Five years later, after being pressured to leave this church, we received a letter ending our membership there before we could even respond with a decision.

What happened?

Sometime around early 2003 (if memory serves us right), "Life Institute" classes began at our church. They were numbered like college courses: 101 ("Committed to Membership"), 201 ("Committed to Maturity"), and 301 ("Committed to Ministry"). They sounded alright, and so, during a break in our children's illnesses around the spring of 2004, we took the classes. The first two seemed okay, though fill-in-the-blank study guides don't require enough thought and remind us too much of the way the Jehovah's Witnesses teach. The third class began to disturb us, as we were handed "SHAPE profiles" to fill out.

The idea was to learn about your spiritual gifts, abilities, experiences, personality, and interests in order to see for what ministry in the church you would be best suited. Doesn't sound bad, but the personality profile is based on the psychology work of Carl Jung, a man deeply into the occult, necromancy, and familiar spirits -- why are we turning to such a man to decide where in the church people should minister? Also, using this profile for placing people in ministry naturally tends to place them in ministries which will make use of areas in which they are "strong". Paul says in II Corinthians 12:9, "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

If God's grace was sufficient for Paul, and if His strength could be made perfect in Paul's weakness, why wouldn't the same hold true for us? And indeed, for all these many years, this verse has been an encouragement to Christians around the globe who feel inadequate to do the work which the Lord asks of them. For centuries before Jung, when someone was needed to do something in the church, someone stepped up and did it (some were even appointed after much prayer!) whether that was something they felt fit their personality or not. Many people did things in the church mightily, all the time having feelings they were complete failures and wholly inadequate for the job. They did it because His grace was sufficient and His strength was made perfect in weakness. In light of the examples presented in Scripture, we could not in good conscience do the SHAPE profiles.

Much later the fourth class would be added, 401 ("Committed to Missions"). This one relied so heavily on saying everything just so when witnessing, and using the right words (like "change your mind" instead of "believe" or "get saved"), and not using the wrong words (like "lost", "saved", "unsaved"), that witnessing and bringing someone to "faith in Christ" became a matter of manipulation instead of a work of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 55:11 says, "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." Paul says in I Corinthians 3:6-7, "I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase." So if we are faithful to preach and teach the Word, God takes care of the harvest. In the last session of the 401 class, the pastor finally said he was going to rewrite it before he taught it again. I'm certain he did, but I never took it after that. Down the road, we learned that all these classes were Rick Warren material, and that the 101 class had become a requirement for membership.

After we had taken the first three classes, later that spring (2004), our pastor stood before us and spoke to us about a book we were going to be studying from, called "The Purpose Driven Life". Thousands of churches across the country were going to be doing this 40-day study at the same time. He assured us that he had checked the many hundreds of scripture references personally (since many were only parts of verses or from unreliable translations), and had found that they accurately represented what the scripture said -- they were used correctly. So the study began.

I only made it into the third chapter. For one thing, our asthmatic son was frequently ill and so I couldn't attend church often. For another thing, I found it difficult to read. It wasn't hard to understand, it was just that something about it made me uncomfortable. My husband made it all the way through the book, but it didn't sit right with him either. But then it was over. The Life Institute classes continued, but everything else returned to normal.

Then other books began to be brought in for study on Sunday nights. Books by good authors. Still, it is the Word of God we are to be delving into at church. Sure, these books teach things based in scripture, but you are still looking at things through the eyes of and learning the teachings and conclusions of the author of the book. It's like studying a commentary instead of studying the Bible. The commentary is only a tool. If you need help with your family life or something, you can buy any of these books yourself. It shouldn't be replacing Bible study in the church. II Timothy 3:16-17 says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." God's Word is sufficient.

Finally, in October of 2005, "The Purpose Driven Life" returned. We were going through it again. Now we had to find out what bothered us about it. First, my husband poked around a little on the internet and began telling me some things he learned about Rick Warren. What exactly, I don't remember, but I filed his comments away with dread, quietly hoping he would find out that the sources were kooks. I learned later that he was quietly hoping to find out they were kooks, too.

