All In A Days Work

I was re-reading some quotes I posted by Rick as he gave his talk on the "Myths of the American Megachurch" with PEW Forum in 2005.  Struck by the realization I did not even comment on them, I have decided to re-post the quotes, with commentary.

QUOTES OF RICK WARREN:
"There is a verse in the Bible that says the intelligent man is always open to new ideas; in fact, he looks for them. And so when Mike invited me to come to this and I saw your names, I really jumped at the chance. I enjoy these smaller, intimate meetings. You know, when you speak to 23,000, 24,000 people every weekend, crowds don't impress you anymore." 

                     ~Rick Warren 

Pew Forum, Myths of the Modern Mega Church, 2005, Transcript

THINK ABOUT THIS:

What verse says the intelligent man is always open to new ideas? 

Rick doesn't mention the verse, but the verse or the wisdom is not the point.  

He does this only to infer his own intelligence.

He also should know better than to think that he would 

only be talking to intimate group of "names" he,

being the intelligent man that he thinks he is 

(and wants you to think he is,)

"jumped" at the chance to meet with.

Note also, how he brags about the numbers of people he talks to "usually."

"Last night, I was in Miami speaking to this huge international convention of all of the Spanish-language publishers and they gave me the city key to Miami, but really I would have more fun with you here today."

~Rick Warren 

Pew Forum, Myths of the Modern Mega Church, 2005, Transcript

THINK ABOUT THIS:

Isn't this bragging, and flattery....

Rick says that this meeting was  "more fun" than being honored 

with the keys to the city of Miami 

and speaking to a "HUGE," (and note,) "international...." 

(Question:  Does size get bigger or more important than"international?")

...convention of ALL of the Spanish -language publishers.

His hosts should REALLY be honored that Rick thinks

it is more fun to be here with them today 

than what he did the day before, 

and that he took this opportunity....

(and flattered that their names impressed 

such an "intelligent" man as Rick.)

"As you can imagine, I get a lot of invitations to speak - I get about four or five a day - and so I have been choosing pretty carefully which ones to accept. And I came here because I only speak to influencers, and God has given you a degree of influence. "

~Rick Warren 

Pew Forum, Myths of the Modern Mega Church, 2005, Transcript

THINK ABOUT THIS:

Again, his hosts should be impressed that Rick chose to be with them, as opposed to all the other offers he gets daily.... 4 or 5 you know.

He only speaks to "influencers"  

(Those others are probably not important enough 

to have audience with.) Then comes spiritual flattery:

"God has given you a degree of influence. "

(But probably not as much as Rick thinks 

that he has at this point of the conversation.) 

 "The Purpose Driven life is not just the best-selling book in American history; it's the best-selling book in about a dozen languages."~Rick Warren 

Pew Forum, Myths of the Modern Mega Church, 2005, Transcript

MORE FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

Rick thinks his book outsells the Bible.

(He thinks it is that GREAT.)

Perhaps he would like it to replace the Bible too?

 "Saddleback is the largest church in America. We had our 25th anniversary on Easter this year. I did 12 services. We had 45,000 in attendance and I preached 12 services in a row. Two weeks later, we celebrated our anniversary and we had never had the church in one location, so we rented Angel Stadium and had 30,000 at Angel Stadium. I have 82,000 names on the church roll."~Rick Warren 

Pew Forum, Myths of the Modern Mega Church, 2005, Transcript

THINK ABOUT THIS:
Humility.
What is it, really?
Is Rick Warren a man that displays humility?

" When I wrote "The Purpose Driven Life," I took off seven months and I did not preach, and I did not teach, and I did not lead my staff of 300, but I just wrote the book. And while I was gone, the church grew by 800 people because it's not built on me, it's built on the 9,200 lay ministers in the church." ~Rick Warren 

Pew Forum, Myths of the Modern Mega Church, 2005, Transcript

THINK ABOUT THIS:

What did Rick say the "Purpose Driven" church is built on?

What does the Bible say that the Church is built on?

