Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Church: Growth Without Compromising Your Message and Mission: Every Church Is Big in Gods Eyes

Church

Every church is driven by something. Tradition, finances, programs, personalities, events, seekers, and even buildings can each be the controlling force in a church. But Rick Warren believes that in order for a church to be healthy it most become a purpose-driven church, built around the five New Testament purposes given to the church by Jesus. The issue is church health, not church growth! declares Warren. If your church is healthy, growth will occur naturally. Healthy, consistent growth is the result of balancing the five biblical purposes of the church.

In this landmark book, youll learn the secret behind the fastest growing Baptist church in American history. Saddleback Church grew from one family to over 10,000 in worship attendance in just fifteen years, while planting twenty-six other churches... and without owning a building. Founding pastor Rick Warren shares a proven five-part strategy that will enable your church to grow... warmer through fellowship, deeper through discipleship, stronger through worship, broader through ministry, and larger through evangelism.

The Purpose-Driven Church shifts the focus away from church building programs to emphasizing a people-building process . Warren says, If you will concentrate on building people, God will build the church.

Discover in these pages the practical insights and helpful principles that Rick Warren has taught in seminars to over 22,000 pastors and church leaders from sixty denominations and forty-two countries.

THE
PURPOSE
DRIVEN
CHURCH

Growth Without Compromising
Your Message & Mission

RICK WARREN

The Purpose-Driven Church
ePub format
Copyright 1995 by Rick Warren

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

ISBN-10: 0-310-29408-8

ISBN-13: 978-0-310-29408-5

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version . NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

The Scripture quotations identified NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible , copyrighted 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America, and are used by permission. All rights reserved.

Verses marked LB are taken from The Living Bible 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked TEV are from Todays English Version Copyright American Bible Society 1966, 1971, 1976, 1992.

Scripture quotations marked NCV are from The Holy Bible, New Century Version, copyright 1987, 1988, 1991 by Word Publishing, Dallas, Texas 75039. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked PHILLIPS from J. B. Phillips: The New Testament in Modern English, revised edition. J. B. Phillips 1958, 1960, 1972.

Scripture quotations marked THE MESSAGE are from The Message . Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Edited by Jack Kuhatschek

Interior design by Joe Vriend

Dedication

I dedicate this book
to the bivocational pastors around the world:
shepherds who faithfully and lovingly serve
in churches that arent large enough
to provide a full-time salary. You are the
true heroes of the faith in my view.
May this book encourage you.

I also dedicate this book
to seminary and Christian college professors:
educators called to prepare the next generation
of pastors. What an awesome, holy task you have!
May God bless and honor your ministry.

Finally, I dedicate this book
to the pastors and staff who have served
with me at Saddleback Church.
It has been a great adventure together.
I love you deeply.

Contents

This book is a rare treasure of godly wisdom, totally scriptural, inspired by the Spirit, and born of practical experience. These principles will revolutionize and energize any church to reach its full potential. Every pastor must read this book! It is destined to be a classic.

Bill Bright, Founder, Campus Crusade for Christ International

I have hundreds of books and articles on the church. If I had to pick just one of them, I would choose Rick Warrens book. If I could, Id make it required reading for every seminary student!

Jim Henry, President, Southern Baptist Convention

This is not just another how to book by a successful megachurch pastor. It shows just how far off the mark are many critics of church growth and seeker-sensitive approaches. Study this book carefully! Rick Warren knows how the Lord builds the church.

George Brushaber, President, Bethel College and Seminary

The church has been waiting for this book for a long time, and it is worth every minute weve waited. It is destined to become a classic in the literature of the new paradigm of church health.

Leonard Sweet, Dean, Drew Theological Seminary

BALANCED!... PRACTICAL!... POWERFUL! You will want to read and use this book.

Ken Hemphill, President, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

Rick Warren is the architect for the church of the 21st century, and this is the blueprint!

Bruce Larson, Minister at Large

This is the best book Ive ever read on how to do church in todays world.

Lyle E. Schaller, Parish Consultant

Warren addresses the crucial question for churches: how to be both faithful and effective.

Marshall Shelley, Executive editor, Leadership

This is absolutely the best book Ive read on church growth! It needs to be read by lay men and women, not just pastors. It can save your church from decline, division, and death. I want the core leadership of every new Southern Baptist congregation to study this book.

Charles Chaney, Vice President, New Churches, Home Mission Board, SB

In every era, God raises up leaders to pioneer new possibilities for Gods people. God gave Rick Warren the gift of vision and discernment, and the results can be seen in Saddleback Church and in thousands of other congregations around the world that have applied his teaching. Oh! If we Methodists (and other mainline too) could realize how much we need to learn from Rick Warren!

Ezra Earl Jones, General Secretary, United Methodist Church Board of Discipleship

The Purpose-Driven Church is the most biblically and practically balanced book Ive read on healthy church growth. It is compelling, convicting, and convincing.

Henry J. Schmidt, President, Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary

This book is the blueprint for the authentic church of the 21st century. It is probably the best practical application of genuine church growth principles in America. It will be required reading for all Nazarene pastors in the K-Church project.

Bill Sullivan, Director, Church Growth, International Church of the Nazarene

This book contains as much proven church growth wisdom as any book ever written from the local church experience.

George G. Hunter III, Dean, School of World Missions, Asbury Theological Seminary

Dr. Warrens insight that the critical issue facing the church is not church growth , but church health is revolutionary! This book is choc-o-bloc with ideas that are so practical and down-to-earth that any pastor who fails to correct his perspective on the church should probably leave the ministry.

Next page