Saddleback Church

Dear Saddleback Family,

Welcome to this News and Views for March 27! I am so glad to be back home and want to share with you some incredible things I experienced in my recent trip overseas. Watch this video to hear more.

• To purchase Choose Joy from Saddleback Resources, click here.
• To watch the previous All Access sermons, click here.
• To see our Easter service times and locations, click here.

ON RESPONDING TO FALSE ACCUSATIONS

Dear Saddleback family,

                A week ago a reporter published an article in the Orange County Register about Saddleback Church that contained many errors and false assumptions:

• It erroneously stated that we have a partnership with a local Muslim mosque.

That is false.

• It erroneously reported that we had agreed to not evangelize with Muslims.

That is false.

• It erroneously reported that we believe Saddleback and Muslims worship the same God.

That is false

• It erroneously used a picture of our new PEACE Center as the example of a program of cooperation with Muslims.

That is false.

• It erroneously reported that our church had agreed to a theological document with Muslims.  

That is false.

                Usually, we try to ignore the false statements made by media, and especially irresponsible bloggers, because 1) Reacting to every false report would take up most of our time,  2) It is almost impossible to undo an error’s damage once it is on the Internet, 3) God knows the truth and he is the only one we must please, 4) It is Christlike to  remain silent in the face of  false accusations, 5) God blesses us even more every time we trust him with our defense,  and 6) We have far more important tasks to accomplish with our time.   

When opponents publicly attacked and openly criticized Nehemiah for the work God had assigned him, Nehemiah responded wisely, saying “ I sent messengers to them with this reply: ‘I am carrying on a great project and the work is too important for me to stop and respond to you. Why should the work stop while I leave it and meet with you?’" (Neh. 6:30)  When people have already decided to not like you, nothing you say will change their minds . . . not the truth, facts, proof, or logic. They only get more defensive and angry.  It’s a waste of your breath. We’ve seen this during the past week.

               But because YOU value the truth, I agreed to do an interview to correct the errors of the article, and send it to you. Of course, anything I write to you also goes public. Once my interview was released, the “I-hate-Saddleback” bloggers refused to accept the facts, and they began looking for something else to attack or to claim that I had lied. Since I wasn’t asked in the interview about the fifth error (Has Saddleback signed a theological agreement?) the bloggers began looking for a loophole, or even a “cover-up.” 

Of course Saddleback has NEVER agreed to any theological document with Muslims or else the elders and I would have seen it first! No agreement or document could possibly be approved without our consent!  But the first time our elders and I even heard of a document was from the article! So this week I tracked down the rumor and here’s what I found:

A member of Saddleback started a Bible study, called The King’s Way, with some of our Muslim friends. During the study they started writing down things that they noticed Muslims, Jews, and Christians might have in common: They noticed that all three claim to believe the Great Commandment (“Love God with all you heart and love your Neighbor as yourself”), all three accept the Old Testament as Scripture (and Muslims claim to accept the New Testament also) and all three are monotheistic (one God, not many). They presented these thoughts at the Bible study’s Christmas dinner in December. That’s it!  End of story!  It went no further. No document was signed. No agreement was made. No covenant was approved.  It was just two men sharing their observations at the Bible study dinner regarding what Muslims, Jews, and Christians have in common.

That’s a huge difference from the way it was reported. It was not a new partnership. It was not a theological covenant. It was not a new religion called “Chrislam.” The fact is, the Bible study discussion paper was never even seen by anyone on Saddleback’s Leadership Team (40 pastors,) Saddleback’s Pastor’s Management Team (14 pastors), Saddleback’s Trustees (6 business leaders), or Saddleback’s Elders (7 pastors).

Predictably, to defend himself after my interview corrected his errors, the Orange County Register reporter released a segment of the so-called “document” to the I-hate-Saddleback bloggers – giving them a supposed smoking gun. Unfortunately, he forgot to ask if any Saddleback pastors had actually signed or even seen this paper. We had not! But now we’ve heard that there will be a second article this Sunday in the Register giving a platform and legitimacy to attackers who didn’t know the facts either. So don’t be surprised if it’s wrong again.

If you missed reading my interview, click here to read it.
If you’d like to read what our Muslim friend said, click here to read it.