" I know about volunteers. We have 9,200 lay ministers who lead 200-plus different ministries all over southern California. I know these numbers are a little overwhelming, but just to give you an idea, we have 2,600 small groups that meet from Santa Monica to Escondido in 83 cities. And so the church gathers on Sunday for a big service and then meets during the week in homes. That allows us to do all kinds of enormous things. For instance, in November, during our 40 Days of Community, we decided to feed every homeless person in Orange County three meals a day for 40 days. We went out and we found out that was 42,000 people. How do you feed 42,000 people three meals a day for 40 days? Well, it takes a lot of volunteers. And we did - we collected over 2 million pounds of food and those 9,200 lay ministers pulled it off and we fed 40,000 people three meals a day." 
                                                                                                                             ~Rick Warren 

Pew Forum, Myths of the Modern Mega Church, 2005, Transcript

THINK ABOUT THIS:

IS there anything that Rick Warren does not claim to know?

He knows all about volunteers... and whoa... 

look at those impressive NUMBERS

that he has so well memorized and gloats over...

continually..

 "While I wasn't known like a Jerry Falwell or a Robert Schuller or some of these media personalities, every pastor in America knew who I was because I put all of my sermons on an Internet site and it gets 400,000 hits a day from pastors. And so, instead of me teaching it on the radio or TV, we put it on the Internet and we allow other pastors to take this material and use it."

~Rick Warren 

Pew Forum, Myths of the Modern Mega Church, 2005, Transcript

Impressive huh?

"Every pastor in America"

listens to Rick and his sermons

even preaches what Rick preaches to their congregations,

according to Rick.

They do not even need their Bible anymore;

they can just download Rick.

"And I would just say to that - the reality is that most members of typical churches could not join Saddleback because they would not be willing to meet the requirements. We have very strong standards for requirements. They're pretty tough, and we're not interested in the big membership; we're interested in turning an audience into an army and mobilizing it for good."~Rick Warren 

Pew Forum, Myths of the Modern Mega Church, 2005, Transcript

THINK ABOUT THIS:

Here he sets himself up as being somehow 

"better" than every other church... or rather...

"most "typical " Christians and 

their "typical churches.... as opposed to the 

special ones, like Saddleback.

You can see too that he is not interested in ministerial "numbers,"

though that is all he ever talks about is numbers.

"Well, I'm actually speaking at the University of Judaism this next month, where I've been asked to come in and teach the rabbis my preaching seminar. "~Rick Warren 

Pew Forum, Myths of the Modern Mega Church, 2005, Transcript

THINK ON THIS:
Rick is demonstrating his own greatness once again,
telling us he is "actually" so much in demand that he is
even being asked to teach Rabbis...
and bragging about it.
Do you suppose he will preach the gospel
of Jesus Christ to them
there at the University of Judaism?
Paul preached in the synagogues you know.
He was thrown out.

" All my life I planned to simply pastor this church for life and train pastors. That's all I wanted to do. And so I've spent the last 20 years training about 400,000 pastors in 162 countries. I didn't want to do anything else. And all of a sudden after the book came out, two things happened. First, it brought in a ton of money. I mean, a ton of money. Second, it brought in a lot of notoriety, which I didn't really want. And I began to say, what am I supposed to do with this affluence and what am I supposed to do with this influence? And I call it the stewardship of affluence and the stewardship of influence."~Rick Warren 

Pew Forum, Myths of the Modern Mega Church, 2005, Transcript

You get the idea that he is quite boastful.

And as for all that "affluence," where did (does) it go?

It apparently goes "broke."

In 2009 the word was, Saddleback Church was broke!

Rick Warren in a desparate plea, begged his church for money.

Then the  miracle of people's "radical generosity" took place..

But then, who knows, maybe this urgent plea

was just a gimmick? Perhaps it was planned as a public display

of Rick's "influence." over his congregation, for the media and the watching world?

As it turned out, Saddleback didn't have to close it's doors 

and Rick drummed up more money than he asked 

his congregation for.

You can read my other noted quotes of Rick from this Forum talk
  HERE.


Or better yet, read Pew Forum's Interview
with Rick Warren yourself, Click HERE.