One of the statements that surprised me the most at the Purpose Driven Community Gathering was when Rick Warren said that he believed that “Repentance was the central message of the New Testament”. Even more shocking was hearing Warren claim that the primary goal of all of his sermons was ‘repentance’.

Up until I heard Warren say these words I believed that Warren’s sermons were completely devoid of repentance. The reason why I believed that is because in all the sermons I have heard Warren preach (I listen to them all), I couldn’t recall as single time where I had heard him say the word ‘repent’ or ‘repentance’. Warren’ sermons always seem chock full of practical advice and simple applications but I can’t recall the last time I heard Warren rail against sin and call people to repent of their sins and believe the gospel for the forgiveness of sins.

Well, it turns out that there is a reason why I never heard Warren say those words. At the conference Warren clearly stated that he always preaches for repentance but that he does so in a way whereby he doesn’t actually say the word “repentance”.

This revelation tweeked my view of Warren and his preaching philosophy. Where I once thought Warren’s sermons were all practical self-help feel good sermons, I now believe that Warren primarily preaches the law and only on the rarest of rare occasions does he preach the gospel.

Definition of the Gospel – many people have a difficult time defining the gospel. Thankfully, 1 Corinthians 15: 1-4 gives us a clear and concise definition of the gospel. Here is how scripture defines the gospel: “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”

In his lecture on Purpose-Driven Preaching Warren made it unmistakably clear that the goal of Purpose-Driven Preaching is obedience. This is why Warren’s sermons are heavy on application and practical ‘how to’ information. In classic Warren sound-bite style he claimed that “the problem with a lot of preaching is that it produces learners instead of doers.” One of Warren’s recurring mantra’s was that Christians already know more information than they are putting into practice. Said Warren, “Too many people are informed but not transformed.”

The ahah moment came for me when Warren emphatically claimed “THE central message of the New Testament is repentance.” It was at that moment that I fully understood that Rick Warren is a pietist and that the preaching philosophy employed by Warren is nothing less than the 21st Century incarnation of Wesleyan Methodism. (I mean that in the nicest way possible). In other words, with the goal of PD preaching being ‘obedience’ the only thing you could count on hearing Sunday after Sunday is God’s Law, do this, or don’t do that, along with practical information (methods) on how to do this or don’t do that. The underlying assumption is that by applying the information or methods given in any particular sermon a person will become ‘more obedient’ to God.

Armed with this insight I was able to discuss this directly with Warren.

In my face to face meeting with Pastor Rick I directly challenged him on his claim that repentance is the central message of the New Testament. I told Warren that his claim was inaccurate because it was only HALF TRUE.

(BTW, I was not being unloving or unkind in telling Warren that he was wrong because he was only half right. Warren himself uses this exact same argument against some of his critics on page 234 of the Purpose Driven Church.)

I then pointed Warren to Luke chapter 24:46-47. This text states.

[Jesus] said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

Jesus himself, in Luke’s version of the ‘great commission’ instructs the disciples to preach a twin message of repentance AND the forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name. I pointed this out to Pastor Warren and told him that what is conspicuously missing from his sermons (I listen to them all) is the forgiveness of sins in Jesus name. Furthermore, I gave him examples from his own sermons where he gave practical ‘how to’ information but never once dealt with the most important ‘application’ of how Jesus Christ’s death on the cross applies to me and how Jesus Christ forgives me of the all the times when I have sinned and not been obedient to God.

The problem with Purpose-Driven Preaching is that it emphasizes ‘naked obedience’ but the message of ‘Christ crucified for sins’ is almost always omitted.

This approach blurs law and gospel and makes it appear that we are made right before God by our own efforts.

Gal. 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Why is Purpose-Driven Preaching Dangerous?

When was the last time that you told your spouse that you loved him or her? If your marriage is anything like mine then you’d say that you constantly tell your partner that you love them many times a day. To not do so would be unthinkably cruel.

Imagine what your marriage would be like if you told your wife or husband, “I told you once that I loved you and I don’t feel any reason to keep on telling you that. In fact, you should just assume that I love you and if anything changes I’ll let you know.”

If I had said that to my wife then I would be a divorced man. The fact is, telling my wife that I love her and hearing her say that she loves me is vital to the health of our marriage. When I tell my wife I love her I am not conveying useless and redundant information. Instead, I am again summing up the vows I made to her on our wedding day and letting her know that despite the fact that we’ve been through better and worse and have been richer and poorer and that despite all the disagreements and challenges that we’ve faced and struggled through that I still passionately love her and no one else. It’s not mere information that I am conveying to my wife when I tell her I love her. I am sharing my heart with her. My marriage could not survive without it and neither could yours.

What holds true for a marriage also holds true in our relationship with God. I need to hear that God loves me and forgives me constantly. This is not mere information that we are talking about. This is one critical facet of Christian preaching that cannot be neglected because all of us still sin, daily, hour by hour, minute by minute and trying harder to be more obedient and sinning less cannot and does not absolve us of our sins nor does it quiet our guilty consciences. Even though I have been a Christian nearly all of my life (I am 40 years old) I still need to hear God tell me that He loves me and forgives me of my sins. I need to hear this gospel message just as often as I need to hear my wife tell me that she loves me.

If I do not hear the gospel but instead only hear that I must try harder or apply certain steps in order to be more obedient or change my life then I am likely to despair and begin to believe that God only loves me based upon my performance and despair and think that God doesn’t love me anymore because of my lack of obedience. Even worse, I may become self-deceived like the Pharisees and think that I am more favored by God because of my better obedience. (That is not the Christian faith. That is self-righteousness.)

Oddly enough Rick Warren perfectly understands the importance of stating something over and over. In the Purpose-Driven Church on page 117 Warren said:

“Don’t assume that a single sermon on your church’s purposes will permanently set the direction of your church. Don’t suppose that by printing your purposes in the bulletin everyone has learned them, or even read them! One widely known law of advertising is that a message must be communicated seven times before it sinks in.

At Saddleback we use as many different channels as we can think of to keep our purposes before our church family.

In my face to face meeiting with Pastor Warren I challenged him to preach the Gospel, the message of the forgiveness of sins in Jesus name, every single Sunday. Why? Not only is this what Jesus' told us to preach, but I understand the importance of stating something over and over. In fact, I think it is utterly tragic and borderline criminal of Warren to not be as committed to over communicating the Gospel as he is to over communicating his church’s purposes. Imagine if that passage of the PDC read:

Don’t assume that a single sermon on the gospel will permanently fix the gospel in people’s minds and hearts. Don’t suppose that by printing the gospel in the bulletin that everyone will understand the depths of Christ’s love and mercy to them. At Saddleback we use as many different channels as we can think of to keep the gospel before our church family.”

Before I publish my next installment on my Purpose-Driven critique I invite you to listen to what I consider to be the most tragic sermon I have ever heard Rick Warren preach.

The title of the Sermon is “Breaking Free From Persistent Temptation”.

You can view the sermon notes by clicking here.

The tragedy of this sermon is that Warren shares the private struggles, sins and temptations of some of those who attend Saddleback. You can hear and feel their despair. Yet, never once in the sermon does Warren comfort these people with the good news of the forgiveness of sins won for them by Christ on the Cross. Instead, Warren gives 7 applications for not giving in to sin. Warren only preached ‘repentance’ but was only half right because he omitted the forgiveness of sins in Jesus name. Even more tragic is the fact that this is the typical Warren sermon.

So as I told Warren to his face, I will now say again. Pastor Warren you are wrong about repentance being the central message of the New Testament because you are only half right. Repent and preach BOTH repentance and the forgiveness of sins in Jesus name as our Lord has instructed.