Eventually, it became too much for me, and I embarked on a several-month-long hunt on the internet for information. The believers at Berea were commended by the apostle Paul in Acts 17:11, "These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so." The Bereans were not just believing whatever Paul said, they were searching the scriptures to make sure what Paul was teaching was true. Instead of being offended, as many present-day ministers would be, Paul commended the Bereans for this. We are supposed to test someone's teaching against the Word of God. What we ended up with were several well-researched books and four three-ring binders stuffed with articles from numerous sources. I could have kept going, but my husband felt it was enough. And he was right. We went back through "The Purpose Driven Life" with pens, highlighters, and a microscope.

The more we read, the more we understood why we were never comfortable with Rick Warren's teachings. On the surface they seem right. It sounds good. Perhaps elementary, but still good. But the more you really look at what Warren says, the way he uses scripture, and the people he quotes to support him, the more you realize how unscriptural his teachings really are. As we studied, we went from believing that he was probably a good pastor who meant well but could have done better with his book, to believing he was a Christian on shaky ground, to finally concluding he is actually a heretic whose material is quickly leading the church -- in America and around the world -- apostate.

We had also acquired a copy of "The Purpose Driven Church", which basically lays out the blueprint and process for a church to transition to his "seeker-sensitive" model to bring in the "unchurched" and cause the church to grow. It's actually a rather shocking book, especially the second half of it. Never mind that Romans 3:10-12 says, "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one."

None that seeketh after God. So "seeker-sensitive" churches are really bringing in people who are not really seeking God, but seeking something to make them feel good. And they get it. Rick Warren's quotes from scripture, as well as his teachings, leave out sin, the wickedness of the human heart, condemnation, judgment, the cross, the atoning blood of Jesus... all the fundamental doctrines of true Christian faith. Our church -- the church that made us leave -- still teaches these things, but for how long? It is already studying the Word of God less and less. It is going down the path.

Churches that have joined the "Church Growth Movement" -- following the teachings of Rick Warren (Saddleback Church), Bill Hybels (Willow Creek Church), and others like them -- slowly (quickly, in some cases) conform themselves to the world in order to bring more people in. It sounds very noble. They are reaching out to the lost (or "unchurched") so they can bring them in to hear the gospel. Sounds good. The thing is, if you look through the epistles, you will find that the church consisted of believers. That is, people who were already saved. When they came together, it was believers coming together. The believers would encourage each other, and become better equipped spiritually to each go out into the world to tell others the good news of Christ himself. Each believer had the responsibility to tell others, to try to bring others to salvation in Christ -- to bring them into the body of Christ. Then the new believers would come gather with the church.

Bluntly, the gatherings we call "church" are for the believers, not for the unsaved. We don't need to cater our comings together for unsaved people, because these gatherings aren't for them until they become believers. Not that we can't invite anyone who isn't saved. But "seeker-sensitive" churches build their services around attracting and impressing and trying not to alienate or offend unbelievers. We don't need to try to make our services more lively and showy to keep professing believers interested, either. If the Word of God doesn't keep their attention, then they are not going to become more devoted by exceptional presentation. It will just take more and more show to keep their attention. And then they're only there for the show, not the Word. One commentary on the seeker sensitive movement is appropriately subtitled, "How to Fill Your Church with Tares". This has already begun in this church, and new children coming in have brought worldly behaviors in with them, confusing the children who are young believers.

When the church gathers, it is so we can encourage each other in our walk with Jesus, to build one another up so we can run and finish the race well, so we can learn more deeply the Word of God, and so we can help one another in need. Refreshed and revitalized, we then can go out into our world to preach the gospel, to bring others into the body of believers through salvation in Jesus. Then they can join us when the church gathers.

At any rate, as we read, we realized we had to take what we had learned to the pastor, so that the church could be pulled back from this dangerous teaching. My husband wrote a respectful but strong letter to the pastor, expecting to be asked to come in to discuss the matter. Instead, we heard no answer. After two months, my husband finally asked him if he had read the letter. He replied that he had, then asked if he was supposed to respond.

We were shocked, as the letter clearly stated that my husband believed Warren's teachings to be heretical and leading to an apostate church... not exactly light fare. He also pointed out some similarities in terminology used at the church to terminology Warren recommends as "seeker sensitive". These terms predate Warren, but are common to the Church Growth Movement, which has been around as long as... well... Robert Schuller and his Crystal Cathedral. Rick Warren is to the Church Growth Movement what Henry Ford was to the automobile -- he didn't invent it, he just popularized it and made it so it could be had everywhere, in such a way that he changed the world. The terms my husband addressed in the letter aren't the problem, but they, together with the teachings of Rick Warren, are evidence that this church is a Purpose Driven church, even if it isn't totally sold out to the whole program. This is why they were mentioned in the letter. You can read the letter here.

