The Warrens of the Purpose-Driven

* “Warren”: “A crowded tenement or district.” - Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition.

Warning: this will be a long post. I apologize for it; I'll try to be shorter next time.

The first decade of the 21^st century has been an interesting time for American evangelicalism. This is the time in which several new and exciting initiatives were launched by leaders on the evangelical “cutting edge.” Among these leaders were Bruce Wilkinson, author of The Prayer of Jabez, Mel Gibson, director of The Passion of the Christ, and those involved in teaching “Alpha courses”, introductory ten-week discussions of the basics of Christianity, which began in England in the 1990's but became popular in the United States in this decade. One of the most famous initiatives has been the Purpose-Driven movement started by Rick Warren.

The seeds of that movement were planted in 1995 with the release of The Purpose-Driven Church (Zondervan, copyrighted in 1995 by Rick Warren). The movement began to take off in 2002 with the publication of Warren's book, The Purpose-Driven Life (Zondervan, copyrighted in 2002 by Rick Warren). Because I was still involved in an abusive, ingrown church at the time of the 2002 release, I hardly noticed. But by 2003 The Purpose-Driven Life was making quite a splash, with many Southern California churches hosting 40 Days of Purpose workshops and sermon series, as I discovered when I left my old church and went looking for a “healthy church.” The Purpose-Driven Life is one of the most successfully marketed religious books in American history, having sold at least 20 million copies. It has also had a huge part in altering the structure and worship of thousands of main line evangelical churches in the English-speaking world. Of the many churches I visited between 2003 and 2005, I was hard-pressed to find a place which had not ditched its hymnals and organist for a PowerPoint screen projection of some up-tempo “praise songs” played by a “kickin' praise band,” or whose pastor had not ditched vestments or conservative Sunday suits for blue jeans and a casual shirt. (I even visited a Lutheran church which had ditched its organist and major portions of its liturgy and which, on the Sunday I attended, featured three elderly ladies singing “Give Me Water From The Well.” That was interesting, believe me!)

People and books which make such widespread impressions also make critics, and the Purpose-Driven books are no exception. Over the last few years, I have perused both books, and now have them in my library. I have also studied the ecclesiastical structure promoted by the Purpose-Driven books, having seen many churches, both in Southern California and in the city where I now live, who have adopted Rick Warren's teachings on church structure and government. Here then is my analysis.

The dust jacket for The Purpose-Driven Church contains the slogan, “Growth Without Compromising Your Message And Mission.” In the book, Mr. Warren states that if a church is healthy, it will naturally grow. He then lists principles which he says lead to a healthy church, thus fostering a growing church. He presents what he believes are the five biblical purposes for the church: worship, ministry (service in the church), evangelism, fellowship and discipleship. Mr. Warren then presents the story of the church he founded, Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, and of the many good things that happened there as a result of his ministry. Certainly, no one can argue against the need for the Church to devote itself to worship, ministry and the rest. And Saddleback Church boasts over ten thousand attendees each Sunday (including a co-worker at my former office in Southern California).

The Purpose-Driven Life takes the principles outlined in The Purpose-Driven Church and applies them to individuals on a personal level, speaking of how each individual is made for God's pleasure (worship), formed for God's family (fellowship), and so forth. The Purpose-Driven books have certainly caused many Americans to ponder the fact that they are on earth for a purpose, and that this purpose is larger than they are. In that respect, both The Purpose-Driven Life, the 40 Days of Purpose campaigns, and the whole Purpose-Driven movement have done a great deal of good. But the Purpose-Driven books and movement have also displayed problems and weaknesses which critics have quite rightly pointed out. Some of the arguments of the critics have to do with the theology of the books and their message, which admittedly does not go into much detail about sin, guilt and the judgment of God on sinners. Moreover, the books do not clearly teach what it means to repent of one's sins and believe in Jesus Christ. But my purpose here is not to present a critique of the Purpose-Driven theology, but to deal with the Purpose-Driven movement as it relates to the abuse of ecclesiastical power.

Rick Warren offers American evangelical pastors the hope that they can grow their churches phenomenally, just as Warren grew his church from humble origins to a membership in the thousands. He holds his church up as a model to which other pastors should aspire. So what is Warren's church like? First, Mr. Warren's church has what he would call a “streamlined organizational structure,” and he has successfully taught his congregation “the difference between maintenance and ministry.” He defines the maintenance work of a church as overseeing the church budget, buildings and organizational structure, while ministry is defined as “the work of the church.” Warren believes that involving church members in the “maintenance” work wastes their time and promotes conflict. Warren believes that most church attenders are simply looking for a place where they can do something they feel is significant, and do not want to be involved in the decision-making process of running a church. Therefore, at Saddleback Church, the paid staff does the work of “maintenance” and the lay members are to do the work of the ministry.

