Thinking About Rick Warren & John Piper

Desiring God Ministries has posted John Piper’s long-awaited interview with Rick Warren. This has brought to completion the invitation Piper extended to Warren to speak at the 2010 Desiring God National Conference. The interview was supposed to happen at that event, but in the end Warren was unable to travel to Minneapolis and the interview was postponed. The men got together on May 1, 2011 and this video is the result. Today I want to offer up some thoughts on …

Why John Piper Should Not Have Invited Rick Warren

So John Piper has asked Rick Warren to speak at this year’s Desiring God National Conference, Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God. You may have heard about this, either through buzz in the blogosphere or even from Piper himself in his recent Ask Pastor John session. I have known this for some time now as Warren told me himself when I visited Saddleback last September. So I have had a long time to reflect on …

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Purposeful Interference – An Update

  “Following the success of The Purpose Driven Life and other phenomena that displayed the value of PyroMarketing, Stielstra decided the time was right to publish a book explaining his philosophy of marketing. Without claiming credit for its success, he sought to explain the success of the book through the principles of his marketing philosophy. HarperCollins Publishers agreed to publish the book, which was to be titled PyroMarketing : The Four-Step Strategy to Ignite Customer Evangelists and Keep Them for …

Rick Warren

In past weeks I have been challenged by several fellow believers on my statements concerning some of the people I have written about on this site. In particular, people have questioned my views on Rick Warren and John Eldredge. Because of their impact on the evangelical church, I have written about each of these men extensively over the past year. While I have read everything I have written (obviously) I realize that some newcomers to this site have not, so …

40 More Days of Warren

This fall, Rick Warren will be encouraging thousands of churches to join his 40 Days of Community program. Warren descripes this program as “a next step in spiritual growth for your congregation, and we believe it’s a necessary step for deepening healthy, balanced, purpose-driven lives.” 40 Days of Purpose is a prerequisite to move on to Community. On the surface, it sounds decent enough if you are a fan of all things Purpose-Driven. “The primary focus of 40 Days of …

Purpose Driven vs Hard To Believe

Bob DeWaay has published an excellent examination of The Purpose Driven Life in his Critical Issues Commentary. The article examines The Purpose Driven Life and often compares it to John MacArthur’s “Hard to Believe – The High Cost and Infinite Value of Following Jesus.” Here are a few excerpts: A few months ago a friend phoned to ask if I had ever heard of Rick Warren. “Yes” I replied. “Why are you asking”? He said, “I just got kicked out …

Church Votes to Expel Non-Purpose Driven Members

Before you get all crazy, please realize that this article is satirical. Rick Warren’s Book Becomes More than Recommended Reading for Local Congregation MEMPHIS, TN – Many Christians have heard sentences like these lately: “Oh, you really should read The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren,” and “Wow, I can’t believe you haven’t read The Purpose Driven Life yet.” But only one group of believers has been confronted with this imperative: “Read The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren or …

Who Is Rick Warren?

As I have launched into my 40-day study in The Purpose Driven Life I have found that some people are not familiar with who Rick Warren is. I am providing this as a brief introduction to Rick Warren as well as an introduction to why I am investing so much time in studying his book. Rick Warren is founder and pastor of Saddleback Church, one of America’s largest churches. Saddleback, in Lake Forest, California, is associated with the Southern Baptist …