Let me be clear: This entire misunderstanding is neither the fault of Saddleback members nor our Muslim friends who accepted the invitation to study the Bible together. It’s the result of poor reporting and the willingness of irresponsible bloggers who hate us to automatically believe anything negative about our church. They shoot first, publish a report, then ask for clarification after they’ve done the damage, and finally, they never retract anything when proven wrong. When a national news agency contacted us this week, their conclusion was “There’s no real story here.” Duh!

This incident also highlights the gullibility of people who believe everything negative on the Internet without fact-checking and the willingness of Christians to pass on bad reports about others that they can’t confirm. When people WANT to believe the worst about you, they always pass on negative reports without validating them first. It’s a motivation issue.

“Only a fool believes everything he's told! A prudent man understands the need for proof.” (Proverbs 14:15)

That’s the rest of the story.  We will continue to ignore the irresponsible bloggers who just want to fight, but we will keep you informed when blatant lies are told about our church family. I love you all!

“ALL ACCESS”, OUR NEW SERIES, STARTS THIS WEEKEND!  I can’t wait for this powerful, fascinating, and life-changing study of what the Tabernacle teaches us about how we connect with God and his amazing grace to us!

PRAY FOR OUR SADDLEBACK SAN CLEMENTE MEMBERS. This weekend, they are having a special Decade of Destiny offering and making their two-year giving commitments in order to move in to our first permanent building there.

Dear Saddleback Family,

Welcome to News and Views for the first week of March. I want to share with you about our new series, All Access, that begins this week, and ask you for feedback about your 40 Days in the Word experience. Watch this video to learn more.

• To learn more about the Tabernacle Experience, including general information, location, and days and hours of operation, click here.
• To watch the 40 Days in the Word online devotionals, click here.

Dear friends,

               A few days ago, an article appeared in the Orange County Register that included some outrageous statements about Saddleback that were incorrect.  Of course, the media rarely gets everything right, and there’s no way we could respond to every false statement made about us. But I felt this article created so many misperceptions that I agreed to do an interview in response. The interview transcript is included below. Please read it all and then forward it to everyone you know who would be interested.

Thanks!

---

RICK WARREN ON MUSLIMS, EVANGELISM and MISSIONS
with Brandon A. Cox and The Christian Post

QUESTION: Do people of other religions worship the same God as Christians?

WARREN: Of course not. Christians have a view of God that is unique. We believe Jesus is God! We believe God is a Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Not three separate gods but one God. No other faith believes Jesus is God. My God is Jesus. The belief in God as a Trinity is the foundational difference between Christians and everyone else. There are 2.1 billion people who call themselves Christians . . . whether Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Pentecostal, or Evangelical . . . and they all have the doctrine of the Trinity in common.

QUESTION: A recent newspaper article claimed you believe Christians and Muslims worship the same God, that you are “in partnership” with a mosque, and that you both agreed to “not evangelize each other.” You immediately posted a brief refutation online. Can you expand on that?

WARREN: Sure. All three of those statements are flat out wrong. Those statements were made by a reporter, not by me. I did not say them . . . I do not believe them . . . I completely disagree with them . . . and no one even talked to me about that article! So let me address each one individually: First, as I’ve already said, Christians have a fundamentally different view of God than Muslims. We worship Jesus as God. Muslims don’t. Our God is Jesus, not Allah. Colossians 2:9 says “For in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Second, while we urge our members to build friendships with everyone in our community, including Muslims and other faiths, (“Love your neighbor as yourself”), our church has never had any partnership with a mosque.  Friendship and partnership are two very different levels of commitment. Some of our members have hosted a Bible study with Muslim friends, which I applaud, but I’ve never been to it, and a Bible study certainly isn’t any kind of partnership or merger! It’s just crazy that a simple Bible study where people explore scripture with non-Christians would be reported as a partnership and others would interpret that as a plan for a new compromised religion. Just crazy! Third, as both an Evangelical and as an evangelist, anyone who knows me and my 40 year track record of ministry knows that I would never agree to “not evangelizing” anyone!  I am commanded by my Savior to share the Good News with all people everywhere, all the time, in every way possible!  Anyone who’s heard me teach knows that my heart beats for bringing others to Jesus.

QUESTION: That same article mentioned that you ate an Iftar dinner with Orange County Muslims. What is that all about?