In the letter, my husband had let him know that we would not challenge his authority or openly campaign against the teaching, but that if the opportunity arose (such as someone asking our thoughts) we would tell them what we thought. Now that we knew he had read the letter, we were free to do this if the situation presented itself. The only other person we had spoken with at this point was our Sunday school teacher.

At that time, we started pondering what to do, and we decided to wait until things we were already involved in were finished. I was committed to a couple of things, and the children were involved in several things as well. This would take a little over two months, to the end of May. When this came, if the erroneous teachings were still there, and the pastor had not decided to speak with us, then we would make our final decision, and most likely leave the church. This was a last resort. We would greatly have preferred to see our church turn around and return to the solid biblical foundation it once had. Meanwhile, we would just quietly continue. And for a short time, we did.

The end came earlier than we had anticipated when I received a call one day from one of the staff ladies whom I have grown to love dearly over these years. Because the number of children coming was rising, they were in need of some more help, and she hoped I would be able to help out. Which I would have, except I didn't know if I was going to be there past May. I didn't know what to say at the time, so I said I would call her back in a couple of days. As I prayed about what to say, I remembered my husband's letter saying that if the opportunity arose, we'd say what we thought. So I called her back, and though my heart cried to say all this to a lady who I considered to be such a good friend, encourager, and leader, I told her what was going on and what we had tentatively decided to do.

Shortly after this conversation, unbeknownst to me until later, a project I had volunteered to do was reassigned to someone else.

One day couple of weeks later, I spoke with two of the ladies at the church (one called me and then I called the other), each of whom told me strongly that our obligations were not a good reason to stay, that if we weren't going to change our minds, then we should go ahead and "go where the Lord was leading us". The idea that we felt strongly about staying to complete what we and our children were committed to was not an acceptable answer. When I brought up to the second lady the passage in the Bible that says we should fulfil our vows to our own hurt, she said we were released from our obligations. The passage I refer to is in Psalm 15, in which David lists the characteristics of those who will abide in the Lord's tabernacle and dwell in His holy hill. Verse 4 mentions this characteristic: "He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not." Meaning, someone who makes a promise and keeps it, even if it is something he doesn't really want to do or even if doing it brings him some hardship. We wanted to fulfill our commitments. Ladies, if you ever read this, the way this all came about hurts my heart, and I know this wasn't your decision, but the decision of the ministry. I still love you both dearly and pray for you, your families, the pastor, and the church.

It was obvious that, though there were only about six weeks left until the end of May, the ministry very much wanted us to go ahead and leave. I was supposed to call one of the ladies again in a couple of days to give our final decision, but due to unexpected circumstances I was unable to call until after the weekend. Before I could, though, that Saturday we received the only communication from the pastor in this whole thing (all of this, contrary to processes laid out in the Word of God, had been done through the women). He had sent us a letter removing us from membership.

We were deeply wounded. My husband said he felt like he had been handed divorce papers. We had not "stated [a] desire to seek a new church home", and what I had said to the ladies on the phone had a lot of "ifs" and "mights". I did call back after the weekend, but we weren't going to fight it. I did send a couple of e-mails (to the ladies with whom I had spoken) detailing what had happened as we saw it, hoping perhaps there was some misunderstanding, some mistake. But I've never received a response to either one. So we are left with only one conclusion: we were pressured to leave and had our membership revoked because we were resisting the Purpose Driven teaching in the church. It makes no sense that this all would have been done merely because we were considering leaving.

We are in good company, though. Thousands of other brothers and sisters in the Lord have had nearly identical experiences with their churches going "Purpose Driven". One church expelled 165 members in one day! Mostly, though, the people have testimonies very much like ours. We never thought our story would look anything like theirs. Sadly, it differs only in details.

