Saddleback Church’s AIDS summit kicked off Wednesday with hopes to “disturb” the hearts of those in attendance and mobilize congregations around the world to defeat the global pandemic.
The third annual Global Summit on AIDS and the Church has attracted about 1,000 people to the southern California megachurch to learn how churches and individuals can help fight the deadly killer.
“This is the one place you can talk about AIDS to your heart’s content,” said Kay Warren, co-host of the Nov. 28-30 summit, according to the Orange County Register. “You’re going to hear things you don’t agree with and you may find you’re at polar opposites with a speaker … but we can’t stop AIDS unless we come together.
“I have a goal to mess with your comfortable world,” said Warren, who founded the AIDS ministry at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif. “I want your heart to be seriously disturbed.”
Kay Warren, wife of Saddleback’s founding pastor Rick Warren, was disturbed five years ago from her comfortable life as a “white suburban mom with a minivan” when she read a magazine article that stated more than 12 million children in Africa were orphaned by AIDS, according to Reuters.
Since then, the Warrens have launched what is thought to be the only global HIV/AIDS conference built entirely around a grassroots church-based strategy.
“The Bible commands the church to care for widows and orphans,” Rick Warren said Wednesday at the summit. “With 143 million orphans in the world, I’d say that we have plenty of opportunity to make good on that mandate and demonstrate the love of Christ to children who have nothing to lose but hope. And we should never discount the power of hope.”
The HIV/AIDS initiative at Saddleback is a key part of Rick Warren’s P.E.A.C.E. plan, a humanitarian strategy launched three years ago. The goal of the worldwide effort is to mobilize one billion church members to Promote reconciliation, Equip servant leaders, Assist the poor, Care for the sick and Educate the next generation.
A session at the summit will feature a report about the P.E.A.C.E. plan progress and the lessons learned over the past three years after sending out more than 7,500 members to test the plan in 69 countries.
“One of the most exciting things about this third conference is that we actually have progress to report,” Kay Warren said, according to a summit report. “The first conference was about casting a vision; the second conference was about gaining momentum; and this conference is about reporting what has worked, what has really worked well, and what still needs to be done.”
During a summit press conference, Rick Warren was questioned if working alongside groups that oppose Christian moral values on AIDS issues might require compromise.
“I don’t believe in compromising biblical convictions,” Warren responded, according to World Net Daily. “I don’t believe in that at all. If it’s in the Word, then that’s the way it should be done. I do believe in treating people with respect, even people that I disagree with. I think Jesus did that.”
The megachurch pastor noted that he can work with people in areas of common interest to help others although he might disagree with them in other areas.
“I see Jesus as my model, not politics,” Warren said. “And I think too many people look at issues from a political viewpoint, and they choose politics over saving lives.
“To me, if someone is dying on the side of the street, and I need help to save that person, it doesn’t matter to me if they are Republican or Democrat, or Jewish and Christian, Muslim or atheist,” the Purpose Driven Life author said. “If they will help me get that person to the hospital, I want their help.”
Warren affirmed, however, that his church’s “number one goal” is still to “help people to get into heaven.”
Saddleback Church has baptized more than 20,000 new believers in the last 10 years, Warren said.
“There’s not a church in America that wins more people to Christ than Saddleback Church. So this is no way has diluted our evangelistic efforts.”
As an example, he pointed to David Miller, the founder of a radical gay-activist group ACT Up, who became a Christian after he was invited to Saddleback’s first AIDS conference.
“I have watched the transformation in this man,” said Warren, from someone who hated the church all his life to becoming a follower of Jesus Christ, according to WND.
Based on the Warrens’ principle to work with many different people, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) is expected to speak in person at the Summit on Thursday. Fellow presidential contenders Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will appear via satellite.
Following the Global Summit, the first-ever Youth Summit will take place on Saturday, Dec. 1 – World AIDS Day – with video messages from rock star Bono, pop artist Jordan Pruitt and the cast of TV show “One Tree Hill,” and a personal appearance by U.S. First Daughter Jenna Bush. This portion of the summit will be simulcast to more than 200 churches nationwide.
Comments
you give financial support to combat this pandemic but where does all the money go? by the time it reaches the intented receipient, 90% goes to administrative costs! talk about the church practicing 'SELF-DENIAL'!
ggmusic, we all do want to help dying people. But spiritual death is far more serious than physical death. This life is but a vapor, Scripture says. Rick Warren does not preach the gospel even when he is in front of a sympathetic audience. He especially doesn't do it in front of a hostile or unknown audience such as national television. Jesus Christ said if you are ashamed of me before men I will be ashamed of you before my father. How can anyone be in THAT position and still be a credible pastor of the true church?
What Rick is doing is promoting the social gospel, like Jim Wallis, Tony Campolo, etc. as well as eastern mysticism (he quotes many so-called "christian" eastern mystics in his books and promotes contemplative spirituality proudly. These are all offenses to Christ, which is whom we are primarily to be concerned with pleasing... not the world.
Satan's most powerful weapon are these corporate megachurches,
in it for the money.
IF Saddleback believes in the Triune God, and God is creator of the universe ,and the Bible is the word of God. Why are they not wanting to save the souls of the perpetuators of this scourge? The Bible says for instance in:
Jhn 8:11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Is this the Saddleback version?-
go ahead and commit sexual sin but be sure you use a condom?
I wonder who these 'New Age Christians' are serving?
What are they trying to do? Just wondering.
This church disturbs me, period, even before they convened this "AIDS summit". It seems to me they are addressing the SYMPTOM of the problem here and not the problem itself. Jesus ALWAYS went right to the heart of a matter.
I pray Saddleback Church will focus on pleasing God and not focus on being men-pleasers. There IS a Godly way to reach the lost which ministers to their needs without compromising the Gospel. In fact, compromising the Word of God guarantees their needs will NOT be met.
