LAKE FOREST, Calif. \u2014 The Saddleback Community Church bleachers were still filling up when the jazzy Latino pre-service music faded and, with a \u201cOne, two, three!\u201d countdown, the 13-piece band rocked into their opening hymn.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI wanna be like You. Live everyday, the way that You want me to,\u201d sang the throng, watching the JumbroTrons. \u201cIt\u2019s getting better. I read Your letter. These are the words you said to me. Love the Lord with all your heart. Love your neighbor as yourself. These are the things that you must do, and my grace will see you through. \u2026 It\u2019s all about love. Hey!\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Saddleback looks like a textbook megachurch, the kind that keeps inspiring sociologists to rush to their computers. The Rev. Rick Warren and friends mailed 15,000 invitations to their first service in 1980 and the church had 10,000 members before it built a sanctuary. Today, 15,000 or more attend five \u201cseeker friendly\u201d weekend services. The sunny baptismal pool welcomes a river of newcomers, with 1,638 baptized in 1999.<\/p>\n\n
Outside the 3,000-seat worship center, booths offered programs for families, blended families, single parents, separated men, separated women and people struggling with almost every difficulty life can offer. Inside, the choir bounced through a reggae chorus, an oldie from 1979 and a gospel-rock anthem. Then Warren took center stage, dressed down in khakis and a black knit shirt.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been looking at thinking clearly about your problems, about your relationships, about change, about sex, about stress,\u201d he said, starting one of many strolls away from the traditional pulpit. \u201cBut there\u2019s one area where people are more confused than probably any other area. It causes more divorces than sex. And it is finances, it\u2019s \u2018Til debt do us part.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n\n
The crowd laughed, because Warren is a witty storyteller and commentator on Orange County life. On this day, he told many in his flock: \u201cYou\u2019re spending money you don\u2019t have on things that you don\u2019t need to impress people you don\u2019t even like.\u201d This creates Saddleback Valley syndrome, with dreams and debts creating workaholism, then exhaustion, then depression, then shopping sprees, then more debt.<\/p>\n\n
But this wasn\u2019t a megachurch sermonette for folks used to clutching a TV remote. Warren regularly preaches between 50 minutes and an hour, working his way through a dozen scripture passages and waves of illustrations from the news and daily life. Seeker-friendly sermons do not have to be short and shallow, he said.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe idea that postmodern people will not listen to a \u2018talking head\u2019 for 45 minutes is pure myth,\u201d he said. \u201cOf course, most people, including many preachers, couldn\u2019t hold an audience for 10 minutes. But that\u2019s due to their communication style, not the supposed short attention span of unbelievers. Any communicator who is personal, passionate, authentic and applies the scriptures to real life will have no trouble holding the attention of our generation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Critics may scoff, but this Southern Baptist congregation is committed to developing techniques to help churches with 150 members, as well as 15,000. Saddleback services rarely include comedy and drama, because small churches struggle to find talented writers and actors. Saddleback rarely uses high-tech media in its services, because small churches don\u2019t have the resources to do so.<\/p>\n\n
That\u2019s OK. Warren said that \u201cif all seekers were looking for was a quality production, they\u2019d stay home and watch TV, where millions are spent to produce half-hour programs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
But most of Warren\u2019s sermons do include breaks in which church members offer testimonies \u2014 sometimes chatty, sometimes wrenching \u2014 about how their lives have been changed by prayer, Bible study, giving and service. Why do this? Because all churches can ask members to offer testimonies.<\/p>\n\n
Churches don\u2019t have to be shallow to appeal to the heads and hearts of unbelievers, stressed Warren. In fact, just the opposite is true.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cUnbelievers wrestle with the same deep questions believers have,\u201d he said. \u201cWho am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? Does life make sense? Why is there suffering and evil in the world? What is my purpose in life? How can I learn to get along with people? These are certainly not shallow issues.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LAKE FOREST, Calif. \u2014 The Saddleback Community Church bleachers were still filling up when the jazzy Latino pre-service music faded and, with a \u201cOne, two, three!\u201d countdown, the 13-piece band rocked into their opening hymn. \u201cI wanna be like You. Live everyday, the way that You want me to,\u201d sang the throng, watching the JumbroTrons. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n