He also believes that a Biblical church structure has no committees, elections, majority rule, boards, board members, parliamentary procedures or voting. His church does not hold votes for ministry positions like elders or deacons. Rather, the paid staff oversees the filling of lay ministry positions. Mr. Warren even goes so far as to say that for a church to grow, the pastor must give up control of the ministry and the people must give up control of the leadership of the church. This means that the pastor gives up day-to-day management of the activities of each ministry – but the congregation is to surrender all control over the general direction and goals of the church to the pastor.

Warren himself has final authority over his paid staff and final say regarding the direction and goals of his church, and his paid staff have final authority over the budget and organizational structure of the church. This is yet another example of the concentration of a huge amount of ecclesiastical authority in the hands of one man, without sufficient safeguards or accountability to prevent the abuse of power. Warren started his church from scratch, and one can only assume that those who are long time members of Saddleback knew what they were signing up for when they joined. But I would not join that sort of church, having already suffered in a church in which one man had excessive authority without proper checks and balances.

In addition to The Purpose-Driven Church, Warren has a website, “Pastors.com,” to assist pastors who want to grow a church according to Warren's principles. He has also been affiliated with an organization, “Church Transitions, Inc.”, which assists in spreading “Warrenist” church growth principles to other churches. But problems have arisen when pastors of established churches have adopted Warrenist principles, and then have tried single-handedly to implement these principles in their own congregations without the informed consent of those congregations. These problems have been especially pronounced in Southern Baptist churches whose pastors tried to force their congregations down the Warrenist path.

The first problem has been with pastoral authority. Many churches belonging to established denominations have bylaws and constitutions which were ratified by the entire congregation. Many churchgoers have grown up in an environment in which the monthly business meeting was a common feature, where church finances were freely discussed, where elders and deacons were chosen by vote, and where the congregation voted its pastors in or out. To have power over one's own affairs is an American right, and we Americans have tended to exercise the right to have a say in those organizations or gatherings to which we consciously choose to belong. This is especially true of older Americans. But pastors who came under the influence of Warrenism immediately sought to overturn congregational oversight of their churches, trying instead to re-write the church bylaws and constitutions to give the pastors final authority in the church. This has not gone over well with some members of these churches, who are used to having a say in the affairs of the groups to which they belong.

The second problem has been with the style of worship and church service. In The Purpose-Driven Church, Warren makes a big point about modernizing the worship services to make them more “culturally relevant.” He stresses the need for the Church to “sing a new song” by putting the message of the Church to the music of the present day, which according to him is contemporary pop/rock. And he criticizes those who prefer the older, more traditional music that has been part of the heritage of the Church. I'll say right now that I agree with Rick Warren that the Bible does not teach that one style of music is holier than another. I have read the Bible from cover to cover at least a few times, and I have listened to the arguments of those who try to find Biblical grounds to criticize contemporary Christian music, and in my opinion, many of their “Biblical” arguments fall flat because they have no Biblical basis.

But let me say something about convictions. The Bible does not explicitly command or forbid many things that are now a feature of modern life. After all, jetliners, lasers and the Internet were not around 2,000 years ago. But the Bible does outline general principles of life, morality and spirituality. As each Christian internalizes those principles, he or she forms convictions, most of which are similar from Christian to Christian, but some of which are highly unique. Warren believes that the best, most Christ-honoring church music style right now is contemporary pop/rock, because he believes that this style is most conducive to reaching today's unchurched people. Very well, that is his conviction. What he and his devotees fail to realize is that those who want more traditional church music and a more traditional church service are also expressing their convictions. These are not just sentimental preferences or feelings, but convictions formed out of much thought, study and prayer, and are just as valid as the convictions of the Warrenists. But in many churches, the convictions of the traditionalists are being violently disregarded while the pastor forces a praise band down their throats. As more and more churches have jumped on the Warrenist bandwagon in recent years, organists and hymnals have been put on the Endangered Species List. Those whose convictions move them to seek the hymns and liturgy that are part of the Church's historical heritage are finding that they have nowhere to turn.

The third problem has been with finances. As pastors have fallen under the influence of Warrenism, they have frequently tried to force the idea of “maintenance” versus “ministry” on their congregations, telling the congregations that they must cede leadership to the pastor in all areas of the maintenance of the church, including its finances. But when members have a say in directing the finances of a church, it gives them quite a sense of ownership in the church. Many long-time members of these churches have grown used to this sense of ownership, only to have it suddenly ripped away by a pastor who has recently fallen under the spell of Warren. In some of these churches, it is no longer possible for members to view or obtain copies of the church financial statements or even of the church bylaws!

