do things that I'm not supposed to do as an individual. God has not put the law in my hands. He's put the law in the government's hands.
America was founded by religious people, devout people who came here because they wanted freedom of religion. It's what made America different from every other country.
I have always been blessed with an enormous amount of energy. And so I didn't take care of my health at all.
The heart of the issue is an issue of the heart. And that's why I'm a pastor, not a politician. Because I think only - only God can change hearts. And only God can take the evil out. I don't think you can legislate the evil out of people.
I'm not looking for peace on earth through a political solution. I'm a pastor. The Bible talks about three kinds of peace. There is peace with God. There's the peace of God. And there's peace with each other.