The thesis of The Purpose Driven Church is that when churches think first about their health, growth is sure to follow. "If your church is healthy," writes Rick Warren, "growth will occur naturally. Healthy, consistent growth is the result of balancing the five biblical purposes of the church." These five purposes are to "Love the Lord with all your heart," "Love your neighbor as yourself," "Go and make disciples," "[Baptize] them," and "[Teach] them to obey." And those purposes can only be accomplished, argues Warren, when church leaders stop thinking about church-building programs and shift their focus to a "people-building process" involving fellowship, discipleship, worship, and evangelism. Warren, the founder of the fastest-growing Baptist church in American history, has taught seminars to thousands of pastors from all over the world, many of whom have successfully implemented his techniques.


Book Description
This is a five-point strategy for attracting and spiritually maturing the unchurched, from the pastor of Saddleback Church.


Download Description
This is a five-point strategy for attracting and spiritually maturing the unchurched, from the pastor of Saddleback Church.


From the Back Cover
What Drives Your Church? "The Purpose-Driven Church has brought focus and direction to more pastors and church leaders than you can count. What a gift! I can’t imagine anyone who’s serious about the church not reading it." John Ortberg Author of Everybody’s Normal Till You Get to Know Them "After reading The Purpose-Driven Church in 1995, I ordered twenty copies for my staff and elders. Eight years later, the message and strategy contained in this work are as significant and relevant as ever." Andy Stanley Senior Pastor, North Point Community Church "In 1985, I heard Rick present the contents of this book in a seminar format. As he spoke, for the first time I imagined leaving my teaching career in higher education to enter pastoral ministry. My heart was won by Rick’s vision of the Church driven by her God-given purpose—rather than by doctrinal arguments, denominational competition, or institutional survival. That vision has been alive in me ever since, and you can catch it too, through these pages." Brian McLaren Pastor, Author, Fellow in Emergent (Emergentvillage.com) "One hundred years from now church leaders will be studying the movement known as ‘purpose driven’ churches. They will find Rick Warren as its architect and The Purpose-Driven Church as his blueprint." Erwin Raphael McManus Founder of Awaken and Lead Pastor of Mosaic "Although the actual form of ministry may look different from different types of people, there are extremely critical principles within this book that we all need to know, no matter what generation or philosophical mindset we are involved with." Dan Kimball Author of The Emerging Church and Pastor of Vintage Faith Church Discover What Business Leaders Can Learn from the Church "The best book on entrepreneurship, business, and investment…" Rick Karlgaard Forbes Magazine


About the Author
Dr. Rick Warren, founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, is the author of the New York Times #1 bests The Purpose Driven Life. With over 10 million copies sold since its release in October, 2002, the book has twice received the ECPA Book of the Year Award in 2003 and 2004.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter 1
The Saddleback Story
One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts.
Psalm 145:4
Praise the greatness of the LORD, who loves to see his servants do well.
Psalm 35:27 (NCV)
In November 1973, a buddy and I skipped out on our college classes and drove 350 miles to hear Dr. W. A. Criswell speak at the Jack Tar Hotel in San Francisco. Criswell was the renowned pastor of the largest Baptist church in the world, the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. For me, as a young Southern Baptist, the opportunity to hear Criswell in person was the equivalent of a Catholic getting to hear the pope. I was determined to hear this living legend.
I had felt Gods call to ministry three years earlier and had begun speaking as a youth evangelist while still in high school. Although I was just nineteen years old, Id already preached revival meetings in about fifty churches. I had no doubt that God had called me to ministry, but I was unsure if God wanted me to become a pastor.
I believe W. A. Criswell is the greatest American pastor of the twentieth century. He pastored at First Baptist for fifty years, wrote fifty-three books, and developed the most widely copied church model of this century. Not only was he a powerful preacher and leader, he was an organizational genius. Most people think of tradition when they think of Criswell, but actually his ministry was incredibly innovative. It only became known as traditional after everyone copied him!
We often hear today about celebrity pastors whose stars flame bright for a few years and then fizzle out. Its easy to make an impressive start. But Criswells ministry lasted half a century in one church! It was no flash in the pan. It withstood the test of time. To me that is genuine success: loving and leading consistently and ending well. Ministry is a marathon. Its not how you start out that matters but how you end. So, how do you make it to the end? The Bible says, Love never fails (1 Cor. 13:8). If you minister out of love you can never be considered a failure.
As I listened to this great man of God preach, God spoke personally to me and made it very clear that he was calling me to be a pastor. Then and there, I promised God Id give my entire life to pastoring a single church if that was his will for me.
After the service, my buddy and I stood in line to shake hands with Dr. Criswell. When my turn finally arrived, something unexpected happened. Criswell looked at me with kind, loving eyes and said, quite emphatically, Young man, I feel led to lay hands on you and pray for you! Without delay, he placed his hands on my head and prayed these words that I will never forget: Father, I ask that you give this young preacher a double portion of your Spirit. May the church he pastors grow to twice the size of the Dallas church. Bless him greatly, O Lord.
As I walked away with tears in my eyes, I said to my friend Danny, Did he pray what I think he prayed? He sure did, said Danny, also with wet eyes. I could not possibly imagine that God could ever use me like Dr. Criswell had prayed, but that holy experience confirmed in my heart that God had called me to pastor a local church.
The Story Behind the Methods
Every theology has a context. You wont understand Luthers theology without understanding Luthers life and how God was sovereignly working in the world at that time. Likewise, you cant fully appreciate Calvins theology without understanding the circumstances in which he forged his beliefs.
In the same way, every methodology has a story behind it. Many people look at the so-called megachurches and assume those churches have always been big. They forget that every large church started off as a small church. And no church becomes large without struggling through years of problems, setbacks, and failures. For instance, Saddleback met for fifteen years before being able to build our first building. This one factor alone helped shape our strategy of reaching, retaining, and growing believers in Christ. It kept our focus on people and created a church culture very open to change.
To understand many of the methods in this book, you need to understand the context in which they were developed. Otherwise you might be tempted to copy things we did without considering the context. Please do not do this! Instead, look beneath the methods to see the transferable principles on which they are based. Ill identify the principles, but first you need to know a little of Saddlebacks history.
Very little of Saddlebacks ministry was preplanned. I didnt have any long-range strategy before I started the church. I simply knew God had called me to plant a new church built on the five New Testament purposes, and I had a bag of ideas I wanted to try out. Each innovation weve developed was just a response to the circumstances in which we found ourselves. I didnt plan them in advance. Most people think of vision as the ability to see the future. But in todays rapidly changing world, vision is also the ability to accurately assess current changes and take advantage of them. Vision is being alert to opportunities.
Because Saddleback is a young church and I am the founding pastor, weve been able to experiment with far more ideas than the average churchmostly due to the fact that we didnt have decades of tradition to deal with. (However we had many other problems that older churches dont have!) In the early years we had nothing to lose, so we tried out all kinds of ideas. Some of our ideas were spectacular failures. And I wish I could claim that all our successes happened just the way we planned thembut it would be untrue. Im not that smart. Most of our successes have been the result of trial and error and some of our discoveries were purely accidental.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

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 believers that in order for a church to be healthy if must become a purpose-driven church by Jesus. Now the founding pastor of Saddleback Church 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 - Larger through evangelism. Discover the same practical insights and principles for growing a healthy church that Rick has taught in seminars to over 22,000 pastors and church leaders from sixty denominations and forty-two countries. 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."