What is it about the man behind Saddleback that is so wrong?
DONT GET ME WRONG, i sense a very powerful ulterior motive behind his works, and he speaks with the greatest intentions of Godliness,
i'm looking for the scratch on his diamond-like brilliance here, not questioning anything more.
And i did some DISTURBING reading
AIDS is not natural but a USA biological weapon created and tested in 1985 based on a mycoplasm at 10^10 strength, whereas mycoplasm at 107(?) strength creates fibro microbyalgia, and strength 108 creates chronic fatigue syndrome or something to this extent. Thsi info is like a couple years old but i cannot seem to relocate the original source.
and WHY a conference on AIDS?
shouldnt there be a huge scale conference on homosexuality, the biggest spreader of AIDS?
outofbabylon:
Mr. Warren is part of the emerging church of deceit just like Brian Mclaren, Rob Bell, Doug Pagitt, and many other's too numerous to mention. This moement is creating a bridge to Roman Catholicism and "Orthodox Biblical Christianity" If you want to learn more on the damage this liberal/post modern movement is doing to the work of our Lord Christ Jesus, then go to www.understandtetimes.org, and www.apprising.org. I hope this helps give you a idea, that this is just another sign of the latter part of the end times where the Bible speaks of false teachers.
Mr Warren needs to explain and repent himself over the recent signing of an Interfaith Ecumenical concession between many top Christian leaders and the Muslim faith which is very disturbing to faithful Christians.
Please read the blog at http://www.myspace.com/outofbabylon
Early this morning I wrote that everyone seems to want to get on the bandwagon, and I was thinking of all these hollywood types, politicians, "megachurches", when I said this. It's like the more it gets on the news, the better opportunity for these kinds of characters to get some free publicity. Is it just that we don't hear enough about all the small groups grappling with these issues much earlier on (it's not like our liberal media is overly enchanted with grass roots christian type efforts), or do we really miss the boat too often?
jc4me,
"Amen and Amen Kone Wone, Dannygirl, dgnymn, the Watch, and Prophet for preaching the Word like it is meant to be taught, and not this emergent heresy."
God Bless and AMEN to you to.
Danny
Thank you jc4me for taking the time to break it down for everyone.
GMG - I also hear what you are saying too. I think we know the source of AIDS is sin. No doubt about it and that message should be preached. I guess I was trying to address the secondary aspect as in finding ways to fight AIDS in ADDITION to as in medicine and research. And I say research in ethical as in ethics that follow scripture. All in all great comments and post!
ggmusic: Go find out what the Gospel of Christ says about the Gospel of Christ. Go study the Gospels, the Book of Acts,the letters to the Corinthian Churches, the Epistles and the Book of Revelation, and then and only ten comment on what you just asked me, and on your previous comment as to whether they are emergent or not.
I am not saying we should not help people wit AIDS. I'm simply saying that we must first give people what is to change their lives from the inside - that is the Gospel of Christ so they can choose or reject Christ, ad then we are to help their physical needs. I don't know what Bible you're reading, but it's sure not the same one I read.
So we should make sure we as Christians judge them first before we help?
no problem GMG. I just want to make people aware in this post modern culture the dangers of the emergent church movement. And, yes, I agree with both you and nerhodam wholeheartedly on showing Christ-like compassion to those in need by helping their physical needs, but we need to be careful not to use wordly ways of doing so. The church needs to influence the world; not the world influence the church. What many of these movements are doing is showing humanitarian compassion, but not sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. In this case, the Warrens have endorsed an ecumenical forum of democrats and republicans (believers and non believers alike) (light and darkness working together) trying to figure out a human solution to a clearly spiritual problem.
If you don't address the root cause of AIDS, then you will mearly put a bandade on the disease, and not address the true issues behind why it spreads. I do believe in educating peple on AIDS, but I believe if people were just to repent of their sins, and give their hearts to Jesus Christ as Lord and as Savior, and if they would read their Bibles more and see what God has to say about homosexuality, bi-sexuality, bestiality, pedophilia, adultery, fornication, pornography, drug use, and other forms of sex sex outside the confines of God's order of marriage between one man and one woman, then we would't be in such a rut financially as well as emotionally about the issue. I say there are many missionary organizations that preach the Gospel Truth out there and while their preaching and teaching the Truth, they then address the Physical sicknesses of the people. One of them is Gospel for Asia. There are thers, but we need to remember that this "Purpose Driven" Agenda is more man driven than Jesus Driven, and we must be on the lookout for a very real enemy called Satan who disguises himself as an angel of light and will try to deceive even the elect if that were possible. Jesus Christ is the true healer of our hearts and our behaviors and our sins, and every other twisted thing in this world if we only come and confess to Him our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.
Goodness jc4me, the amount of time you've spent on this is rather awe-inspiring. What is particularly troubling is the insidious, oh-so-subtle way of subverting God's Word. Sure reminds me of satan in the garden.
And Nerohdam, I share some of your same reservations in determining how and where we support efforts to help in the on-going problems of our world, AIDS being such an obvious need. I know that there are some good sound biblically based groups working hard in this area, perhaps those are the ones that we need to go to.
One of the big things that I find so bothersome about the whole AIDS issue is where we are with it today. There are so many who are in fact innocent victims, I think Africa is a good example of how the innocent suffer. But somehow, the world seems to have missed the whole point in how AIDS began and spread in the first place -- just how it has gotten to be the pandemic it is now. Everyone is either on the bandwagon or wants to be associated with it to show how socially conscious they are. But why aren't we learning the lessons to be taught by this pandemic?
I guess that sounds like I don't care about those suffering from a disease that is terminal, but that is far from the truth. I am simply lamenting the state our world is in.