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 the 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.”
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 the 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?' ”
Warren said his book, The Purpose-Drive Life, has sold nearly 30 million copies in 50 languages and that the biggest surprise about it is “that I got to write it.”
“At the right time in the right way, God decided he wanted to bless this book.”
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.
“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 HIV/AIDS, and promoting education.
Asked for his reaction to Warren's comments about the SBC's withdrawal, 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 more extensively.
“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 email message. “… 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.”
Associated Baptist Press