Rick Warren is the "pastor" of the Saddleback Church in California. He was kicked out of the Southern Baptist Convention due to the ordination of a woman preacher. Here is the text of his comments:
"You know first, everybody welcome to Orange County of 149 Southern Baptist churches here, 90 of them started by Saddleback Church. You know, it's customary. For a guy who's about to be hung to let him say his dying words. I have no intention of defending myself. I have taught my kids and grandkids for years. I am most like Christ when I refuse to defend myself. The Bible says Jesus spoke not a word unto them when Pilate accused him of all kinds of things, so I have no intention. I have most of you on my mailing list anyway and I can write you and tell you what I believe about the gift of pastoring as opposed to the office of pastoring. But I'm not here to talk about that now. I wrote you a love letter, and I'd like for my possibly likely last convention to read it to you. Kay and I could have not built Saddleback Church to its size and influence in any other denomination. Hmm. I love Southern Baptists. I am a 4th generation Southern Baptist pastor. My great-grandfather was led to Christ by Charles Spurgeon and sent to America as a church planter. Saddleback was sponsored by the North American Mission Board. I served on the staff of the California State Convention and the Texas State Convention as a teenager. Billy Graham picked me up when I was eighteen and for the next 52 years mentored me because I started at 16 years old, hired by the California Convention to preach youth revivals, and I preached over 120 Harvest Crusades before I was 20. Billy took this long-haired, skinny Californian and mentored me for the next 52 years. Here's my love letter to you because I really am grateful if this is my last convention. Because of Southern Baptist polity., I was allowed to serve one church for life. That's not possible in other denominations. And it grew and grew it. To become the largest church in this convention. because Southern Baptists gave me a passion for evangelism and mission. We baptized 56,631 New believers. And as the Southern Baptist Church, sent 26,869 members overseas to 197 nations. Because Southern Baptists taught me the value of a membership covenant, 78,157 members of our church signed our membership covenant after taking a four-hour membership class, Because Southern Baptists taught me to emphasize the priority of Bible study, we now have 9173 Home Bible studies in homes and 162 Southern California cities. Because Southern Baptists taught me the value of church planting, which I already mentioned, we planted 90 in Orange County alone and literally thousands around the world. Because Southern Baptists taught me to honor and love the local church, I've had the privilege for 43 years of training 1.1 million pastors. That sorry, friend, that's more than all the seminaries put together. I owe you all so much. So I sincerely say thank you, Southern Baptists, for shaping my life. You're never gonna find another Baptist who agrees with you completely on everything. There are Baptist brothers here today who don't believe Jesus died for the whole world. But we imagine somehow to get along with them. So as Western culture grows more dark, more evil, more secular, we have to decide, are we going to treat each other as allies or adversaries?
Second. Since this is the year 2022. That means we are 2022 years from the birth of Christ. Now we know Christ started his ministry at 30 years of age. Luke tells us that he had a 3 1/2-year ministry. Christ died in AD 33. He was resurrected in AD 33. He gave the Great Commission in AD 33. He sent the Holy Spirit and started the church in AD 33. That means 2033, just eleven years from today is the two thousandth anniversary of the Great Commission. I hope one of you, because I won't be here next year, will make a resolution that Baptists take the next 10 years to finish the task of the Great Commission in our generation before the two thousandth anniversary of the church. Are we going to keep bickering over secondary issues? Are we going to keep the main thing the main thing? We need to finish the task and that will make God smile. Thank you, everybody. I love you."
Not even once does Rick Warren mention Jesus or the Holy Spirit in "his" accomplishments. Was Beebe right when he precited how "Christendom" was going to turn out? -ed.
However, apparently, we are not alone in our view of his "farewell speech". Here are some choice comments from the hundreds who commented on this YouTube video:
"Are we gonna keep bickering over secondary issues?" You mean like holding to scripture over societal pressures and faithfulness to the God of all Creation when it means rejecting worldly desires? Yeah, I am gonna keep bickering about that."
"If you provided all you can drink free beer every Sunday you could "plant" 90 churches in a heartbeat and they would "grow" like wildfire. We often ask the wrong question. The question is not "Are people being saved?," but "To what are people being saved?"
"They needed to rent a bigger convention building, I mean, Ricks head took up 2/3's."
"Dear Rick Warren This is a love letter from me to you.
"he "grew" his church? man...... i thought Jesus did that"
"Wait till he finds out Spurgeon was a Calvinist"
"Can't help but wondering how impressed Christ would be with Rick's CV?!"
"I've had the privilege of training 1.1 million pastors... *hold for applause*...."
"What a humble guy."
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