WARREN: It’s called being polite and a good neighbor. For years, we have invited Muslim friends to attend our Easter and Christmas services and they have graciously attended year after year. Some have even celebrated our family’s personal Christmas service in our home. So when they have a potluck when their month of fasting ends, we go to their party. It’s a Jesus thing. The Pharisees criticized him as “the friend of sinners” because Jesus ate dinner with people they disapproved of. By the way, one of my dear friends is a Jewish Rabbi and my family has celebrated Passover at his home, and he attends our Christmas and Easter services.  I wish more Christians would reach out in love like Jesus.

 QUESTION: Why do you think people who call themselves Christians sometimes say the most hateful things about Muslims?

WARREN: Well, some of those folks probably aren’t really Christians. 1 John 4:20 says, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.” And 1 John 2:9 says “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.”  I am not allowed by Jesus to hate anyone. Our culture has accepted two huge lies: The first is that if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle, you must fear them or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don’t have to compromise convictions to be compassionate.

QUESTION: Let's talk about evangelism. In the past 10 years, Saddleback Church has baptized over 24,000 new believers. No other church comes close to that record. You are likely the most evangelistic church in America. What's the key?

WARREN: We are willing to do what many other churches are unwilling to do. We are willing to go beyond our comfort zone.

QUESTION: For instance?

WARREN: Because Jesus commanded us to take the Gospel to everyone, I spend much of my time with groups of people who completely disagree with what I believe. I’m constantly trying to build a bridge of love to nonbelievers, to atheists, to gays, to those I disagree with politically, and to those of other faiths. We don't wait for these people to come to church; we go to them and share with them on their turf, not ours. Every member is a minister and a missionary. Saddleback was a missional church 30 years before the term became popular. We just called it being “purpose driven”.

QUESTION: “Building a bridge” sounds like compromise to many people.

WARREN: Building a bridge has nothing to do with compromising your beliefs. It's all about your behavior and your attitude toward them. It's about genuinely loving people. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Before people ask, “Is Jesus credible?” they want to know if you are credible. Before people trust Jesus they must trust you. You cannot win your enemies to Christ, only your friends. It's part of what Paul calls “the ministry of reconciliation.” It is Christ-like to treat people with dignity and listen to them with respect.

QUESTION: Why are most Christians so ineffective at sharing their faith?

WARREN: I have a whole seminar on that! First, they don't really have any unbelieving friends. They spend all their time with other Christians. As a result, they are afraid to share their faith because it feels unnatural to them. For most people to come to Christ, you must build a relationship with them first. You must love them. The truth is, most Christians love everything else more than the people around them that Jesus died for. Second, many don't really believe that people are lost without Christ. Third, many Christians are afraid of the criticism they will receive from other Christians if they hang out with unbelievers. It was the religious people who hated Jesus the most. They criticized him for associating with tax collectors and lepers and prostitutes and politicians and going to parties. Lost people loved Jesus but the religious folks saw his associations as dangerous compromise. The same is true today. Modern Pharisees still use guilt by association as a weapon. Just read the blogs. They'd rather hunker in a bunker and attack those courageous enough to reach out to non-Christians. I do not fear the disapproval of others. I fear the disapproval of God on my disobedience to what he has clearly commanded us to do.

QUESTION: What is the P.E.A.C.E. plan?

WARREN: It is a biblical strategy of ministry based on five activities Jesus modeled in his ministry. Saddleback members have been beta testing it for the past nine years all around the world. Each letter of P.E.A.C.E. represents one of five things Jesus taught his disciples to do: P stands for Plant churches. E stands for Equip leaders. A stands for Assist the poor. C stands for Care for the sick. E stands for Educate the next generation. The PEACE plan is accomplished by local churches through local churches. It is based on three passages of Scripture and the specific instructions Jesus gave to his teams that he sent out. There are at least a dozen major differences between the PEACE Plan and the traditional, typical mission program of NGOs and parachurch organizations of the past 100 years. It is a return to the missional strategy.

QUESTION: What is the PEACE Center?

WARREN: Based on Jesus’ instructions in Acts 1:8, we practice the PEACE Plan in three dimensions: PERSONAL PEACE – my ministry to those closest to me; LOCAL PEACE -our congregation’s ministry to our community; and GLOBAL PEACE - serving other local churches around the world as those congregations do their own local PEACE.  The PEACE Center is the building on our church campus that houses about three dozen of our 300 ministries to the community. It offers our food bank, job training, family counseling, legal aid, tutoring, English as a second language, legal immigration assistance, and many other ministries.

QUESTION:  I read an article that claimed you were building a PEACE Center to bring Muslims and Christians together in peace.

