“As you know by now, today is my last message to you as your senior pastor. Have I told you lately that I love you?” he asked the cheering crowd. Warren, known to his church as Papa Rick, entered the stage one last time to warm applause as he bowed his head in gratitude for the love and support of congregants. One of the values - purpose-driven values - that we hold on to here at our church is, ‘begin with the end in mind.’ -Pastor Rick Warren, Saddleback Church

According to its publisher Simon & Schuster, 50 million copies had been sold in more than 85 languages by 2020. It’s a 40-day personal spiritual journey where he explains God’s five purposes of people. In 2002, Warren authored his bestselling book, The Purpose Driven Life, which promotes living life to satisfy God through worship and ministry. He centered his swan song on a purpose-driven life, the same message he preached to 50 strangers in a small theater at Laguna Hills High School in 1980. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.Pastor Rick Warren delivered his final sermon at Saddleback Church on Augwith a message going back to the theme of his first sermon 43 years ago. Warren said he would take on a less 'visible position as founding pastor' and would continue to be involved with Saddleback Church. The decision was postponed after a surprise speech by Warren, who urged members to stop 'bickering over secondary issues.'

In 2021, the church also ordained female pastors, a move that put the church at odds with the most conservative voices of Southern Baptist churches.ĭuring the annual Southern Baptist Convention this year, a faction considered kicking out Saddleback Church, which is considered to be in 'friendly cooperation' with Southern Baptist churches. In 2006, he spoke out about the dangers of global warming. Three years later, he had soured on Obama's presidency, saying the administration 'intentionally infringed upon religious liberties.'īut Warren also adopted positions in opposition to the most conservative evangelical voices in the country.įor years, he dedicated money to help people with AIDS. Warren was invited to give the invocation at President Obama's inauguration in 2009 and continued to be an influential voice on social issues that conservative and Christian voices latched on to as political hot-button topics. That year, Warren backed Proposition 8, the California constitutional amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage but was struck down by the state Supreme Court after voters approved it. In 2008, he hosted the two leading presidential candidates, Sen. The author of 'A Purpose Driven Life,' Warren became a leading Christian figure in the United States. Saddleback Church and Disneyland, he would note, attract the most visitors to Orange County at any one time. During his time as senior pastor, Warren transformed a Southern California church with no permanent place of worship into an influential behemoth that would expand to Argentina, Hong Kong, Germany and the Philippines. It was a familiar message to the thousands of congregants in the 120-acre Lake Forest facility and the many who watch livestreams of Saddleback services. 'Begin with the end in mind,' said Warren, who has delivered more than 6,500 sermons. On Sunday, Warren harked back to the original message he offered. Instead, the couple shepherded the large church through the COVID-19 pandemic and a shutdown than would affect the church for about 14 months. Now 68 years old, Warren said he and his wife, Kay, had originally planned to retire in 2020, but had an 'uneasy feeling it still wasn't the right time to resign.' 'We were just speaking it into existence.' 'I was defining the type of church we were going to be to total strangers, and nothing existed,' he said before his sermon Sunday. Warren announced his retirement in June 2021, a decision partly prompted by his declining health, and also by a promise he'd made to the dozens of early congregants he'd managed during the first year of the church in 1980, that he would give the new church 40 years of his life.

This time, Warren gave the sermon as tens of thousands of people watched and as one of the most influential and defining figures of American evangelicalism.

Pastor rick warren