"I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."   II Timothy 4:1-4

UPDATE on our journey (August 24, 2007) - After our expulsion from this church, we searched for a church in our area that was not "purpose driven". In spite of having a church on nearly every corner, we have found very few. Many churches that otherwise reject Rick Warren's teachings still tend toward being "seeker friendly". In the end, we could count on one hand the number of churches in the area that did not employ these ideas. And only one of those was reasonably close. How far should you drive to go to a good church? While the answer may initially seem to be "a great distance", we considered it carefully. We realized that if we drove an hour one way to attend church, we would not be able to be involved in the lives of the other members in any meaningful way, nor could they really be involved with us. Some do it anyway, but we really didn't see that we could. My husband is on call 24/7, and our daughter is mildly autistic. These are a couple of the things we have to consider.

So we tried the one that was reasonably close, but found an old hoax in one of the tracts that was displayed for the taking. When my husband approached the pastor about it, he defended it and stated that someone else had already left his church because of it -- he seemed proud of the fact. "Maybe it'll make people think," they said. A hoax? How can you teach the truth using a lie? And when they find out the lie, won't they question the truth of the gospel the lie was supposed to support? After hearing a couple of internet hoaxes from the pulpit in addition to the tract, we quietly bowed out of this church.

What do we do now? We have home church. My husband teaches. We really love listening to his teaching, because he goes verse-by-verse through a book of the Bible (James, Judges, Ruth, and now John), and he makes it come alive as he tells and expounds. I've learned more in my living room than I did in years of church services. Sometimes we've had others come, which has been wonderful... right now we don't, because they've moved. But it's alright, because we're learning, our children are learning, and they are not in Sunday School classes being influenced by and hearing things that oughtn't be spoken of by other children whose lives and families are very worldly (in my daughter's class, some new boys were talking with some of the other boys about homosexual acts - this was a 4th grade class). We are so grateful for my husband who has taken on this enormous responsibility.

We have learned too that we aren't the only ones who have left that church -- though I think we probably have been the only ones expelled. A few left before we did, and a few more have left since. But like Rick Warren says....

Article Links

I originally created this list as a Word document to keep track of which articles I had printed, so I could prevent duplication. Since this document has been requested by several others now, I am now posting it online. Let me also include an explanation. You will see articles dealing with "The Purpose Driven Life" and "The Purpose Driven Church". These are two different books by Rick Warren, the latter having been written first. We have both of these books. There are also articles on Warren's favorite "translation", "The Message"; as well as articles on the Church Growth Movement, of which Warren (as well as Bill Hybels of Willow Creek and Robert Schuller of Crystal Cathedral) is part. If the root is bad, then the tree is bad and the fruit is bad. You can't "take the good and leave out the bad". These articles are grouped and alphabetized by ministry. By the way, these are only a fraction of the articles I found, and I continue to find more, and more new articles continue to be written. These are just the ones I have printed... the ones that fill the four 3-ring binders I mentioned above. I have added a few more articles to the list, and will add more as I find them. We don't agree with every detail in every article, and some are better researched or better written than others, but what they say still requires consideration. In spite of the alphabetization, I encourage you to start with the articles listed under Crossroad -- Kjos Ministries below.


Apprising Ministries
      Ken Silva, Lowering Standards in Christ's Name


Assist Ministries
      Dan Wooding, Founder of Assist Ministries
           Rick Warren Hits Home Run with Announcement of Global PEACE Plan
           Lyrics to "Purple Haze" by Jimi Hendrix (sung by Rick Warren as mentioned in article above)


Banner of Truth
      Noel A. Espinosa, The Purpose Driven Life: An Assessment


BaylyBlog
      Tim Bayly, Rick Warren: the quintessential evangelical… (BaylyBlog: Out of Our Minds Too)


Berean Beacon
      Richard Bennett, The Adulation of Man in The Purpose Driven Life


Berean Call
      T. A. McMahon, Purpose Driven Life Critique
      T. A. McMahon, Consumer Christianity Part 1
      T. A. McMahon, The Seeker-Friendly Way of Doing Church
      T. A. McMahon, Consumer Christianity Part 2
      Dave Hunt, The Vanishing Gospel
      T. A. McMahon, "A Way Which Seemeth Right..."