WARREN: It was the writer’s mistake. He got two different stories confused. Our recently opened PEACE Center, on the Saddleback Church campus has NOTHING . . . zero . . . to do with our Muslim friends.

This is an example of why I always doubt what I read in newspapers and blogs about ministries. Secular reporters trying to cover churches and theological issues often get it wrong. But then Christian bloggers, instead of contacting the ministry, blindly believe, quote and repost the errors made by secular reporters. Then those errors become permanent, searchable, and global on the Internet. I couldn’t count the number of times a secular reporter has gotten a story about Saddleback wrong but then it is perpetuated by Christians who never fact-check.  And the three factors I mentioned about the Internet make it impossible to correct all the misperceptions, and outright lies that get repeated over and over.

QUESTION: You mentioned legal immigration services. How many languages do Saddleback members speak?

WARREN: At last count, I heard we speak 76 languages in our church family. One of our 10 values, the “A” in our S.A.D.D.L.E.B.A.C.K. strategy, is that we are an ALL-nation congregation. We are a multi-ethnic church. We want our congregation to look like heaven will look – with every age, race, tribe, and economic background represented.

QUESTION: What is the goal of your ministry?

WARREN: To know Christ and make Him known! To live out Jesus’ Great Commandment and Great Commission! In fact, this has been the motto of Saddleback Church since we started it in 1980: “A great commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will grow a great church.” Everything we do comes out of these two great texts. God's five eternal purposes for both our lives and the church proceed from these verses. The Purpose Driven Church and The Purpose Driven Life explain this in detail.

QUESTION: Through the PEACE Plan, Saddleback became the first local congregation in 2,000 years of Christian history to send its members to literally “every nation” as Jesus commanded.

WARREN: That's correct.

QUESTION: How did you accomplish that?

WARREN: By taking Jesus’ command seriously. When Jesus said, “Go to EVERY nation” we asked ourselves as a church family, “Has any local church in 2,000 years ever actually done that? If not, why don't we be the first!” So we set a goal to send our members to every nation of the world to do the five tasks of the P.E.A.C.E. Plan by the end of 2010.  Of course I know that the Greek ta ethne refers to people groups or tribes not political nations, but you have to start somewhere! So we decided that we would send our members on mission to all 197 nations in the world. (There are 195 nations in the United Nations. The only two nations not in the United Nations are Taiwan and Serbia.) On November 18, 2010, a Saddleback team went to the last nation, #197, a small island in the Caribbean called, St. Kitts. Now, our goal for the next decade, which we call our Decade of Destiny is to mobilize a network of churches who will commit to planting new churches in the final 3,600 unengaged people groups that still do not have a Christian church.

QUESTION: How many members did you send out to complete your church’s goal of taking the gospel to every nation?

WARREN: 15,867 members were sent out. Of course, we’ve gone way past that in the last year.

QUESTION: What is your mission goal this year?

WARREN: Within a year from this Easter, we intend to plant new churches in 12 strategic cities around the world as resource centers and base camps for the greater goal of planting churches in the 3,600 unengaged people groups.

QUESTION:  What are those 12 cities?

WARREN: Tokyo, Berlin, Johannesburg, Bangalore, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, London, Freetown, Moscow, Mexico City, Amman, and Manila.  Anyone who’d like to be a part of the team should contact me at PastorRick@saddleback.com or on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

QUESTION: Are you promoting Chrislam?

WARREN: Of course not. It's the lie that won't die. No matter how many times we refute it and correct that lie, people keep passing it on as truth. Jesus is the only way to salvation. Period. If I didn’t believe that, I’d get into a much easier line of work! But I do believe that everybody needs Jesus and I am willing to put up with false statements and misunderstandings in order to get the Gospel out.

QUESTION:  What are your greatest frustrations about evangelism?

WARREN: That Christians would rather argue than evangelize. That people are more interested in winning arguments that in winning people. That people are more interested in making a point than in making a difference. That people put politics above the souls of people. That people are more afraid of guilt by association than allowing others to go to hell.

QUESTION: If anyone wants to learn or teach their church how to be more effective in evangelism and missions what should they do?

WARREN: Write to me at PastorRick@saddleback.com and ask me for an invitation to the group of leaders I train each week through a private webcast.

QUESTION: Any last word?

