CHRISTIANITY Pastor's book sparks movement toward discovering purpose

Whole congregations have taken up reading 'The Purpose-Driven Life.'
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
For the subtitle of his runaway best seller, "The Purpose-Driven Life," the Rev. Rick Warren asks the big question, "What on Earth Am I Here For?"
He wastes no time giving an answer. Chapter One begins, "It's not about you."
The Rev. Mr. Warren, pastor of one of the nation's largest churches, has given readers a Bible-based primer in contemporary prose that criticizes "worldly Christians" as "saved but self-centered" and promotes a straight and narrow path of self-sacrificing "Christian maturity."
Mr. Warren declares, in his pithy way, that God made you to be a "member of his family," a "model of his character," a "magnifier of his glory," a "minister of his grace" and a "messenger of his Good News to others."
"The Purpose-Driven Life" (Zondervan, $20) has struck a nerve and sold more than 2.7 million copies, lifting it to the No. 2 spot on The New York Times' hardcover advice list.
'Forty Days' activities
Sales have been buoyed by a spinoff spiritual-renewal campaign called "Forty Days of Purpose" that is rolling through the evangelical Christian world.
About 2,500 churches from more than 100 denominations have taken part in the Forty Days campaign thus far. Under a carefully crafted format, they set up study groups in which people read a chapter a day of "The Purpose-Driven Life," keep journals and hold weekly discussions.
In an unusual addition, the churches gear virtually all of their congregational activities -- the Sunday sermon and music, the Scripture focus, prayers, even e-mails -- to each week's theme.
Mr. Warren, a Southern Baptist and pastor of the 13,000-member Saddleback Church near San Diego, launched the Forty Days program in October with a satellite sermon to an estimated 500,000 people in 1,500 participating churches. About 1,000 more churches signed up for the spring session, which is now under way, and a third session is planned for October.
Scott Thumma of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research in Connecticut said the book is a savvy amalgam of elements from the liturgical churches, such as themed readings and hymns, and from the evangelical churches, such as group Bible-reading intensives.
'User-friendly' doctrine
Larry Gilbert, director of the Church Growth Institute based in Elkton, Md., said Mr. Warren -- author of a previous best-seller, "The Purpose-Driven Church" -- is a master marketer "who would be Lee Iacocca" if he were in industry.
Mr. Warren has presented core Christian doctrine in a "multidenominational" way and made it "user-friendly," Gilbert said, "which means, in the church market, that the common guy can understand it. People are looking for application today: 'How does this affect me?' He's got something that works there."
Discovery Church in Philadelphia -- a nondenominational "seeker-oriented" congregation that was created in January -- is taking part in the spring session.
Discovery's pastor, the Rev. Mr. Randy Smith, has divided his adult members into eight geographic groups for their home-based meetings. Joe and Joanne Silverberg are hosting the Washington Township, Pa., group; on a recent Wednesday evening, a dozen people piled into the Silverbergs' basement family room for week four of the program.
Video sermons
They settled in with an opening prayer -- and suddenly Mr. Warren smiled out at them on the big-screen TV in the corner. A feature of Forty Days of Purpose is weekly video talks by Mr. Warren himself. His theme for week four: "You Were Created to Become Like Christ."
If Forty Days is Christian boot camp, Mr. Warren, 49, hardly looks the part of a drill instructor. He is pudgy and balding, with thick glasses and a mild manner. But his message about the process called sanctification is challenging.
"God wants to make you holy more than he wants to make you happy," Mr. Warren said on the video.
People become born again in an instant, he said, but spend the rest of their lives "working out the implications of that" in a fallen world where Satan and his temptations always lurk. The Bible is the beacon, Mr. Warren said, and "you need to work it into your hearts and minds" through disciplined study and memorization.
God uses problems and stress to mold and shape our character, Mr. Warren said. "He will use everything, even bad things, for good. ... But you have to respond in the right way."
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