Rick Warren and his 40 days of Perpose

[bemanisuperstar]

My church is doing this 40 days thingy and I don't trust it one bit. His book this perpose diven life was Panned by other Pastors.

I would like to know if anybody else has read his books or knows anything about him.

Plus alot of you know my situation about not being happy with my church and wanting to leave (this is one of the reasons)

I'm going to in place of the 40 days read as much Scripture as I can as it relates to my Relationship and church problems.

But I don't really know where to go and what to read.

I would love your input on all of this so I can do a replacement study and see who's better off after these 40 days me or the rest of the chuch who bought into this this........

[Shinja]

bah dont listen to rick warren, ive been to a "seeker" church, its got the wrong motovation

[The Grammarian]

I cannot offer any comments on The Purpose-Driven Life, since I have yet to read it (despite getting it as a Christmas present). I can say that from what I have read of it (the first three days or so), it is pretty good though. Definitely something you want to read through slowly.

I'm not a fan of "seeker-friendly" churches and the movements toward that style of "worship," and I'm not a big Rick Warren fan either, but it's not a total loss to read TPDL.

[Bobtheduck]

**heart beats harder, head starts to throb in pain**

What is the "40 days" you are talking about, for those unfamilliar... Be carefull, though, not all of us here may be as bothered by the things you are bothered by. Just a very general warning.

[bemanisuperstar]

bah dont listen to rick warren, ive been to a "seeker" church, its got the wrong motovation

Could you elaborate so my dad doesn't shove Pride Verses in my face when I try to explain to him this guy's a fraud.

My church has done other things with him before and I've noticed it's been on a very slow decent into nothingness.

**heart beats harder, head starts to throb in pain**

What is the "40 days" you are talking about, for those unfamilliar... Be carefull, though, not all of us here may be as bothered by the things you are bothered by. Just a very general warning.

I can understand that. So far though I have been hearing nothing but bad things about this guy.

[Shinja]

i think if you look you'll find some better arguments aginst it than i could put into words. but the basic idea behind all of his books is to change the mesage of God to fufill the needs of a person or a group of people, intead of preaching the truth what people need the most. The purpose dcriven church is all about changeing the church to apeal to the lost. well, the lost need to change not the church. the seeker churchs ive gone to all take pride in thier numbers. they work hard to bring people in but they never tell them the truth. cause the truth would not keep the numbers coming. they gloss over parts of the bible or focus only on certin parts, and this is so people wont become offended with the message of the bible. i remeber well the last purpose driven church i went to, thier mission was to "seek" the wealthy, thier intire focus was to bring in this class of people. and because my familly was poor we were treated very poorly. it is also a sad day when churches spend more time disgussing what kind of muic and atmosphere they need than the word of God. these books seek to turn the church into a place of entertainment, and give a false since of Christianity.
eh ill stop here

[Bobtheduck]

i think if you look you'll find some better arguments aginst it than i could put into words. but the basic idea behind all of his books is to change the mesage of God to fufill the needs of a person or a group of people, intead of preaching the truth what people need the most. The purpose dcriven church is all about changeing the church to apeal to the lost. well, the lost need to change not the church. the seeker churchs ive gone to all take pride in thier numbers. they work hard to bring people in but they never tell them the truth. cause the truth would not keep the numbers coming. they gloss over parts of the bible or focus only on certin parts, and this is so people wont become offended with the message of the bible. i remeber well the last purpose driven church i went to, thier mission was to "seek" the wealthy, thier intire focus was to bring in this class of people. and because my familly was poor we were treated very poorly. it is also a sad day when churches spend more time disgussing what kind of muic and atmosphere they need than the word of God. these books seek to turn the church into a place of entertainment, and give a false since of Christianity.
eh ill stop here

Hmm... I wonder how much of what you're saying is true... I somehow doubt this is about "seeker friendly" because my sister is really into this book and she's definately against watering down the gospel message. Have you READ his book(s) either? Because helping people understand the message is NOT watering it down. There are churches out there that downplay the judgement and repentance, but I somehow doubt that is what this person does... The reason i doubt that is because people have a problem with people giving the gospel in a different package that they're used to "but the basic idea behind all of his books is to change the mesage of God to fufill the needs of a person or a group of people..." See, giving the gospel IN FULL in a form you're not used to isn't the same as changing the gospel message. It's just following Paul's example.

Could you elaborate so my dad doesn't shove Pride Verses in my face when I try to explain to him this guy's a fraud.

Well, I dont' think this is a good idea to do in a public forum. Since not everyone here finds him to be a "fraud", it will more than likely spark a debate... I mean, even I'm here with an itchy set of trigger fingers because this whole thing makes me uncomfortable... I think this should be classified as a "theological" thing and taken to pm and this thread closed... If just to keep me in check.

[Rev. Doc]

I must say, my curiosity is sparked. My wife (who is very conservative theologically and an experienced Bible teacher) has just finished this book and given it high praise. She has passed it on now to me and I will certainly read it. Actually, a number of people in my congregation have read it and have related to me how it has spoken to their lives.

I'm sensing in a number of things that have been said here that some ill feelings are running deeper than objections to Rick Warren's book. Just to look at this thread some from the outside would think that Saddleback Church is bordering on being a cult, which I don't think to be true. I would certainly like to know case in point what in the book has caused this reaction instead of an overall reaction that it's theologically wrong.

[Ashley]

Well, I dont' think this is a good idea to do in a public forum. Since not everyone here finds him to be a "fraud", it will more than likely spark a debate... I mean, even I'm here with an itchy set of trigger fingers because this whole thing makes me uncomfortable... I think this should be classified as a "theological" thing and taken to pm and this thread closed... If just to keep me in check.

I think this is a fairly good idea as well. As always we don't want to spark debates and stumble/offend one another. There have been some good opinions expressed very respectfully, which makes me glad, but I do think this is toeing the line a little much for a general discussion. I encourage anyone seeking more info on the topic to PM those who have already spoken on it, or if you have something to contribute take it to PM as well.