Another way to look at these problems is in terms of the strategies in a war. It is a war against old people, first of all – a war of elimination. Why the old? Because these are the ones who for so long have been used to self-determination. The old are also the ones most likely to speak up if they disagree with the direction given by a young pastor. Old people are more likely than the young to feel great liberty to tell a young leader that he's crazy if he is in fact crazy. If a pastor wants to establish absolute authority over a congregation, he does well if he first eliminates the elderly. But these issues can also be seen as a war against the young – a war that is not about elimination, but about domination. For a youthful or even middle-aged (but still cool) pastor can create an environment tailor-made to attract people who are predominantly young, and can use his authority to establish an excessive degree of control over his flock without being challenged.

A typical Warrenist church (or church whose pastor has successfully transitioned it to Warrenism) will therefore be led by the pastor, who is assisted by his chosen staff and presides over a congregation which follows the pastor's lead unquestioningly, without ever knowing or caring to know about the finances of the church or the moral qualifications of the paid staff. The members will never seek to draft or vote on bylaws or a church constitution, choosing instead to give the pastor ultimate authority to decide the structure and direction of the church. In order to reinforce unquestioning loyalty to such a church, Warren goes to great lengths in his Purpose-Driven books to speak against “gossip,” and to emphasize the importance of guarding the church against “whiners” and “murmuring.” For backup, he uses carefully chosen translations of various Bible verses designed by their wording to give the impression that to criticize the church leaders in any way is sinful.

Church Transitions, Inc., has also provided teaching materials and advice to help would-be Warrenist pastors enforce pastoral authority and unquestioning loyalty. In 2005, Church Transitions published a video pastors' conference series titled, “Transitioning: Leading Your Church Through Change.” In Session Six of that series, titled “Dealing With Opposition To The Vision,” Donald (Roddy) Clyde, a longtime Warren associate along with Glen Sartain, characterizes those who resist having their churches transitioned to a Warrenist model as “...wolves. And what should shepherds do with the wolves? You shoot 'em!” Clyde has also taught would-be Warrenist pastors to expel church members who do not support the switch to a Warrenist church model. Moreover, he has taught these pastors to find out where the expelled members next join a church, and call the leaders of that church to recommend that the leaders not allow those members to have any ministry position. He teaches that any member of his church who serves in ministry and who says that they want to visit another church should be immediately relieved of their ministry.

With the drive to concentrate such power in the hands of Warrenist pastors has also, predictably, come evidence of the abuse of that power. Germantown Baptist Church in Germantown, Tennessee recently went through a struggle caused by a pastor who tried to implement a Warrenist church structure, including the removal of oversight of finances from the congregation. Germantown Baptist is a rich church, by the way (2006 budget: $12 million; church property: $85 million). Bellevue Baptist Church, near Memphis, Tennessee, has also had problems involving a Warrenist pastor and church finances, with “excessive” salaries being paid to the pastoral staff, according to one source.

And the king of examples is that of Pastor Roddy Clyde himself, who was arrested in August of 2007 for embezzling at least $500,000 from the Fellowship at Forest Creek Church in Arizona. Clyde used the money to buy land, horses, vacations and other property. It is ironically fitting that a man who was such a vigorous champion of unquestioned, absolute pastoral authority for the sake of church growth should become such a prime example of the dangers of that authority.

One last note: the Warrenist churches are primarily “staff-led”; that is, they are led by a pastor through his staff, without authoritative input from their congregations. A variant of this is the “elder-led” model. In this model, the church is led by a board of elders. But these elders are not directly chosen by the congregation. Rather, when a new elder must be added to the board, the elders choose the candidate themselves, or the elders ask the congregation from time to time if they know of anyone who would be qualified to serve as an elder. Those who are approved by the elders are added to the elder board. In some of these churches, the senior pastor is also president of the elder board. This seems on the surface to be a better arrangement than the “staff-led” model, but in reality the elders usually are not directly accountable to the congregation, since they are not chosen directly by the congregation. It seems to me to be yet another arrangement which could lead to a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a few without adequate checks and balances to protect the many.

Sources:

• “Round Rock Pastor Stole at least $500,000, According to Arrest Report,” The Austin American Statesman, 19 August 2007, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1883442/posts

• “Germantown Baptist Church,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germantown_Baptist_Church

• “Transitioning: Leading Your Church Through Change,” Excellerators website, http://www.excellerators.org/artman/publish/article_49.shtml

• “The Fellowship at Forrest Creek: Where Service is Common Place (sic),” Pastors.com website, http://www.pastors.com/rwmt/article.asp?ArtID=8630

• “Change Dividing Southern Baptist Mega-Church,” Ethics Daily, posted 22 September 2006

• “Strategy for Church Growth Splits Congregants,” Wall Street Journal, 5 September 2006, posted on the Post-Gazette website at http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06248/719178-84.stm