Rick Warren may have retired as pastor at Saddelback Church but he isn’t done yet.
The man who is arguably the best-known Southern Baptist pastor in America has signed on to help lead a British university with ties to his great-great-grandfather.
Spurgeon’s College announced May 15 that Warren has been installed as “honorary” chancellor of the London-based school named for the 19th century Baptist preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon. (See a video of the installation service here.)
The college, recently granted status as a university, currently enrolls about 600 students and employs 80 faculty and staff. It offers undergraduate degrees in theology and postgraduate courses in Christian thought and practice, digital theology, and biblical and theological studies.
Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) was a British preacher and author who remains highly influential among conservative evangelicals today. He has been called the “Prince of Preachers,” and his sermons and commentaries are widely read still today.
Warren has a family connection to both Spurgeon and the college, which was founded in 1856. His great-great-grandfather studied at Spurgeon’s. He also was led to Christian faith, commissioned to Christian service and sent to America to plant churches by Spurgeon himself.
A century later, Warren also became a church planter, launching what would become the largest church in the Southern Baptist Convention — although the SBC has taken the first steps to expel Warren’s church over its ordination of women and allowing women to preach.
Last year, Warren retired as founding pastor at Saddleback Church, located in Orange County, Calif.
“I have a deep personal family connection over four generations to Charles Spurgeon and the ministry of the college he founded, and he is responsible for my family moving to America,” Warren said. “Further, my understanding of the meaning of ordination and conviction from Scripture on ministry leadership are identical to Charles Spurgeon’s published views. I am grateful to God and the college for this opportunity to give back to this community.”
Spurgeon’s College has been expanding its enrollment through an online learning community. A news release said Warren will offer guest lectures for those classes while also helping raise money for the school.
“The name of Spurgeon stands for a number of key values the church needs to recover today,” Warren said. “It represents strong Bible-based doctrine; passionate preaching; extensive church planting; winsome evangelism; a commitment to the ministry of every believer; and caring for the poor, the orphaned and the marginalized. I’d summarize Charles Spurgeon’s life and ministry with this slogan: ‘He made a Great Commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission that produced a great church and a great college.’”
Warren becomes the school’s first-ever chancellor. The school’s vice chancellor and principal is Philip McCormack, a former chaplain in the British Army.
Spurgeon’s College describes itself as an evangelical school in membership with the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Evangelical Alliance and the Micah Network. “As a confessional college, it is committed to studying and understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ as witnessed to by the Scriptures and the challenges of the world in which this gospel is to be proclaimed.”
The college trains both women and men, preparing candidates for ordination to the Baptist ministry within the Baptist Union of Great Britain and beyond.
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