Bible Bulletin Board
      Tim Todd, Observations about The Purpose Driven Life
      Nathan Busenitz, The Purpose-Driven Church
      Clay Miller, Church Growth Gone Mad – A sobering look at the church growth seeker-sensitive models
      Nathan Busenitz, The Gospel According to Hybels & Warren


Bible Researcher
      Michael Marlowe, The Message
      Michael Marlowe, The Living Bible (1971)
      Michael Marlowe, The New Living Translation (1996)
      Michael Marlowe, Against the Theory of 'Dynamic Equivalence'


Bible Presbyterian Church
      69th General Synod of the Bible Presbyterian Church,
           Resolution 69:13 – Whose Purpose?: Rick Warren's "Purpose Driven" Paradigm for the Church


Biblical Discernment Ministries
      Jim Delany, Book Review: The Purpose Driven Church
      Gary Gilley, The Purpose-Driven Life – A Review of Scripture Misuse (exerpts)


Boston Christian Bible Study Resources
      Steve Amato, Rick Warren's "The Purpose Driven Life"


Canadian Christianity
      Patricia Paddey, Membership covenant draws questions


Christian Research Institute
      John R. Kohlenberger III, Book Review: A Summary Critique: The Message by Eugene Peterson


Critical Issues Commentary
      Bob DeWaay, A Berean's Discernment Tool for "The Purpose Driven Life"
           This tool shows each scripture quote from "The Purpose Driven Life", alongside the same
           passage from a reliable translation, the NASB.
      Bob DeWaay, The Gospel: A Method or a Message? – How the Purpose Driven Life Obscures the Gospel


Crossroad -- Kjos Ministries      <<< Excellent, in-depth research!
      Berit Kjos, Spirit-Led or Purpose-Driven?
      Berit Kjos, Spirit-Led or Purpose-Driven? Part 2: Unity and Community
      Berit Kjos, Spirit-Led or Purpose-Driven? Part 3: Small Groups and the Dialectic Process
      Berit Kjos, Spirit-Led or Purpose-Driven? Part 4: Dealing with Resisters
      Berit Kjos, Spirit-Led or Purpose-Driven? Part 5: Spiritual Gifts and Community Service
      Berit Kjos, Spirit-Led or Purpose-Driven? Part 6: Social Change and Communitarian Systems (unfinished)
      Scott MacIntyre (Wood and Steel Ministries), Our Purpose Driven Diversion
      Lynn D. Leslie, Sarah H. Leslie and Susan J. Conway,
           The Pied Pipers of Purpose Part 1: Human Capital Systems and Church Performance
      Berit Kjos, Creating Community Part 1: 40 Days of Change through Transformational Leadership
      Berit Kjos, Creating Community Part 2: 40 Days of Change through a New Way of Thinking
      A. W. Tozer, The Loneliness of the Christian
      Berit Kjos, Warren's P.E.A.C.E. Plan & UN Goals Part 1: The Emerging Global "Church"
      Berit Kjos, Warren's P.E.A.C.E. Plan & UN Goals Part 2: Equipping Leaders to "Lead like Jesus"?
      Berit Kjos, Warren's P.E.A.C.E. Plan & UN Goals Part 3: Whom do we serve?
      Dr. Robert Klenck, What’s Wrong with the 21st Century Church?
      Dr. Robert Klenck, What’s Wrong with the 21st Century Church? Part 2
      Dr. Robert Klenck, What’s Wrong with the 21st Century Church? Part 3: How Diaprax Manifests Itself in the Church
      Various Readers, Purpose Driven Churches (archived responses and comments to the other articles,
           personal testimonies of experiences with churches that have gone Purpose Driven)
      Various Readers, Purpose Driven Churches (current page of responses and comments to the other articles,
           personal testimonies of experiences with churches that have gone Purpose Driven)


Culture Shock Solution
      Hughie Seaborn, "The Message" Bible Per-Version


Despatch Magazine: Endtime Ministries Christian Resource Centre
      W. B. Howard, Change Agents in the Churches No. 5 – Despatch Comments re unbiblical Covenants & Vows
      Pastor E.L. Bynum, Tabernacle Baptist Church, Lubbock, Texas. USA
           IS IT RIGHT: To Judge, To Expose Error, & To Call Names?


Eastern Regional Watch Ministries
      Albert James Dager, The Purpose-Driven Program – A Growing Phenomenon in the Churches
      Ingrid Schlueter, Purpose-Driven Missionaries and One Day Church Planting
      Steve Muse, The Question of Association – Guilty or Not Guilty?"


