Rick Warren
At a Hispanic Pastor's conference in Los Angeles, Rich Warren, the head pastor of the famous Saddleback Church urged his listeners that having a large congregation only matters to the ministry as long as the leader has the right purpose and process. A mass gathering does not matter to God if the people are not being trained and growing in the way that pleases Him.
Even though the Saddleback Church boasts a congregation of over 20,000 people, Pastor Warren focused heavily on the necessary structured process that turns non-believers into believers and enables them to mature further as true Christians and future leaders of future ministries. He expressed that the reason Saddleback Church has grown so much over the past 34 years was because the ministry and leaders stayed loyal to this process and purpose.
Pastor Warren also added that this "secret" of Saddleback Church was really no secret. He returned his listeners' attention to the Bible and noted that when Jesus first met with the 12 disciples, he simply told them to follow him with no particular commitment. Over time, he assigned roles to them and expected certain requirements of them. However we know that so often the disciples failed to understand their teacher's teachings and failed to carry out his commands. Warren noted that even though Saddleback boasts large numbers, its members still run into many obstacles and they try to learn from such mistakes.
The two major purposes of church that Warren emphasized so much were loving God with all your heart, and loving your neighbor in the same way. Another crucial purpose that the pastor also brought to the table was the Great Commission, in other words to go and make disciples of all nations. These purposes must be kept by all believers whether they are worshipping alone or within a community. Pastor Warren said he also tries to live his life in this way.
Only last year, Warren had lost his son Matthew. Ironically however, despite this great hardship it was one of the best years for Saddleback Church in terms of ministry and spiritual growth. They had grown by 4,000 people and 3,000 of those new members were baptized. "My son had a tender heart but a tortured brain. When he died, I received about 35,000 letters from people and it wasn't the notes from presidents, kings and queens that meant the most to me, it was the notes from people whom Matthew lead to Christ," said Warren.