WARREN: Reach one more for Jesus! Anyone who’s read Purpose Driven Life knows those were my father’s last words and deathbed instructions to me. It is the theme of my life and I invite you to make it yours.  Nothing is more important than the eternal destiny of those around us.

Dear Saddleback Family,

Welcome to News & Views for the last week of February, 2012! As we conclude our 40 Days in the Word campaign in a few days, there are a few things I want to share with you. Watch this video to learn more.

• To send me your testimony of what 40 Days in the Word has meant to you and your small group, email me at pastorrick@saddleback.com.
• I want you to stay in your small group! But, if you need to find a group that meets at a different day and time, click here to visit our Small Groups page where you can find a list of available groups.
• To find your small group’s next study, visit the Saddleback Resources site.
• To use the Talk it Over guide for your next meeting, click here.

Dear Saddleback Family,

As we hit the middle of February, and draw near to the final week of 40 Days in the Word, I want to fill you in on the exciting things taking place at our church over the next few weeks. Watch this video to hear more.

• To read my letter about Pastor Rick Muchow, click here.
• To write a thank you note to Pastor Rick Muchow for his ministry at Saddleback, email rm@saddleback.com.
• To get the latest updates on Kay’s series, All Access, click here.
• Don’t forget to pray for Tom Pace!

Dear Saddleback Family,

Life is bittersweet.

It is bittersweet because nothing stays the same forever on earth. Anytime an experience or relationship is going great, we want it to never end. But even if we try, we cannot keep change from happening. Everything changes with time.

I’ll never forget when I moved off to college, feeling the loss both my parents and I felt, yet knowing I couldn’t live at home forever. It was bittersweet.

I’ll never forget officiating at my daughter Amy’s wedding, knowing that her allegiance to me as “the man in her life” was now transferring to her husband. It was good thing, and the right thing to do, but it was bittersweet.

I’ll never forget when Glen Kreun told me it was time for someone else to take his place of leadership after serving faithfully by my side for decades. That was bittersweet, too.

While all of us want to grow, we don’t like the ‘letting go of the familiar’ part of growth. But the truth is, there is no growth without change, there is no change without loss, and there is no loss without pain and grief.  That’s what makes life bittersweet.

For the past three years, our Elders – the men who have served longest with me at Saddleback Church – have been prayerfully discussing, strategizing, and thinking through the long range plans for our church family. We’ve struggled with the goals for Decade of Destiny, what it means to make room for a new generation of Saddleback leaders, how we should hand over authority to new leaders, and what our church might look like after we’ve all passed from the scene. We knew we needed to start planning the transition years in advance.

A verse that we’ve thought a lot about is  John 16:7 where Jesus told the young leaders he had trained, “I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you.” Jesus knew that, as long as he was present, the disciples would never take on the leadership he had been training them for.  Young leaders rarely step up until older leaders step aside.

My longest serving pastors – Glen Kreun, Rick Muchow, Doug Fields, Tom Holladay, Steve Rutenbar, and John Baker – have joked for years that we all intended to step aside for new, younger leaders on the same date. Then we’d all travel the world together, training other churches.  But we eventually realized that if we all transitioned out of pastoring Saddleback at the same time, it would leave such a sudden leadership vacuum that our church family might not recover from the shock. We knew the transition to the next generation had to be more measured.  So here was our plan:

First, I built a preaching team to share the preaching responsibility. For years, I was the only one who preached, and Rick Muchow was the only worship leader.  Those days are long gone. Last year, Pastors Tom, Buddy, Kurt, Kenny, Tommy, and Gerald all shared in preaching at Lake Forest, and our Campus Pastors spoke at our other campuses. As the church grew, the number of preachers needed to grow.

Next, about three years ago, we moved seven of my original pastors (including myself) off of our Pastor’s Management Team in order to make room for our younger pastors to start leading the church. I also created a larger Leadership Team of women and men from our staff to coordinate the many programs of our church. These risky organizational changes proved incredibly successful, giving us our three greatest years of health and development since then. My original eight pastors moved out of decision-making to become advisors and mentors to the younger pastors who replaced us in managing the church.  But, the Pastor of Worship role (held by Rick Muchow) on the Pastor’s Management Team was left empty for three years.  We kept waiting for the right person to fill Rick’s role.

Next, Pastor Glen came to me and said, “I need to move off the scene as Executive Pastor in order for the younger guys to blossom.” Well, when Glen left staff, we discovered that his job had grown so much that it took four people to replace him as we divided up his responsibilities. Saddleback had grown too large for one administrator, and the day of a single Executive Pastor was over.

