Richard Duane "
Rick"
Warren (born January 28, 1954) is an American evangelical Christian minister and author. He is the founder and senior pastor of
Saddleback ChurchSaddleback Church is an evangelical Christian megachurch located in Lake Forest, California, situated in southern Orange County, affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. The church was founded in 1980 by pastor Rick Warren...
, an evangelical
megachurchA megachurch is a church having 2,000 or more in average weekend attendance. The Hartford Institute's database lists more than 1,300 such Protestant churches in the United States. According to that data, approximately 50 churches on the list have attendance ranging from 10,000 to 47,000...
located in
Lake Forest, CaliforniaLake Forest is a city in Orange County, California. The population was 77,264 at the 2010 census.Lake Forest incorporated as a city on December 20, 1991. Prior to a vote of the residents in that year, the community had formerly been known as El Toro since the 1880s...
, currently the eighth-largest church in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(this ranking includes multi-site churches). He is also a bestselling author of many
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
books, including his guide to church ministry and evangelism,
The Purpose Driven ChurchThe Purpose Driven Church is a book written by Rick Warren, founder and senior pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, USA. It was first published in 1995...
, which has spawned a series of conferences on Christian ministry and evangelism. He is perhaps best known for the subsequent
devotionalA devotional song is a hymn which accompanies religious observances and rituals.Each major religion has its own tradition with devotional hymns. In the West, the devotional has been a part of the liturgy in Roman Catholicism, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Russian Orthodox Church, and others, since...
,
The Purpose Driven LifeThe Purpose Driven Life is a devotional book written by Christian author Rick Warren and published by Zondervan. The book has been on the New York Times Best Seller list for advice books for one of the longest periods in history, while also topping the Wall Street Journal best seller charts as...
, which has sold over 30 million copies, making Warren a
New York Times bestsellingA bestseller is a book that is identified as extremely popular by its inclusion on lists of currently top selling titles that are based on publishing industry and book trade figures and published by newspapers, magazines, or bookstore chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and...
author.
Warren holds conservative theological views and holds traditional evangelical views on social issues such as
abortionAbortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
,
same-sex marriageSame-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....
, and stem-cell research. Warren has called on churches worldwide to also focus their efforts on fighting
povertyPoverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
and disease, expanding educational opportunities for the marginalized, and caring for the environment. During the
2008 United States presidential electionThe United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
, Warren hosted the
Civil Forum on The PresidencyThe Civil Forum on the Presidency was the venue of back-to-back interviews of U.S. presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama by pastor Rick Warren on August 16, 2008, at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California.-Format of the Forum:...
at his church with both presidential candidates,
John McCainJohn Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
and
Barack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
. Obama later sparked controversy when he asked Warren to give the
invocationAn invocation may take the form of:*Supplication or prayer.*A form of possession.*Command or conjuration.*Self-identification with certain spirits....
at the presidential inauguration in January 2009.
Early life and education
Warren was born in
San Jose, CaliforniaSan Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
, the son of Jimmy and Dot Warren. His father was a Baptist minister, his mother a high school librarian. He was raised in
Ukiah, CaliforniaThe average high temperature is 73.5 °F . Average low temperature is 46.1 °F . Temperatures reach 90 °F on an average of 65.6 days annually and 100 °F on an average of 14.4 days annually. Due to frequent low humidity, summer temperatures normally drop into the fifties at night. Freezing...
, and graduated from Ukiah High School in 1972, where he founded the first Christian club on the school's campus, The Fishers of Men Club. His sister Chaundel is married to Saddleback pastor Tom Holladay. His brother Jim C. Warren died in 2007.
Warren received a
Bachelor of ArtsA Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree from
California Baptist UniversityCalifornia Baptist University is a private, Christian, liberal arts university located in Riverside, California, United States. Originally founded in 1950 as California Baptist College, it is controlled by the California Southern Baptist Convention, an organization affiliated with the Southern...
in Riverside, California; a
Master of DivinityIn the academic study of theology, the Master of Divinity is the first professional degree of the pastoral profession in North America...
degree from
Southwestern Baptist Theological SeminarySouthwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, is a private, non-profit institution of higher education, associated with the Southern Baptist Convention...
(1979) in Fort Worth, Texas; and a
Doctor of MinistryThe Doctor of Ministry degree is, according to The Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada , a doctoral level degree oriented toward ministerial leadership often in an area of applied theology, such as missions, evangelism, church leadership, pastoral psychology or the...
degree from
Fuller Theological SeminaryFuller Theological Seminary is an accredited Christian educational institute with its main campus in Pasadena, California and several satellite campuses in the western United States...
in Pasadena, California.
