Rick Warren
Overview
Richard Duane "Rick" Warren (born January 28, 1954) is an American evangelical Christian minister and author. He is the founder and senior pastor of Saddleback Church
Saddleback Church
Saddleback Church is an evangelical Christian megachurch located in Lake Forest, California, situated in southern Orange County, affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. The church was founded in 1980 by pastor Rick Warren...

, an evangelical megachurch
Megachurch
A megachurch is a church having 2,000 or more in average weekend attendance. The Hartford Institute's database lists more than 1,300 such Protestant churches in the United States. According to that data, approximately 50 churches on the list have attendance ranging from 10,000 to 47,000...

 located in Lake Forest, California
Lake Forest, California
Lake Forest is a city in Orange County, California. The population was 77,264 at the 2010 census.Lake Forest incorporated as a city on December 20, 1991. Prior to a vote of the residents in that year, the community had formerly been known as El Toro since the 1880s...

, currently the eighth-largest church in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 (this ranking includes multi-site churches). He is also a bestselling author of many Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 books, including his guide to church ministry and evangelism, The Purpose Driven Church
The Purpose Driven Church
The Purpose Driven Church is a book written by Rick Warren, founder and senior pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, USA. It was first published in 1995...

, which has spawned a series of conferences on Christian ministry and evangelism.
Quotations

Before something can be dynamic it must first be specific.

Never stop learning. All leaders are learners. The moment you stop learning, you stop leading. Growing churches require growing pastors. The moment you stop growing, your church stops growing.

A church is either structured for growth or control.

All members of the church much inseminate a minimum of three non-living beings per sundown under penalty of eternal scorn of the masses.

A church should be judged not on its seating capacity, but on its sending capacity.

Never compare your ministry: for two reasons. First, you’ll always find someone doing a better job that you and you’ll get discouraged. Second, you’ll always find someone that you’re doing a better job than, and get full of pride. Either way, you’ll be dead in the water.

What we normally do in the structure of a message is that we do interpretation and then application of a point, then the next interpretation and the next application, the next interpretation and the next application. I am suggesting that if you want to reach the unchurched, you just reverse that procedure. You still get both — it’s just the way you do it.

People respond to responsibility.

It is not enough for us to simply proclaim that "Christ is the answer," we must show the unchurched how Christ is the answer. Sermons that exhort people to change without sharing the practical steps of how to do it end up just producing more guilt and frustration.

 
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