A full year later, Pastor Doug Fields told me, “The guys I’ve trained are ready to take over in leading our Student Ministry, and I’m ready to let them lead.” So Doug retired from Saddleback staff and began a new ministry to youth leaders worldwide.

Then, this past year, in 2011, Pastor Rick Muchow began raising up a new generation of Pastors of Worship who could take our church into the future. With eight campuses, Saddleback now needed eight worship leaders, not just one. Thanks to Rick’s mentoring, we now have a team of outstanding worship pastors that he has been rotating at the Lake Forest services.

But now, as we launch 12 more Saddlebacks in international cities, our team of worship pastors will need to grow to at least 20! The era of a single worship pastor, just like the era of a single preaching pastor, is over.

For the past year, we’ve been talking about what kind of new organization, and what kind of new leadership skills, will be needed in our worship team which will bear such a huge responsibility in planting our PEACE outpost churches. We concluded that the reorganized and decentralized worship team would need a new team leader whose primary gifts are management and supervision rather than being gifted as a musician, artist, and songwriter. What is needed now is not a single outstanding on-stage worship leader and musician but someone gifted at behind–the-scenes coordination of 20 young worship leaders rotating through Saddleback. I asked Rick Muchow if he wanted this new role and he declined. Rick, as we all know, excels in leading services, funerals, and weddings. He’s a true pastor, with a pastor’s heart, but he would tell you he is not an administrator. So the search began.

My first preference was to look for a new team leader inside our existing staff instead of bringing in a stranger from the outside. I quickly thought of John Cassetto, who had 14 years of experience in administering a worship team in a purpose driven church near Boston before joining our PEACE staff. So I asked Rick Muchow if he thought John could take his role as the new Pastor of Worship and Team Leader. Rick told me “John is exactly the guy I would choose”.

Based on that confirmation, last year we quietly began the process of preparing for another major transition in our church from one generation to the next - the transition from Rick Muchow to John Cassetto, much in the same way we did with the transitions of Glen and Doug Fields. 

I told Rick Muchow that I didn’t want to do 40 Days in the Word without my trusted friend and coworker helping me, so I didn’t want to make the leadership transition until after the campaign was completed. But now we are only three weeks away from the end of 40 Days in the Word. So, I’m writing to tell you that, as we’ve been planning since last year, Rick Muchow will be stepping down from his historic 24-year ministry at Saddleback, and John Cassetto will become the leader of a more decentralized, international, and more complex worship team that will support and administer all our worship leaders in 20 locations around the world.

Personally, this is the most bittersweet moment I’ve had in 32 years as your pastor.

I know it is the right thing to do, but it is at great personal grief to me. Rick Muchow is simply one of my closest and deepest friends. No one else has experienced with me as many Saddleback service high points. We have watched God do miracles before our eyes and the team of “Rick and Rick” has been inseparable for 24 years. So understand me, this organizational change is not what’s most comfortable for either Rick Muchow or me personally… but it is what our church needs next.

Saddleback owes an enormous debt to Rick Muchow. So for the next three weeks we will be preparing to celebrate “RICK MUCHOW WEEKEND” at Saddleback on February 25 and 26, just as we did with Pastor Glen’s transition. On that weekend, the final weekend of 40 Days in the Word, we will honor our great friend Rick Muchow in many ways. One of the ways will be to present to him a book of testimonies of how his music, his songs, and his worship leading have transformed your life. I URGE you to go to this link and share your story.

I intend to write another full News & Views on the legacy of Rick Muchow, a giant in contemporary worship. There is simply no one like him on this planet. I will also introduce you to John Cassetto’s new role as Saddleback’s next generation Pastor of Worship.

The first question people always ask is, ‘Is there more to the story? Was there a problem or conflict?’  Let me state the answer as clearly and emphatically as I can:  NO!  No way! Absolutely not! This new organizational change has been under consideration for three years and is part of our Decade of Destiny renewal.

Rick will continue being our lifelong friend, just like Glen and Doug and so many others who’ve transitioned off staff to make way for younger leadership. The second question we usually ask is ‘What will Rick Muchow do now?’ The honest answer is whatever God wants him to do! Rick belongs to God, not Saddleback. Rick is calling his next ministry phase “Act III” since Saddleback was his Act II ministry. But the first thing I want my friend to do is to enjoy his success! In 24 years, Rick has never had an extended time off at all – so we are honoring him with the financial support so he and Laura can take their time to discern whatever God calls them to do next. I guarantee you this: you haven’t heard the last of him!!!