Personal
Warren has been married to Elizabeth K. Warren (Kay) for 32 years in 2011. They have three adult children (Amy, Josh, and Matthew) and four grandchildren. He considers
Billy GrahamWilliam Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. is an American evangelical Christian evangelist. As of April 25, 2010, when he met with Barack Obama, Graham has spent personal time with twelve United States Presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman, and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for...
,
Peter DruckerPeter Ferdinand Drucker was an influential writer, management consultant, and self-described “social ecologist.”-Introduction:...
and his own father to be among his mentors.
Due to the success of his book sales, in 2005 Warren returned his 25 years of salary to the church and discontinued taking a salary. He says he and his wife became "reverse
titheA tithe is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas historically tithes were required and paid in kind, such as agricultural products...
rs", giving away 90% of their income and living off 10%.
Career
Warren says he was called to full-time
ministryIn Christianity, ministry is an activity carried out by Christians to express or spread their faith. 2003's Encyclopedia of Christianity defines it as "carrying forth Christ's mission in the world", indicating that it is "conferred on each Christian in baptism." It is performed by all Christians...
when he was a 19-year-old student at California Baptist University. In November 1973, he and a friend skipped classes and drove 350 miles to hear W.A. Criswell preach at the Jack Tar Hotel, in San Francisco. Warren waited afterwards to shake hands with Criswell who focused on Warren stating "I feel led to
lay hands on youThe laying on of hands is a religious ritual that accompanies certain religious practices, which are found throughout the world in varying forms....
and pray for you!”
During his time at
Southwestern Baptist Theological SeminarySouthwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, is a private, non-profit institution of higher education, associated with the Southern Baptist Convention...
, Warren worked at the Texas Ranch for Christ, a ministry facility of Billie Hanks, Jr., where he began writing books. He co-wrote two books,
The Victory Scripture Memory Series and the
Twelve Dynamic Bible Study Methods for Laity, with Billi Hanks, Jr. and Wayne Watts.
In April 1980 Warren held Saddleback Church's first public service on Easter Sunday at the
Laguna HillsLaguna Hills is a city located in southern Orange County, California, United States. Its name refers to its proximity to Laguna Canyon and the much older Laguna Beach. Other newer cities nearby—Laguna Niguel and Laguna Woods—are similarly named.-Geography:...
High School Theater with 200 people in attendance. Warren's
church growthChurch Growth is a movement within evangelical Christianity which emphasizes mainly missionary work combined with sociological awareness of the target population. The "seeker sensitive" label for this approach characterizes the would-be converts as "seekers".-History:Church Growth began with the...
methods led to rapid expansion, with the church using nearly 80 different facilities in its 28-year history.
Saddleback did not build its first permanent building until it had 10,000 weekly attenders. When the current Lake Forest campus was purchased in the early 1990s, a 2,300-seat plastic tent was used for worship services for several years, with four services each weekend. In 1995 the current Worship Center was completed, with a
seating capacitySeating capacity refers to the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, both in terms of the physical space available, and in terms of limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that seats two to a stadium that seats...
of 3,500. A multi-million dollar children's ministry building and a staff office building were completed over the next few years. In June 2008, a $20 million student ministry facility called the "Refinery" was completed, housing the "Wildside" middle school and "HSM" high school ministries, consisting of 1,500 students. Saddleback Church averages nearly 20,000 people in attendance each week, and is currently the eighth-largest church in the United States.
Warren has been invited to speak at national and international forums, including the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
, the
World Economic ForumThe World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva, best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland....
in
DavosDavos is a municipality in the district of Prättigau/Davos in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has a permanent population of 11,248 . Davos is located on the Landwasser River, in the Swiss Alps, between the Plessur and Albula Range...
, the
African UnionThe African Union is a union consisting of 54 African states. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established on 9 July 2002, the AU was formed as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity...
, the
Council on Foreign RelationsThe Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government,
TEDTED is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading"....
, and Time’s Global Health Summit. He was an elected member of the Council on Foreign Relations between 2005 and 2006, and was named one of "America's Top 25 Leaders" in the October 31, 2005, issue of
U.S. News and World Report. Warren was named by
TimeTime is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine as one of "15 World Leaders Who Mattered Most in 2004" and one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World" (2005). In 2006
NewsweekNewsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
called him one of "15 People Who Make America Great".
In August 2008, Warren drew greater national attention by hosting the
Civil Forum on the PresidencyThe Civil Forum on the Presidency was the venue of back-to-back interviews of U.S. presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama by pastor Rick Warren on August 16, 2008, at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California.-Format of the Forum:...
that featured senators
John McCainJohn Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
and
Barack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
at Saddleback Church. Warren said the goal of the forum was to “restore civility in our civil discourse.” The forum marked McCain and Obama's first joint appearance as the presumptive
RepublicanThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
and
DemocraticThe Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
presidential nominees, and was broadcast live on national television. During the two-hour event, each candidate took the stage separately for about an hour to respond to Warren’s questions about faith and moral issues including
abortionAbortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
and
human rightsHuman rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
.