Encouraging Music: The Website of the Worship Pastor of Saddleback Church (Rick Warren’s church):
This page has a music minister in North Carolina asking Rick Muchow (Rick Warren's worship pastor) if he uses secular music in the "seeker services" at Saddleback Church. Muchow's answer is a hearty "yes", and then provides a "short list of just some of the songs" he has used at Saddleback, some of which may have had minor changes to the lyrics before being used. "God Bless the USA" is a very stirring patriotic song that, especially since 9/11, I can hardly listen to without tears welling up in my eyes. Still, if you go through and read the lyrics of these songs... why do we need to borrow from the world to find suitable music to worship God? Don't forget that many a martyr for Christ sang the great, rich, deep hymns of the faith as they were burned at the stake or killed in some other way -- because these songs contained the true doctrines they held dear and for which they were being martyred. They weren't singing some spiritualized secular love song. Anyway, please be careful, because these lyrics are on secular sites with lots of links to places that are not compatible with a holy life. The first link is the Question and Answer, and the links following are the lyrics to the songs he lists.

      Rick Muchow, Worship Pastor, Saddleback Church, Ask Rick Muchow
           Sister Hazel, Change Your Mind
           Paul McCartney, Maybe I'm Amazed
           Macy Gray, I Can't Wait To Meet You
           Mike & The Mechanics, The Living Years
                This song has been used as an invitational song at Saddleback Church.
           Alan Jackson, Where Were You
           Lee Greenwood, God Bless the USA
           John Michael Montgomery, Long As I Live
           Morris Gary, The Love She Found In Me
           T Douglas, J D’addario, Love Remains
           John Berry, Your Love Amazes Me
           Wynonna Judd, Love Can Build A Bridge
           Mariah Carey & Whitney Houston, When You Believe     from "The Prince of Egypt"
           Bill Withers, Lean On Me
           Jim Croce, Operator
           Eric Clapton, My Father's Eyes
           M. C. Hammer, Do Not Pass Me By
           Garth Brooks, Unanswered Prayers
           Michael Crawford, On Eagle's Wings
           Take 6, Biggest Part Of Me
           Whitney Houston, Count On Me     from "Waiting to Exhale"


Fide-o
      Bret Capranica, Seeker Gymnastics


Fundamental Evangelistic Association
      Matt Costella, An Analysis of Rick Warren's The Purpose-Driven Life
      Dennis Costella, The Church Growth Movement: An Analysis of Rick Warren's "Purpose Driven" Church Growth Strategy


Jesus-Is-Lord
      Tracy, Eugene Peterson's The Message


Let Us Reason
      Mike Oppenheimer, One Man’s Opinion
      Mike Oppenheimer, The Purpose Driven Life – Book Review Part 1
      Mike Oppenheimer, The Purpose Driven Life – Book Review Part 2


Monergism
      Brian Jonson, An Examination of Rick Warren's Teaching on "Exponential Growth"


Moriel Ministries
      Dennis Costella,
           The Church Growth Movement – An Analysis of Rick Warren's "Purpose Driven" Church Growth Strategy
      Merv Tucker, Analysis of the Book Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren


News With Views
      Paul Proctor, Religious Relativism
      Paul Proctor, Sweet Lies
      Paul Proctor, It’s Your Choice
      Paul Proctor, Salt-Free Saints
      Paul Proctor, Gathering or Scattering?
      Paul Proctor, Heretics and Hypocrites
      Paul Proctor, The Purpose Driven Hostage
      Paul Proctor, Church Membership Covenants


9 Marks
      Paul Alexander, The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren


Orthodox Presbyterian Church
      John V. Fesko, Warren’s Purpose Driven Life


From Rick Warren’s website for pastors :
Pastors.com is a website for pastors where pastors can (and do in unbelieveable numbers!) buy transcripts, outlines, and audio of Rick Warren's sermons, as well as those of his assistant pastors. Warren also puts out a newsletter every week called the "Ministry Toolbox" which is received by well over 100,000 pastors in America and around the world. These are a couple of articles which help demonstrate the marketing focus of Saddleback Church, and how it is not a ministry which wholly leans on God for guidance and teaches and lives the pure and whole Word of God.

      Erik Rees (Minister of Life Mission at Saddleback Church),
           Seven Principles of Transformational Leadership – Creating a Synergy of Energy
           Notice how none of these principles have anything to do with praying or with teaching God's Word.

