Critical Analysis of The Purpose Driven Church - Book Report/Review Example

The Purpose Driven Church: A Review \ The Purpose Driven Church: A Review The purposeThe Purpose Driven Church, by Rick Warren, has had a profound impact on the thinking of church leadership today, both those groups who support his leadership model and those who do not. He outlines the five purposes that should drive church growth as: worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and evangelism. The basic methodology of Warren’s purpose driven philosophy is to bring unchurched people to church; assimilate them into the congregation; allocate them into small groups and then a core group; and send them out to the community to bring in more unchurched people. The book has sold more than a million copies in 20 languages, and its formula for church growth success has been implemented in many thousands of churches, with exciting results. The book’s target audience includes ambitious new pastors, experienced pastors who want to significantly expand membership, pastors of dying churches who want to resurrect a comatose congregation, and church leaders who will support pastors in doing so, with Warren’s model. The book is especially intended for pastors who do not rotate among denominational ministries, but who can stay put and grow their own ministries. A less discernible audience is Warren himself, who is reflecting on his experience with building a church. The sole purpose for writing this book is to use his own ministry as an example, to describe his road to success and inspire other pastors and their churches to achieve success, through well-defined purpose and harmony of purpose. He claims that the church purpose brings hope. He operationally defines church-building success as numerical growth. Numerical growth is responsive to changes made in the packaging of the product. The modern packaging is a response to market indications of customer preference. Warren’s purpose was well-accomplished, in that his book has inspired many churches toward numerical growth, motivated them to become more purposeful and to provide fun experiences, which avoid boring churched and unchurched alike. However, Penfold notes that a majority of church growth is a result of Christians transferring into a more fun, purpose driven church, and a minority of growth is due to conversion. In that sense, Warren has not entirely fulfilled his purpose and vision. Accomplishment The model he presents is aimed at attracting and sustaining the interest of the un-churched community. The underlying assumption is that people don’t attend church because it is boring and does not meet their needs. People want to feel good, have support for issues of well-being, feel relaxed and casual, and be entertained. Apparently, slow hymns, prayerful music on piano and organ, and sermons by pastors whose words make them feel guilty, under conviction, concerned about sin, salvation, and the imminent return of Christ, do not support their needs. They need to feel positive and special. Warren even advocates an inoffensive and creative approach to invitations to commit to Christ. Warren has found that rock bands, mobile lecterns, casual attire, positive messages, and universal inclusive, specialized support groups, raising self-esteem, and entertaining services boost his numbers. Warren measures success by how many members a church ministry has, how many attend services, and the longevity of the pastor and his ministry. He sees the role of the church as selling a product, that needs packaging and marketing. Church is a business and the rules of good business apply. Moreover, Warren implies that these rules of good business are in line with the will of God and the example of Jesus. Warren notes that Jesus was strategic in targeting a market and fulfilling its needs. Strengths A major strength of this book is Warren’s use of the case study method, by which to describe his model of building a purpose driven church. The case study he uses is his own ministry and, since he is a very practical man, he uses the story of his ministry to clearly illustrate his model in application. This invites his audience to believe that if they follow his formula for commercial success, God will bless them with a huge and powerful ministry. The formula approach, illustrated by the case study, makes it look entirely plausible and, with effort over time, inevitable. The case study enables Warren’s story to be told in simple, straightforward language, as a life story, which everyone can relate to. This makes it easy to jump on the bandwagon right away, without a lot of critical thinking and training time. Although Warren described, with his case, the tremendous preparation and knowledge that launched him on his path, the plans that did not blossom and the accidents that did blossom along the way, having a formula with an illustrative case makes it seem deceptively simple. A case study has the advantage of placing the listener/reader imaginatively into the history of what is being taught. This leads to an impression of proof, based on personally witnessed empirical evidence. It acts as a powerful motivator to follow the same principles. It does not easily motivate the listener/reader to question underlying assumptions. One does not read the story of Cinderella and stop to question whether a prince would make her happy forever after, or whether the fairy godmother violated animal rights in changing mice into coachmen. The story is read and desire is implanted in the minds of nearly every little girl, to look for her prince and to make use of insignificant and lowly elements, transforming them into pleasing and delightful resources, to make happily ever after happen for her. Warren presents himself as a Cinderella, in a sense. The seminary had reached its conclusion and a confusing number of options separated him from knowing his future. Then God picked him and he was special. He had an amazing life, a happily ever after kind of life. He became rich and internationally famous, and a promoter of the purpose driven church. Warren became a mythological character, a larger-than-life archetype for pastoral success. By reading his book, others have entered the