(3 of 4)
Wade Clark Roof, author of Spiritual Marketplace: Baby Boomers and the Remaking of American Religion, says Saddleback's megachurch ministry appeals to the notion that size equals success. "We're told that [his philosophy] not only does something for you in the sense of giving your life meaning but it also makes you happy materially, religiously and spiritually," Roof says. "What Rick is marketing is a kind of American religious ideology that conflates growth with salvation."
Much of Warren's outside proselytizing is done at churches across the country in weekly gatherings at which small groups are schooled in Purpose-Driven living. At one of those churches, Gulf Breeze United Methodist Church in Gulf Breeze, Fla., there have been as many as 110 such groups. Before the Purpose-Driven philosophy came along, says the Rev. Chris Nelson of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, Minn., "the idea was for ministers to proclaim the gospel and let people figure out what to do with it in their daily lives. Now we are far more application oriented." When Bethlehem Lutheran member Jean Westberg lost her job as a marketing executive three years ago, she found inspiration in Warren's teaching that people who want to be servants of God should "think more about others than about themselves," and she accepted a job as interim executive director for the Episcopal ministry at the University of Minnesota, where she supervised the construction of a new worship center. "What's more important now is service to others rather than service to myself," says Westberg.
Such experiences are enlivening congregations and enriching coffers. At Bethlehem Lutheran, attendance was languishing at around 650 a decade ago but is now more than 1,200; similarly, the church budget has more than doubled, from $800,000 to well over $2 million. Warren says Sunday attendance at Purpose-Driven churches grows about 20%, on average: "The Purpose-Driven principles are like Intel chips, and they can be inserted into any congregation, whether it's a megachurch or a tiny one, Lutheran, AME, Pentecostal or Baptist."
In person, Warren, an affable, bespectacled bear of a man, is as unadorned and low-key as the plainspoken prose of his books. He receives visitors to his office in the same casual attire he wears at the pulpit--khaki pants, floral cotton shirt and rubber-soled shoes. That suits his members just fine. "From the beginning, I was impressed by his humility," says Patricia Miller, who has attended Saddleback since 1998. "When I joined, he asked all the new members to form a circle and lay our hands on one another's shoulders. Then he stood in the middle and, while choked with emotion, he prayed that he would be capable of the task of leading us." Says fellow parishioner William Nared: "At most churches they just preach and preach about how I ought to be a good Christian man. But what's so powerful about the Purpose-Driven ministry is it also teaches me how to do it." All Saddleback members must abide by strict covenants to tithe regularly, do mission work locally or abroad and live by Christian doctrines. "You can't just be a consumer here," Warren says. "You have to participate and contribute."