In December 2008, President-elect Obama chose Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration ceremony. The decision angered
pro-choiceSupport for the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-choice movement, a sociopolitical movement supporting the ethical view that a woman should have the legal right to elective abortion, meaning the right to terminate her pregnancy....
and
LGBTLGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
advocates and led to criticism of both Obama and Warren. Obama defended his choice of Warren, saying that although he disagreed with the minister's positions on abortion and same-sex marriage, there should be room for dialogue on such difficult social issues. More controversy ensued when it was announced that Warren would be the keynote speaker at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Annual Commemorative Service on January 19, 2009, the day prior to the inauguration. On Jan. 20, 2009, Warren delivered the Invocation, which was generally praised for its positive message.
In January 2009, Warren and the Readers Digest Association partnered in the launch of the
Purpose Driven Connection, a quarterly publication sold as part of a bundle of multimedia products. In November 2009, the partners announced that the magazine had not drawn enough paying members and would cease after publication of the fourth issue that month.
Warren has been invited to speak at
John PiperJohn Stephen Piper is a Christian preacher and author, currently serving as Pastor for Preaching and Vision of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota...
's Desiring God Conference 2010 in Minneapolis, MN.
Ministries
Warren and his wife are directors of the following non-profit organizations:
- Acts of Mercy
- RKW Legacy Partners
- Equipping the Church
Purpose Driven
Purpose DrivenThe trademarked term purpose driven comes from the teaching of Rick Warren, senior pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. It originally came into use as a paradigm taught to pastors and other Christian leaders worldwide to help them be more effective in leading their churches...
comes from the teaching of Warren, and came into use as a
paradigmThe word paradigm has been used in science to describe distinct concepts. It comes from Greek "παράδειγμα" , "pattern, example, sample" from the verb "παραδείκνυμι" , "exhibit, represent, expose" and that from "παρά" , "beside, beyond" + "δείκνυμι" , "to show, to point out".The original Greek...
taught to pastors and other
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
leaders worldwide to help them be more effective in leading their churches. The teaching is embodied in Warren’s best-selling book,
The Purpose Driven ChurchThe Purpose Driven Church is a book written by Rick Warren, founder and senior pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, USA. It was first published in 1995...
, first published in 1995. Over 400,000 pastors and church leaders from around the world have attended a seminar or conference led by Warren and other pastors who seek to be more effective in fulfilling the Biblical
Great CommissionThe Great Commission, in Christian tradition, is the instruction of the resurrected Jesus Christ to his disciples, that they spread his teachings to all the nations of the world. It has become a tenet in Christian theology emphasizing missionary work, evangelism, and baptism...
and
Great CommandmentThe Great Commandment, or Greatest Commandment, is an appellation applied to either the first, or both, of two commandments which appear in , and...
.
Purpose Driven refers to these pastors' attempts to balance the five "purposes"; worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and evangelism in their churches.
Christian leaders in 162 countries have used materials which stem from this movement. Warren says his organizations have trained 400,000 pastors worldwide. Some 189,000 church leaders subscribe to
Ministry Toolbox, the weekly newsletter.
Others express concern over what is described as the divisive nature of Warren's techniques.
Wall Street Journal writer Suzanne Sataline cited examples of congregations who have split over the growth strategies and congregations that have expelled members who fought changes. She wrote, "Warren acknowledges that splits occur in congregations that adopt his ideas, though he says he opposes efforts to expel church members."
PEACE Plan
The P E A C E Plan is an initiative begun by Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. Senior pastor Rick Warren's stated intention in launching the P E A C E (or PEACE) Plan is to involve every Christian and every church in every nation in the task of serving people in the areas of the greatest global needs. The tag-line is 'Ordinary people empowered by God making a difference together wherever they are'. P.E.A.C.E. is an acronym for the stated methodology for achieving the plan: "Promote reconciliation - Equip servant leaders - Assist the poor - Care for the sick - Educate the next generation."
Political and social views
Warren has worked to shift the evangelical movement away from an exclusive focus on traditional evangelical social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage (regarding the latter, he called divorce a greater threat to the American family), to broader social action. Warren's five-point plan for global action, the
P.E.A.C.E. Plan , calls for church-led efforts to tackle global poverty and disease, including the spread of HIV/AIDS, and to support literacy and education efforts around the world. In February 2006, he signed a controversial statement backing a major initiative to combat
global warmingGlobal warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
, thus breaking with other conservative, high-profile evangelical leaders, who had opposed such a move. This decision by Warren remains one of his most controversial and criticized moves.
