Book Review

Warren, Rick. The Purpose Driven Church: Growth without Compromising your Message & Mission. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995. 399pp. $25.00

Introduction

Rick Warren is a graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and the Senior Pastor of Saddleback Community Church located within Orange County in the city of Lake Forest, California. Saddleback started as a Bible study, out of Warren’s condominium with seven people in attendance in the year of 1980, later growing into an attendance of fifteen. Its first service began Easter Sunday on April 6, 1980 with 205 people in attendance, and now it is one of the fastest growing churches in American history.

Summary

Rick Warren in this book discusses how to become a purpose-driven church through growth without compromising your biblical message and mission or the doctrine of the New Testament Church in five major parts: seeing the big picture, becoming a purpose-driven church, reaching out to your community, bringing in a crowd, and building up the church. Within these five major parts of the book the author addresses several sub-categories. Part one discusses the Saddleback story and the myths about growing churches. Part two addresses the issue of what drives the church, the foundation for a healthy church, defining your purposes, communicating your purposes, organizing around your purposes, and applying your purposes. Part three discusses who is your target, knowing whom you can best reach, and developing your strategy. Part four addresses how Jesus attracted crowds, that worship can be a witness, designing a seeker-sensitive service, selecting your music, and preaching to the unchurched. Part five addresses the congregation through turning attendees into members, th...

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...pose-driven churches are built on the eternal purposes of God (83) which are found in God’s Word.

Conclusion

The writer found this book very advantageous and insightful. The book gives a clear perspective of the life of the author and Saddleback Community Church with practical and tried resources, material, and principles that can be useful to other churches and their ministries. The book contains a strong biblical and theological foundation as well, as it models its premise of being a purpose-driven church on the New Testament church.

This book additionally is found to be of immense significance to the writer and his future ministry. The assigned call that God has placed upon the writer’s life is to plant a church and be the senior pastor of this church. Therefore, this book proved to be a good resource in theory, practicality, and usage to the writer.