During these next three weeks, as we prepare for Rick Muchow Weekend, please take time to tell us your story and what this man of God means to your life. And, send him an email, or stop him in the grocery store, and tell him how much he has changed you and the world.

February 3, 2012 

 

Dear Saddleback Family,

 

 

It’s Super Weekend at Saddleback.

 

First, I’m teaching on “How to see what you’ve never seen before” for Week #3 of 40 Days in the Word. This is an extremely important and practical message that you’ll use the rest of your life. The Bible will never be the same to you again. You’ll learn how to let God show you what He wants to show you.

 

 

            Second, we’re honoring all boys and men who have been Boy Scouts to celebrate the 100^th Year of The Boy Scouts of America. Scouts will participate in every service and present the colors. 

 

Consider these facts: 

 

Only one in four boys in America will become a Scout, BUT Boy Scouts account for…

64% of all Air Force Academy Graduates

68% of all West Point Graduates

70% of all Naval Academy Graduates

72% of all Rhodes Scholars

85% of all FBI agents

181 Scouts have become NASA astronauts – more than 50% of all astronauts

 

            Out of every 100 Boys who Join THE SCOUTS:

                        12 will receive their first exposure to faith in God through Scouting

                        2 will become pastors

8 will choose a career based on merit badge work (Steven Spielberg, etc.)

1 will use Scouting skills to save the life of another person

1 will use Scouting skills to save his own life

                        17 will become Scout volunteers, giving back to their community

          

50% who reach the rank of Eagle Scout say they value what they learned earning their badge more than their college degree!

 

 

            Third, this weekend, we begin a new tradition of recognizing “Baby’s First Day at Church” for any family who brings their baby to worship for the first time. 

 

 

            Fourth, we have super music planned for this weekend!  See you!  Love you all!

Dear Saddleback Family, 

This weekend is going to be fun for a couple of reasons:

First, we’ll look at “The Benefits of the Bible in Your Life” for Week #2 of 40 Days in the Word. 

Second, we’re going to celebrate all the babies born at Saddleback last year! You’ll get to see some of them on stage at each service. I think the total is over 100 new babies! 

CNN featured The Daniel Plan this week!

Saddleback church tackles obesity

(CNN) — The epiphany occurred at a baptism.

With more than 800 people waiting, Pastor Rick Warren took them one by one and immersed them in the church's baptism pool. During this spiritual rite at Saddleback Church, the pastors hold the people briefly underwater, and then pull them out.

"On that particular day, I was baptizing 858 people," Warren told his congregation last fall. "That took me literally four hours."

"As I'm baptizing 858 people, along around 500, I thought this ... 'We're all fat.' "

Warren turned his realization to himself.

"But I thought, I'm fat," he said. "I'm a terrible model of this. I can't expect our people to get in shape unless I do."

Warren, considered one of the most influential pastors in the country, delivered the inaugural prayer for President Obama in 2009 and wrote the best-selling book "The Purpose Driven Life." Now, he was embarking on a new mission: Curbing the obesity epidemic at church.

Warren seems like an unlikely man to lead an anti-obesity crusade. A ruddy man with plastic frame glasses, he has admitted to gaining 90 pounds over the last 30 years and failing at various yo-yo diets. He declined an interview for this story.

Based in Lake Forest, California, Saddleback is one of the largest churches in the United States and has eight locations throughout Orange County. Warren has a casual style in his ministry, usually preaching in jeans.

A slimmer Rick Warren addressed the congregation on January 14.

Since January 2011, Warren has been shrinking. He gave up carbonated drinks, dairy and fast food, he told the church. He works out twice a day, according to his trainer, Tom Wilson. Warren shed 60 pounds on a diet-lifestyle program devised at Saddleback Church called the Daniel Plan.

The program's name comes from the biblical story about Daniel. In the story, Daniel and his friends, who are Israelites living in Babylon, refuse to consume royal food and wine. By eating vegetables and water, "they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food," according to Daniel 1:15 in the Bible's New International Version.

The Daniel Program, which started at Saddleback Church last January, advises how to eat healthier foods, encourages workout routines, and urges participants to join small groups. The program was free.

