I came across an article this week on Rick Warren.  He is everywhere.  He has sold 30 million Purpose Driven Life books.  He is all over the globe.  He is scheduled to do the invocation at the inauguration of President-elect Obama.  He has taken on many social causes, vowing to work with anyone who wants to remedy the AIDS crisis or fight against injustice.  He has recieved criticism.  Is he watering down the gospel?  Is he pushing a social gospel?  Read this article and then my comments.

Rick Warren

It is so easy for some people to sit on the sidelines and criticize those who are actively pursuing faith by putting it into practice.  If ministry doesn’t fit in a simple box, for many people, then they reject it.  Biblically, what is Warren doing wrong here?  I love what he is doing.  If he is doing it for the fame or recognition then that will all be made clear in the end and he will  be accountable.  However, he has never given any indication that I have heard or seen that would suggest that.  He is simply using his platform and influence to promote the gospel through serving others.  Now, social ministry without the gospel is empty and temporary, at best.  But the gospel without social ministry is a mere academic exercise.  Jesus used the hybrid and so should we.  Minister to physical needs as a pathway to meet spiritual needs.  Again, I don’t see where Warren has in any way watered down the gospel.  He is just showing faith at work.  Is that not the biblical model?

As far as his comments on fundamentalists, it is all about semantics.  What is a fundamentalist?  My view is that a fundamentalist is one who holds strongly to the fundamentals of the faith.  The world’s view seems to be one who is arrogant, narrow-minded, and intolerant.  I don’t blame Warren for trying not be associated with that perception.  I don’t want to be known for that either.  But I am a fundamentalist by my definition.  We are to be gentle in our demeanor. (Galatians 6:1)  Yes!  Call a sin a sin!  But do so in a way that bursts forth with love and the good news that there is a Savior: the solution to the sin problem.  That is the Jesus way.  If anything, Warren is more of a fundamentalist than the academic fundamentalist because he actually believes that when  Jesus said, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me,” He actually meant for us to serve the least of these. (Matthew 25:40)