The Purpose Driven Rick Warren

By the Staff
Inquirer
Last updated 02:14am (Mla time) 07/30/2006

Published on page C1 of the July 30, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

IF HE HAD NOT WRITTEN THE best-selling “The Purpose Driven Life,” Rick Warren would still have a certain claim to fame as pastor and head of Saddleback, one of the biggest churches in the United States with 100,000 registrants.

But as luck—or, as he believes, God—would have it, Warren wrote “Purpose Driven” in 2002, and the inspirational book has sold 25-million copies, so far the biggest-selling book in hardcover in American publishing history.

Worldwide, “Purpose Driven” is a big seller, providing Warren a global status only slightly lower than the Pope’s. It’s quite a stretch of the imagination that one with such an ordinary-sounding name as “Rick Warren” could be an effective Christian preacher, much less that he’s a superstar like Christ whose message he professes to spread. But that’s the case; the world is simply Rick Warren-driven.

The driven Pastor Warren was here this rainy week for the “National Purpose-Driven Congress” at the Ultra and other speaking engagements, the last stop in an over-a-month-long Asia-wide tour that should confirm his global status.

When he met the media, it was easy to see why Rick Warren has become the Ricky Martin of motivational Christianity. He was a huge man who could give you a bear hug, very friendly and giving off warmth and comfort on a wet, stormy day.

He spoke without pretension. Although his message tended to be preachy, he delivered it with a certain touch of self-effacement. And although heartened by the terrific Asian response to his lectures, he said he missed home and his Saddleback church. “I’m really a pastor,” he said. (Read full story)