BIRMINGHAM, England (ABP) — Affirming that Baptists from around the world can “have unity without uniformity,” Rick Warren told reporters at the Baptist World Alliance's centenary congress that the withdrawal of Southern Baptists from BWA was a “silly” mistake.
“God has called us to enjoy and fellowship with each other and work together. We're all in this together,” he said, adding Baptists can “celebrate our diversity and celebrate our unity.”
Warren, a keynote speaker during the July 27-31 Baptist World Centenary Congress in Birmingham, England, is pastor of Saddleback Community Church in Lake Forest, Calif., and author of the international best-selling book, The Purpose Driven Life.
During a July 28 press conference, Warren addressed a question about last year's decision by the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest BWA member, to withdraw membership and funding from BWA. “I think that was a mistake,” he said flatly. “When the Southern Baptists pulled out funding, my wife and I wrote a check for $25,000 to BWA.
“I see absolutely zero reason in separating my fellowship from anybody,” he declared. Noting he has theological differences with many of the diverse denominations that invite him to speak, Warren added, “That doesn't stop me from fellowshipping with them.”
When he heard of the SBC's withdrawal, he added, “I thought, ‘This is silly! Why would we separate ourselves from brothers and sisters in the world?'”
Warning that Baptists often are “known for what we're against rather than what we're for,” Warren said, “I am praying for a second reformation of the church” that will focus more on deeds than words.”
“The first Reformation was about beliefs. This one needs to be about behavior. … We've had a Reformation; what we need now is a transformation.”
Fielding a question about claims that The Purpose Driven Life comes across as an adulation of men, Warren responded, “I don't know how it could be an adulation of man when the first sentence of the book is, ‘It's not about you.' The whole book is, ‘It is all about God.'”
The biggest surprise about the book is “that I got to write it,” Warren said. “At the right time in the right way, God decided he wanted to bless this book.” It has sold nearly 30 million copies in 50 languages.
The book's subtitle “is the most fundamental question in life, ‘What on earth am I here for?'” he said. “It's the universal question, whether you're old or young, rich or poor, Eastern or Western.”
Describing the book's content and writing style as simple, Warren added, “I'm a simple person. I'm here to feed sheep, not intellectual giraffes. Simple does not mean it is simplistic. Simple means it is clear. I think it is all about God.”
Warren said his ministry now is focused on helping pastors worldwide, principally through the website pastors.com. Some pastors confuse prominence and significance, Warren cautioned. But prominence has a price, he said. “I think always being in the spotlight blinds you.
“Your ministry is significant whether it is prominent or not.”
Urging pastors to “live for an audience of one,” he said, “Fame is fleeting. What's more important is your character. God is even more concerned with your character than with your ministry.
“I hate the celebrity culture,” he added, citing his commitment to never broadcast his church's worship services on television or radio.
“I never wanted to be a celebrity,” he insisted. “Unfortunately, the book kind of blew my cover.”
In response to their newfound fame and fortune, Warren said he and his wife, Kay, set up three foundations, including one to provide ministry to people with AIDS and one to help train pastors. He also stopped taking a salary from Saddleback and returned the salary the church had paid him the past 25 years.
“Every time I give, it breaks the grip of materialism on my life,” he noted.
“The difficult part was: What do you do with the fame, the attention?” Warren told reporters. “God said to me the purpose of influence is to speak up for those who have no influence.” In response, Warren has endorsed the One Campaign to reduce world hunger and has unveiled a “PEACE plan” urging every local church to be involved in planting churches, fighting poverty and AIDS, and promoting education.
“Issues like disease and poverty and education I will work on with anybody,” he said. “Those are not just Baptist issues. Those are human issues.”
As church leaders wrestle with changing trends, Warren said they also “need to focus on what's not going to change in the next 10 years.”
Human nature, human need and God's answer to them will never change, he pointed out. “Vision is not the ability to predict the future,” he insisted. “Nobody can predict the future. Vision is the ability to understand the time you're in right now and to adapt accordingly.”
While “the message never changes,” he added, “If we don't change the methods, we're being untrue to the message.”
Urging churches to pursue effective ways to fulfill people's “longing for belonging,” Warren declared, “I don't see many people interested in Christendom. But I see a lot of people interested in God.”
Asked for his reaction to Warren's comments about the SBC withdrawing from BWA, Morris Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee praised Warren's ministry, but suggested he might feel otherwise about the BWA if he had studied it as extensively as Chapman.
“The convention's vote to withdraw came after the Executive Committee undertook five years of study and an intense effort to find reasons to maintain the relationship with and membership in the BWA,” Chapman wrote, via an e-mail message while on vacation in Montana. “A significant number of Southern Baptist leaders actively engaged in the work of the BWA General Council year after year. Had Rick personally been involved to that degree, he may have come to the same conclusion reached by the SBC.”
Chapman continued: “All Southern Baptists, including me, honor Rick's right to relate to the BWA as he feels God leading him. His comments about the withdrawal of the SBC shouldn't be interpreted as a lack of love for the convention of which he has been a part all of his life.”
— Greg Warner contributed to this story.