story, embodied the archetype, generated resources by transforming what was insignificant and lowly, and found happily ever after. There are assumptions that need to be questioned, however, and that they are not questioned is a weakness of this book. Is success due to the hand of God or the hand of man? Is a pastor’s will synonymous with God’s will? Is a church’s purpose necessarily God’s purpose? Actually, this is not a set of questions particular to Warren’s case. Thousands of ministers and church leaders read this book and are influenced to follow Warren’s example. But they are not Warren. They may have less business sense. They may have a surplus of confidence in discernment of their calling to ministry, and less fine-tuned sensitivity to the Holy Spirit Warren tells, in the first chapter, about his call to ministry and, in particular, to Saddleback. Prior to God’s more specific intervention, Warren had specified his ambition and outlined the specific parameters of his pastoral commitment1. He stuck pins in maps, interviewed people, gathered demographic information, pragmatically searched out facts and figures, and even memorized all the streets and roads in his preferred area. He paid attention to every practical factor. When he heard the voice of God, in response to his prayers about the matter, his pragmatic conclusions were confirmed, and his wife was led to confirm the plan also. Weaknesses The weakness are linked to the type of questions questions that are posted in the Christian ministry I wonder, though, how similar or dissimilar are the efforts and confirmations of those pastors and church leaders who are influenced by Warren’s book? Will they work as diligently and purposefully as he did? Will their wives agree with their findings? Will they be able to sort out the leading of God from the temptations of their own ambitions and personal preferences. We can only hope so, but it may be overly optimistic to assume so. Another underlying assumption that should be questioned is Warren’s advocacy of numerical measurements of success (how many people are brought into the church and how long the pastor stays there to lead them). Warren sees these numerical assessments as evidence of God’s blessing. He therefore focuses his formula for church-building success on increasing the numbers. In parody of this logic, it can be noted that huge numbers of the world’s population are living in poverty. God obviously prefers poverty, and blesses those nations that keep the most people in poverty, as is evidenced by the continually increasing numbers of people living in poverty. This is a tautological argument. Are the accomplishments of dangerous dictators blessed by God, as evidenced by the longevity of their leadership and the hordes of apparent followers they inspire? Is their success in achieving their purpose any indication that God supports their continuing dictatorship? No, obviously not. Satan also exerts influence in the world. Power and influence, wealth and other numerical indicators are not limited to the hand of God. To think otherwise is to risk falling into the wrong hands. God’s Word warns that there will come false prophets, making all kinds of claims that can lead people away from God. We are warned, and so we must exercise discernment, with the help of the Holy Spirit. Yet, as noted earlier, not all pastors and church leaders have the spiritual discernment of Pastor Warren. It is worth a note of caution that it not be assumed that they do. Warren measures success numerically, but within a larger context of active Christian purpose2. There may be cause for concern that some less experienced pastors and church leaders may assume that if attendance numbers are high and rising, then all is right in the eyes of God. On the contrary, however, numerical measurement is part of a larger system. In the absence of the kind of active Christian practice modeled by Pastor Warren, certain other churches may respond with self-righteous arrogance and miss Warren’s basic message. Warren has changed the notion of what constitutes sacred space, in the church, by transforming it into a loud and entertaining environment. Sacred space has traditionally been quiet and contemplative. It has not been necessarily associated with commercial business models. Jesus expressed His anger at the commercial activities of the temple. He knocked over the tables on which business was being conducted. He made clear that a violation of sacred space is unwelcome in the House of God (John 2:13-22). Moses did not conduct a Google search and assemble demographics before determining what God wanted, as He spoke from the burning bush. Moses recognized that he stood on holy ground, and he conducted himself accordingly (Exodus 3:1-5). When he climbed up Mount Sinai to receive God’s instructions for right living, Moses invited no rock bands to entertain him those 40 days. When he came down the mountain and saw that the people he led were worshipping idols, violating this holy place, where God spoke, Moses was furious (Exodus 25:19-21). Intended audience These stories have traditionally been used by Christians to understand the notion of sacred space, and to distinguish between holy and secular ground. Another assumption to evaluate, then, is Warren’s transformation of sacred space, his mixing of secular and holy. Will other pastors and church leaders be able to successfully maintain holiness within a more secular-appearing environment? It may work for Pastor Warren and his church in California, but will it work in other, more traditional arenas? Warren’s book has brought the Christian Church to a precipice. Some pastors and their churches will stand firm on solid ground, while becoming purpose driven and user-friendly. Other pastors and their churches may succumb to temptation and lack of discernment, will accept the logic of transforming the church experience into something more Universalist, therapeutic, and palatable, but become caught up in the individual elements of change, rather than the spiritual purpose underlying the change. Bibliography Sundquist, James. Whos Driving the Purpose Driven Church? : A Documentary on the Teachings of Rick Warren. Oklahoma City: Bible Belt Publishing, 2004. Read More