I had read the following articles, and then one week on Sunday and Wednesday I heard our pastor start talking about women making up most of the attendance of most churches, and why men don't like going to church, churches looking like they're decorated by women... banners, flowers, etc., and how he was proud that some of the men in the choir looked like they could once have been in jail... you know, burly, tough-looking types. I realized I had read most of this somewhere, and I searched when I got home, and located it in Rick Warren's Ministry Toolbox.       David Murrow (Church for Men),            Why men hate going to church (from Rick Warren's Ministry ToolBox)            Also see this article from CBN

Paw Creek Ministries
      Joseph Chambers, "The Purpose Driven Life": A Modern Day "Golden Calf"


PCA News (Web Magazine for the Presbyterian Church in America)
      Marshall C. St. John,
           The Purpose Driven Life – Guidance or Misguided? Reasons Not to Join the "Purpose Driven Life" Movement


Personal Freedom Outreach
      G. Richard Fisher,
           To Judge or Not to Judge: The Rights and Wrongs of Biblical Discernment


Sacred Sandwich       (okay, strange name, look at the first article for their explanation. By the way, the "front page" is satire, but their editorials are all business.)
      Chris Carmichael, Our Recipe for the Sacred Sandwich
      Chris Carmichael, Charting the Paganism of Galen and Jung, Charting the Warren – Jung Connection
      Chris Carmichael, Paganism in the Purpose Driven Teaching – or "What on Earth am I Doing Reading this Book?"
      Chris Carmichael,
           Rick Warren's Style Over Substance: How the "Purpose Driven" Philosophy has Mishandled the "Purpose" of the Scriptures


Southern View Chapel
      Gary E. Gilley, Pastor, Southern View Chapel, The Gospel According to Warren
      Gary E. Gilley, Pastor, Southern View Chapel, The Purpose-Driven Life: An Evaluation – Part 1
      Gary E. Gilley, Pastor, Southern View Chapel, The Purpose-Driven Life: An Evaluation – Part 2


A True and Faithful Witness
      David Sheldon, 40 Days that Start with a Different Gospel
      David Sheldon, A Purpose-Enhanced Worldview – A Critique of chapters 1-7 of The Purpose-Driven Life
      David Sheldon, The Jesus Who Stood at a Fork in the Road – (Jesus in The Purpose-Driven Life)
      David Sheldon,
           What Didn't You Do With Jesus? – (A critique of the first session of "40 Days of Purpose" by Rick Warren)
      David Sheldon, God's Wisdom – Christ Crucified! Versus the Wisdom of pages 20, 21 in The Purpose-Driven Life


Understand the Times
      Roger Oakland, Revival or Return To Darkness?


WebTruth
      John C. Orlando, Jr., The Purpose Driven Church – A Critique

Books on the Purpose Driven Church Movement

Of all the books we have read about the Purpose Driven Church Movement, our most recent acquisition is probably the best yet. The author, Pastor Bob DeWaay of Twin City Fellowship (Critical Issues Commentary) explains:

I have received many emails over the last two years from people who are concerned about what has happened to their church since it became Purpose Driven. This book will explain what has happened, why, and how a Purpose Driven church is different from a Bible-centered, Gospel church.

Here is an exerpt from the book, called Redefining Christianity: Understanding the Purpose Driven Movement:

"Jesus said, "If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (John 15:19). Not even the greatest marketing genius can change this without redefining the church. Seeking the approval of the world is precisely what the Purpose Driven movement is all about."

Redefining Christianity is available directly from the author's website, as well as Amazon and numerous other places.

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Southwest Radio Church Ministries has a number of resources available. Books featured are:

The Dark Side of the Purpose Driven Church, by Noah W. Hutchings
Who's Driving the Purpose Driven Church? A Documentary on the Teachings of Rick Warren, by James Sundquist
What You Need to Know About the Purpose Driven Church, by Dr. Larry Spargimino
Deceived on Purpose: The New Age Implications of the Purpose Driven Church, by Warren Smith

We have read all of these books, and they are excellent. Sundquist's book has a bit of an angry tone to it, but when you consider he is watching Rick Warren lead countless Christians and their churches astray, the anger is understandable. It is still a well-researched, excellent book.

There are also articles and audio broadcasts available. To see all of these resources, visit
SWRC Ministries: The Purpose Driven Church Materials (a few materials on this page, then there are links for more Purpose Driven resources - books, CDs, cassettes, DVDs, and literature).

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