Saddleback Church

Dear Saddleback Family,

We only need about 600 more people to register TODAY for CLASS 101, to put us over the top and make world history with a 3,000 person Class 101.
 
Click here and sign up NOW to be a part of the greatest day in Saddleback history this Saturday!

 PLEASE help us!   Don't procrastinate.  Sign up right now.
 
 We love you, we are proud of you, and we want YOU in our church family!
 Come on!  The whole community is excited now!  Everybody pray.

Saddleback Church
Purpose Driven Network
P.E.A.C.E. Coalition



Saddleback Church calls on believers to make history
Church hopes to bring 3,000 new members into the flock this Saturday.

By ERIKA I. RITCHIE
The Orange County Register
Thursday, March 26, 20009

LAKE FOREST - In what Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren calls historical, the church hopes to bring 3,000 new members into its flock this  Saturday morning.

"I'm not sleeping much. I'm too excited," the megachurch's pastor wrote in an e-mail to his congregation this week. "THIS SATURDAY, March 28, will be THE GREATEST DAY in Saddleback's history. OVER 2,000 people have already signed up to become members of our church family on a single day."

Citing the Bible, Warren challenges prospective believers to match the 3,000 who were baptized 2,000 years ago on the day of Pentecost. "If you'll join us this weekend, history could be repeated at Saddleback," he said.
 
"I was asked, 'Rick, if you could wish for anything to celebrate your 30 years of service at Saddleback, what would you dream of?' I said, to experience a repeat of Pentecost - and see 3,000 people affirm their faith and join our church family on a single day.' "

It is also the first time Warren, pastor of the 22,000-member Lake Forest Church, will be teaching the membership class known as Saddleback 101 in 10 years. For the first 20 years of the church history, Warren taught every one of these classes.  This Saturday is called "Breakfast, Baptism, and Class 101 with Pastor Rick." "This is the largest class I've ever been a part of!" said Jim Wall, electrical engineer who is the class' volunteer coordinator. One very important expectation is that members serve in ministry. "My life changed when I took Class 101," said Wall. "God used it to help me understand more of what he intended in a relationship. I learned the difference between ritual and a relationship with God."

The class runs for four hours and introduces people to the fundamentals of the Christian faith. It also includes an extensive history of the church. It makes a call to the new members and reminds them that being a church member involves commitment and expectations.

Church leaders believe that the current economy and the stress people feel in their lives because of it may be a reason there seems to be a groundswell of believers joining Saddleback now.  "Stress serves the purpose of softening our hearts and humbling us," said Wall. "The greatest victory is when stress opens doors to people's hearts to something better - that being a relationship with god through Christ. God can work a victory out of a financial crisis just as he does out of any crisis."

Dorothy De Mare, 62, from Petaluma flew down just to be baptized again. "I heard Pastor Warren speak, and he invited everyone to be baptized," she said. "I decided to come back down because it was a lovely invitation. My brother reminded me that Christians need to be re-baptized as adults, the way Jesus was baptized."

The class starts at 8:30 a.m. Saturday and will be held in the church's main worship center, 1 Saddleback Parkway in Lake Forest.  More information is available at www.saddleback.com.