Rick Warren’s PEACE Mission

He has spoken at the United Nations, the World Economic Forum in Davos, the African Union, the Council on Foreign Relations, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Time ’s Global Health Summit, and numerous congresses around the world. 

Here is what a handful of mainstream publications are saying about him: 

• “Arguably the most influential pastor in America” (the Economist)  
• “Business and political leaders across America are turning to [him] for guidance” (London Times)  
• “Were it a business, Saddleback Church would be compared with Dell, Google or Starbucks” (Forbes) 
• “ The Purpose Driven Life is the epicenter of a spiritual shockwave taking root across America” (ABC News) 

In every generation, it seems as if at least one Christian preacher rises above the others and achieves special distinction. He—and it’s always a he—has a large and faithful following, receives ample attention from the media, and often even earns the admiration of non-Christians. Who hasn’t heard of Rev. Billy Graham? In a sea swarming with televangelist wannabes, Rev. Graham rose above by projecting a more honest-seeming demeanor. Over the course of several decades he became one of the most respected, recognized, and influential Christian leaders in the world. 

Like the many Christian evangelicals and missionaries before him, Rick Warren, the son of a Southern Baptist preacher, has a grand vision. However, unlike most of his predecessors, Warren has a robust array of skills, attitudes, and resources. He has a well-honed business sense and is fully conscious of the power of the Internet. He has successfully managed his message and has an impressive cash flow. According to Warren, much of the money is generated by the sales of his books and goes to his Acts of Mercy Foundation.  

Warren’s agenda is centered around attacking what he calls the five “Global Goliaths”: 

• Spiritual emptiness—“[people] don’t know God made them for a purpose.”  
• Egocentric leadership—“the world is full of little Saddams. Most people cannot handle power. It goes to their heads.” 
• Extreme poverty—“half the world lives on less than $2 per day.” 
• Pandemic disease—“we have billions of people dying from preventable disease. That’s unconscionable.” 
• Illiteracy/poor education—“half the world is functionally
  illiterate .” 

According to his website, “His goal is a second Reformation by restoring responsibility in people, credibility in churches, and civility in culture.” To achieve his aims, he has developed what he has called a PEACE agenda: 

• P lant new churches, or partner with existing ones 
• E quip leaders 
• A ssist the poor 
• C are for the sick 
• E ducate the next generation 

I n a recent New York Times Magazine story on the latest efforts of U.S. evangelicals to convert Africans to Christianity, Daniel Bergner writes that Warren declared Rwanda the world’s “first purpose-driven nation.” According to Bergner, “The country would be a test target for his global plan to eradicate spiritual deprivation along with physical poverty and disease and illiteracy. ‘God gets the most glory when you tackle the biggest giants,’ he told Christianity Today magazine.” 

According to Bergner, last summer Warren “sent an advance team of about 50 American evangelicals to meet with Rwandan leaders and soon, he envisions, hundreds of short-term Saddleback missionaries will fan out across the nation, armed with kits of instruction and resources called ‘church in a box’ and ‘school in a box’ and ‘clinic in a box’ that will help them to rescue the country.” 

According to Nussbaum, “Warren is looking to the future by invoking the past. ‘One of my goals is to take evangelicals back a century, to the 19th century. That was a time of muscular Christianity that cared about every aspect of life.’” 

Warren “is able to cast the Christian story so people can hear it in fresh ways,” Donald E. Miller, director of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California, told Nussbaum. 

Besides being among the most influential evangelical leaders, Scott L. Thumma, a professor of the sociology of religion at Hartford Seminary and the author of a forthcoming book on megachurches, told Nussbaum, “One of the interesting things is that he crosses boundaries...he’s not just respected by the evangelical world but by many outside that world.” 

Despite his conservative views— he opposes abortion and same-sex marriage and supports the death penalty—Warren claims that the religious right does not represent evangelicalism and that he is not part of the religious right.  

Charting the future 

I n Key West, Florida in May 2005 Warren spoke to “some of the nation’s leading journalists” at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life’s biannual Faith Angle conference and appraised them “of four or five trends or stories I think you need to be aware of that have come in on the scene. 

“The first trend...is the return of the evangelical movement to its 19th-century roots.... What are those roots? Compassionate activism. Another trend that I see is this 40 days phenomenon—this 40 Days of Purpose, which of course I’m right in the middle of. Ten percent of the churches in America have now done 40 Days of Purpose and that’s just now. We will take another 10,000 to 15,000 through it this year and on and on and on. 

“The third trend I think you need to be aware of is the signs of the possible spiritual awakening in America...[which] will come through two words—small groups. A fourth trend...is the move—the shift in power—in evangelicalism from what’s called para-church organizations to local churches. 

“Another issue that I think you need to be aware of is what I call the 3 great questions of the next 20 years. And I think these are questions that we’re going to be facing—they’re all religious issues— and here is what I think they are. 

“Number one, will Islam modernize peacefully? Number two, will America return to its religious roots and faith?  And number three, which is a really big one and of particular interest to me, what is going to replace the vacuum in China now that Marxism is dead? What’s going to replace it? In all likelihood, it’s going to be Christianity. 

“Then the other story that I would encourage you to look at is this evolving alliance between evangelical Protestants and Catholics, particularly in the evangelical wing of Catholicism.” 

As a sign of the times, last year the sale of Bruce Springsteen’s album Devils & Dust —which describes an explicit encounter with a prostitute in the song “Reno”—was banned by Starbucks. This year, according to a Knight Ridder report, “Starbucks will print spiritual quotes from Rev. Rick Warren, author of the best-selling The Purpose-Driven Life , on coffee cups.”