Posted on Sep 5, 2006 | by Staff

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--A Wall Street Journal story Sept. 5 focusing on California pastor Rick Warren asserts that upheaval has occurred in various churches that have embraced his “Purpose-Driven” emphasis.

“Congregations nationwide have split or expelled members who fought the changes, roiling working-class Baptist congregations and affluent nondenominational churches,” Wall Street Journal reporter Suzanne Sataline wrote in the front-page story.

The 2,200-word story cites four congregations where upheaval occurred from a move toward the principles espoused by Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., and author of the best-seller “Purpose-Driven Life.”

The story, however, does not relay any estimates of the extent of problems nationwide stemming from Warren’s Purpose-Driven methods.

The sole quote from Warren, a Southern Baptist whose church draws 20,000 people each weekend, is relayed midway in the story:

“Mr. Warren acknowledges that splits occur in congregations that adopt his ideas,” the paper recounts, “though he says he opposes efforts to expel church members. ‘There is no growth without change and there is no change without loss and there is no loss without pain,’ he says. ‘Probably 10% of all churches are in conflict at any given point, regardless of what they're doing.’ That, he contends, ‘is not just symptomatic of changing to purpose-driven. It would be symptomatic in changing to anything.’”

Apart from recapping the experiences of several individuals in the four congregations, the story quotes one critic, Bob DeWaay, senior pastor of the nondenominational Twin City Fellowship in Minneapolis and author of “Redefining Christianity: Understanding the Purpose Driven Life Movement,” a paperback published by 21st Century Press, a self-described “subsidy press” based in Springfield, Mo.

The article describes DeWaay as concerned that Warren is “gutting” Christianity. "The Bible's theme is about redemption and atonement, not finding meaning and solving problems," DeWaay is quoted as saying.

The article states that Warren “encourages ministers to banish church traditions such as hymns, choirs and pews.” Purpose-Driven worship, according to the article, entails contemporary Christian songs led by “praise team” singers and rock musicians. Warren’s sermons, meanwhile, “rarely linger on self-denial and fighting sin, instead focusing on healing modern American angst, such as troubled marriages and stress,” the article states.

Warren’s “Internet marketing savvy,” the article states, has connected with “tens of thousands” of pastors, many of whom have started new churches or sought to revitalize existent churches via a Purpose-Driven emphasis.

The article states that supporters of Warren’s Purpose-Driven approach “credit it with energizing congregations, doubling the size of some churches and boosting the number of ‘megachurches’ of more than 2,000 members. By Warren’s count, according to the article, Saddleback ministries have trained 400,000 pastors globally. “He reaches many more through sales of his sermons, books and lessons on the Web,” the article states. “Mr. Warren says he donates 90% of his money to fund philanthropy and overseas training.”

The four congregations cited in the article as having undergone Purpose-Driven-related turmoil are:

-- Iuka (Miss.) Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist congregation that lost about 40 members after a 150-41 vote to expel a deacon who had been critical of the church’s apparent move toward a Purpose-Driven-like style.

-- Valley View Christian Church in Dallas, which has lost 200 members to a new church spawned by opposition to Valley View’s move to a Purpose-Driven emphasis. The church’s senior minister is Barry McCarty, longtime chief parliamentarian at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meetings. Among those moving to the new church, according to the Wall Street Journal article, is Harriet Miers, whom President Bush unsuccessfully sought to nominate to the U.S. Supreme Court.

McCarty told Baptist Press, “Our church used the five purposes from the Purpose-Drive Life” -– worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and evangelism -– “as the outline for our strategic plan because they are the purposes for the church that are revealed in Scripture. It ought to be noted that Rick Warren did not invent these five purposes; he simply popularized them. Rick got these five purposes from the Bible. … Rick’s heart is the same place that our hearts are: We want to do what God has assigned us to do as individuals and as a church.”

-- First Baptist Church of Lakewood in Long Beach, Calif., a congregation affiliated with the Baptist General Conference. The church’s worship attendance has fallen from 700 to 550, pastor John Dickau told The Journal, since he guided the church into a Purpose-Drive mode seven years ago. Part of the problem, Dickau said, began with attempting to change the church too quickly.

-- Brookwood Church in Burlington, N.C., a Southern Baptist congregation where attendance has dropped from 600 to 275 since the introduction of a Purpose-Driven approach in 2001.

Neither Warren nor the Wall Street Journal writer, Suzanne Sataline, responded to Baptist Press’ request for further comment by BP’s deadline Sept. 5.
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