Rick Warren in his book the purpose driven church was mandated to attempt to put in print the story of Saddleback church. From shear curiosity be both Jew and gentile most religious and business leaders had at least a cursory interest in how a church grew to 10,000 attendees. Call it divine intervention, a killer marketing plan, being at the right place at the right time, blind luck or a combination of them all. Spending 25 years in corporate America I view Rick Warrens approach to growing a church (or anything for that matter) as spot on. His due diligence (neighborhood survey) growth assumptions and overhead (17-19 locations) product (The Gospel) delivery and the, vision, purpose and organizational structure have delivered noticeable …show more content…

Spoken in terms and dialectics that are not confusing and pretentious but rather reflect the love and desire the creator has for his creation.

Keep doing what you are doing and you will keep getting what you are getting. Chap 11 “they don’t take the time to understand the people they want to reach” Most churches today older than 30 years old are probably still operating their church they same way they always have, just with kids and grandkids of those that made up the body 30 years ago. Church’s 30 years ago for the most part were not “strategically planted” but were commissioned to “save the community” and to meet the demands of communities. People in earlier times would seek churches while today’s churches must seek those who are lost. Just as being part of a community church 30 years ago provide a certain status, today it is viewed as almost an opposite proposition. People today are careful and do not necessarily want to not be labeled as a “church go’er”. The association today carries intolerance, self righteous and hypocritical connotations.

The one thing I did find as I researched this book, were a handful of articles criticizing Pastor Warren and the strategy of Saddleback. I must say, most of the criticisms’ were petty and loosely based on a certain interpretation of scripture. There were also challenges as to who the church was to serve. In my opinion