Warren recruited three doctors to develop the plan: Daniel Amen, a psychiatrist; Mark Hyman, a family doctor; and Mehmet Oz, a TV host and cardiac surgeon.

"The secret sauce of Saddleback is we do this as a community," said Amen, one of the medical contributors. "It's very different than most health plans where you do it with yourself or your wife. You get to do this with a whole community."

Studies indicate that people who try to lose weight or adopt healthier habits in groups are more likely to be successful than individuals working independently.

The small groups have health and spiritual curricula, and provide a support network. Saddleback was the ideal place, because small groups already existed at the church and Warren had "instantaneous capacity to make this happen," said Hyman, another contributor to the Daniel Plan.

"The church was the perfect incubator," he said. "This was a way of leapfrogging and getting a social experiment done."

Chiquita Seals said she lost 125 pounds with the emotional support offered by her small group.

Chiquita Seals, a member of Saddleback, said that having a small group was instrumental to her 125-pound weight loss. Her group met twice a month to discuss their health, and they also hiked together. Each small group has a health champion, whom Seals credits with "helping me emotionally, physically."

"The health champion guides the group -- 'This is what we're cooking, this is what we're doing' -- and cheers you on and helps you out. It's not just the food you're eating, it's also mental gain," she said.

The church held a race, cooking demonstrations and various workout classes led by Tae Bo founder Billy Blanks. It overhauled the menus and vending machine products sold at church and placed symbols to indicate which choices were healthy. Doughnuts often given to the congregation were replaced with trail mix. The church developed a website with recipes, advice on physical activity and health information.

"It's not a diet, not a healthy quick scheme, it's designed to be a way to create health," Hyman said.

At the end of the first year, about 15,000 people had registered for the program and 250,000 pounds were lost, according to Saddleback Church. The Daniel Plan is a program the founders intended to spread to different faith communities across the globe, Hyman said.

But many at Saddleback wondered why the church would get involved in health and weight loss.

Julie McGough said her family has become healthier by going on the Daniel Plan.

"I wondered whether this was something church should be doing," said Julie McGough, a member of Saddleback Church for 18 years.

McGough and her husband decided to try the plan, because they had gained weight during his illness with multiple sclerosis. Between his doctor's visits, hospital appointments and busy schedule, the family came to rely on fast food as their staple.

The couple and their two kids, ages 10 and 16, cleaned out their pantry, gave up the In-N-Out burgers and started cooking as a family activity. They started eating chicken, broccoli, squash and a variety of vegetables, and in smaller portions. They bought a trampoline for the kids and also started hiking.

One year later, McGough has lost 28 pounds. Her husband has lost 55 pounds and stopped taking as many medications.

"This is what we should be doing," McGough said about the church's involvement in the health plan. "I am far more able to serve God because I'm healthy."

Warren said in several speeches to the congregation that he never paid much attention to the perils of obesity such as diabetes and heart disease. But when he heard that obesity could affect a person's brain power, it snapped him into action. Growing evidence indicates that obesity is associated with impaired cognitive function, such as attention and memory problems.

Warren often repeats the same phrases when discussing the Daniel Plan.
"The Father made your body, Jesus paid for your body, the Spirit lives in your body. You better take care of it."

 

 

The New Year is a great time to sign up for The Daniel Plan and get    healthy!

Click here to read an article on the health danger of sitting too much! 

You can sign up for the Daniel Plan by clicking here.

 

A cool picture of 40 Days in the Word workbooks being mailed to churches just today!  The cross is the reason we help other churches.

January 17, 2012

Dear Saddleback Family,

Welcome to Day 2 of 40 Days in the Word!

 

1. To watch Today’s Video Devotional, click here.

          You’ll be able to sign up (or sign in) and get all 40 campaign videos for free!

  

2. To Find a Small Group near you, click here.

            It’s not too late to start a new group either!

 

 3. To watch “7 Reasons We Can Trust the Bible”, click here.

          I urge you to share this message with others!

 

4. To watch “How to Build Your Life on the Bible”, click here.

 

THIS WEEKEND

• We are recognizing and honoring, on stage, all the babies born in our church in 2011! Click here for more info.

 

Our PEACE 3.0: Twelve-City Rally is this Saturday from 6:30 – 9:00 p.m. on the Lake Forest campus. Learn the specifics of how you can be a part of helping start 12 new Saddlebacks around the world in 2012. Click here for more info.