A Review of Rick Warren's New Magazine: The Purpose Driven Connection<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you are one of the twenty five million people who purchased Rick Warren's book, "The Purpose Driven Life," and you are craving more, then get in line\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/shrinkingcamel\/2009\/02\/26\/a-review-of-rick-warrens-new-magazine-the-purpose-driven-connection\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Review of Rick Warren's New Magazine: The Purpose Driven Connection\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you are one of the twenty five million people who purchased Rick Warren's book, "The Purpose Driven Life," and you are craving more, then get in line\" \/>\n<meta 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{"id":904,"date":"2009-02-26T19:28:46","date_gmt":"2009-02-27T00:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/shrinkingcamel\/?p=904"},"modified":"2009-02-26T19:28:46","modified_gmt":"2009-02-27T00:28:46","slug":"a-review-of-rick-warrens-new-magazine-the-purpose-driven-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/shrinkingcamel\/2009\/02\/26\/a-review-of-rick-warrens-new-magazine-the-purpose-driven-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"A Review of Rick Warren’s New Magazine: The Purpose Driven Connection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/p>\n

If you are one of the twenty five million people who purchased Rick Warren\u2019s book, \u201cThe Purpose Driven Life<\/a>,\u201d and you are craving more, then get in line folks, because your dreams have come true! The Purpose Driven Connection<\/em> <\/a>magazine hits newstands this month.<\/p>\n

Rick Warren has created a glossy, oversized quarterly magazine that is chock full of all things Purpose-Driven. I mean, this thing is loaded! And it delivers Rick Warren o\u2019 plenty: Rick on Life\u2019s Mission. Rick on Obama. Rick on getting spiritually connected. Rick on answering your questions. Rick on Bible study. Rick, Rick, Rick. Open the cover, and it\u2019s like you are entering a Rick-Warren-Wonderland.<\/p>\n

Aside from the Rick-centric articles, there are many other inspirational stories of hope by every-day normal folk, right alongside professional journalistic coverage of some pretty dramatic life-changing tales. Beautiful, stylish photography and graphics are tastefully interspersed throughout. Then, all of this is topped off with several editorial columns written by a Who\u2019s Who of the most notable and recognizable names in Christian publishing: Max Lucado<\/a>, Bill Hybels<\/a>, and\u00a0 Anne Graham-Lotz<\/a>. The heft of this publication will keep you busy for hours.<\/p>\n

But wait! There\u2019s more<\/strong>! The magazine also comes with a DVD bible study guide, and tools to get you plugged into an online community. Practically everywhere in this magazine are invitations for the reader to visit the Purpose Driven Connection web site <\/a>and \u201cTell us your story!\u201d\u00a0 These folks are making a huge effort to create something that is much more than just a magazine, but to build an interactive community of believers, who can encourage and support one another to live out their faith in new and exciting ways.<\/p>\n

The content of the magazine is pretty consistent with the mainstream Evangelical flavor served up in Rick\u2019s church and in his books, but it happily skates around some edgier subjects, too \u2013 like, stories about an urban hip-hop church, and a motorcycle-gang small group. Well, to certain Christian readers that may seem edgy. The Purpose Driven Connection is clearly trying to be culturally relevant and inclusive to all shapes and varieties of church-building that are going on out there today, without offending or alienating any one specific sub-strata or demographic (can anyone say \u201cMainstream?\u201d).<\/p>\n

I found the magazine to be\u00a0somewhat\u00a0uneven as a reading experience because of the mix and variety of writers: some of the articles are written by\u00a0professional journalists; others\u00a0are by amateurs; some are authors; many\u00a0are by Rick Warren himself. The effect is more like a hodgepodge of inspirational\u00a0material thrown together for mass appeal, rather than a unified magazine with a unique editorial voice. Other than Rick\u2019s voice, of course. Who also happens to be the Editorial Director.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to see them bring it up a notch or two.<\/p>\n

But overall, I admire the direction this thing is taking. The message is one of inspiration, hope and a call to action. It says, \u201cGet right with God, get out into the world and make a difference!\u201d How can that possibly lead to anything but good? Because right now our nation can use all the hope and inspiration it can get.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"