Warren's softer tone on political issues once central to U.S. evangelicals and his concern for issues more commonly associated with the political left have resulted in the characterization of Warren as one of a "new breed of evangelical leaders." But it has also been misunderstood by the media, according to Warren, as indicating a shift in position on traditional evangelical issues.
In a conversation with atheist author
Sam HarrisSam Harris is an American author, and neuroscientist, as well as the co-founder and current CEO of Project Reason. He received a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Stanford University, before receiving a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA...
in
NewsweekNewsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
magazine, Warren spoke out against
evolutionEvolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
and in favor of
creationismCreationism is the religious beliefthat humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe are the creation of a supernatural being, most often referring to the Abrahamic god. As science developed from the 18th century onwards, various views developed which aimed to reconcile science with the Genesis...
. He also said that brutal dictators such as
Mao ZedongMao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
,
Joseph StalinJoseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
, and
Pol PotSaloth Sar , better known as Pol Pot, , was a Cambodian Maoist revolutionary who led the Khmer Rouge from 1963 until his death in 1998. From 1976 to 1979, he served as the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea....
were all atheists, when questioned on whether religion is beneficial to society. In 2005, during the
Terri SchiavoThe Terri Schiavo case was a legal battle in the United States between the legal guardians and the parents of Teresa Marie "Terri" Schiavo that lasted from 1998 to 2005...
controversy, Warren stated that withholding feeding to Schiavo, a woman in a
persistent vegetative stateA persistent vegetative state is a disorder of consciousness in which patients with severe brain damage are in a state of partial arousal rather than true awareness. It is a diagnosis of some uncertainty in that it deals with a syndrome. After four weeks in a vegetative state , the patient is...
, was "not a right to die issue". He then called Michael Schiavo's decision to remove her feeding tube, "an atrocity worthy of
NazismNazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
", and while speculating about Michael Schiavo's motives, put forward the idea that Schiavo wanted Terri to die because, if she regained consciousness, she might have "something to say that he didn‘t want said."
Two weeks before the
2008 U.S. general electionThe 2008 United States general elections were held on November 4. The result was a significant victory for the Democratic Party on the national level, as they increased majorities in both houses of Congress and won the Presidency. Democrat Barack Obama defeated Republican John McCain in the...
, Warren issued a statement to his congregation endorsing
California Proposition 8Proposition 8 was a ballot proposition and constitutional amendment passed in the November 2008 state elections...
, which would amend the
California ConstitutionThe document that establishes and describes the duties, powers, structure and function of the government of the U.S. state of California. The original constitution, adopted in November 1849 in advance of California attaining U.S. statehood in 1850, was superseded by the current constitution, which...
to say "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California," thereby eliminating the right of same-sex couples to marry. Warren's position was consistent with the official position of his church's denomination, the
Southern Baptist ConventionThe Southern Baptist Convention is a United States-based Christian denomination. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination and the largest Protestant body in the United States, with over 16 million members...
, and reflected his belief that this definition of marriage "has been supported by every single culture, and every single religion for 5,000 years." Warren stated that the measure was necessary because the
Supreme Court of CaliforniaThe Supreme Court of California is the highest state court in California. It is headquartered in San Francisco and regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sacramento. Its decisions are binding on all other California state courts.-Composition:...
"threw out the will of the people" in May 2008 when it found, in the
In Re Marriage CasesIn re Marriage Cases 43 Cal.4th 757 [76 Cal.Rptr.3d 683, 183 P.3d 384], was a California Supreme Court case with the dual holding that "statutes that treat persons differently because of their sexual orientation should be subjected to strict scrutiny" and the existing "California legislative and...
decision, that the previous statutory ban on
same-sex marriageSame-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....
was unconstitutional. After the measure passed, Warren's church and others were targeted by protesters.
In an interview with
BeliefnetBeliefnet is a large multi-faith e-community that aims to provide a free forum for religious information and inspiration, spiritual tools, and discussions and dialogue groups. Beliefnet provides information about various religious and spiritual beliefs, ranging from Christian denominations to...
in early December, Warren again sparked controversy by appearing to equate same-sex marriages to marriages of siblings, multiple partners, and adults and minors. He later released a video message saying that he does not equate gay relationships with incest or pedophilia, and that, as he had stated during the Beliefnet interview, he opposes the redefinition of marriage.
See also
- Southern Baptist Convention
The Southern Baptist Convention is a United States-based Christian denomination. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination and the largest Protestant body in the United States, with over 16 million members...
- List of Southern Baptist Convention affiliated people
- Celebrate Recovery
Celebrate Recovery was founded in 1991 by Pastor John Baker of Saddleback Church with the goal of overcoming life's issues with a twelve-step program based on Christian principles. This recovery program addresses all types of habits, hurts and hang-ups. Other churches and some prisons implemented...
External links