Pastor Rick Warren cancelled plans to be a part of a live webcast interview discussing the subject of grief after his son's suicide with LifeWay Research President Ed Stetzer during a major church planting conference in Orlando on Tuesday.

Warren made the cancellation announcement via Twitter: "#Exponential13 Sorry I'm unable to have my heart-to-heart with you pastors I love today but the media heard so I pulled out."

Warren, who has not made a public appearance since his son's death on April 5, was scheduled to be interviewed by Stetzer on his webshow, "The Exchange," hosted at the Exponential 2013 conference on Tuesday, The Christian Post learned from LifeWay Research Monday. more >>

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Pastor Rick Warren, originally scheduled to lead two Bible studies at a major church planting conference in Orlando this week, is instead scheduled to talk about his 27-year-old son's suicide during a live webcast hosted at the event Tuesday.

Warren, who has not made a public appearance since his son's death on April 5, will be interviewed by LifeWay Research President Ed Stetzer on his webshow, "The Exchange." Stetzer will be doing the show at the Exponential 2013 conference and Warren will be speaking from another location. The interview session will be available on the Internet. more >>

LAKE FOREST, Calif. – Evangelist Greg Laurie filled in for Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren during worship services over the weekend and is the first of a string of well-known Christian leaders scheduled to speak from the pulpit while Warren continues to grieve his son's passing. The list of pastors planned includes Francis Chan, Mark Driscoll, Pete Wilson, David Platt, Craig Groeschel, Wilfredo De Jesús, and Doug Fields.

During the sermon series featuring the pastors, they are scheduled to answer the question, "What Does it Mean to Follow Jesus?" Chan, an author and popular speaker at Christian conferences, is planned for next weekend at Saddleback.

Prior to his weekend sermons at the church, Laurie told The Christian Post he wanted to give a message of hope amid grief. The Harvest Crusades founder, who said the untimely loss of his son nearly five years ago gave him a "new ministry," spoke at Saddleback just a little more than two weeks since the suicide death of Warren's 27-year-old son, Matthew. Christopher Laurie died, at age 33, in an automobile accident in 2008. more >>

A new study has found that Christian adults primarily believe integrity, not "passion for God," is the most important quality in a leader.

The study, conducted by Ventura, Calif.-based Barna Group, found that 64 percent of Christians believe integrity to be one of the most important leadership qualities, while other important traits include authenticity (40 percent), discipline (38 percent) and "passion for God" (31 percent). Among evangelicals, however, the percentage of those who believe passion for God is an important leadership quality is significantly higher (83 percent).

More than half (58 percent) of Christians call themselves leaders, but only 15 percent of those surveyed said integrity is their main leadership quality. Instead, believers are more likely to say their strongest leadership characteristic is competence (20 percent), discipline (16 percent), collaboration (15 percent), integrity (15 percent) or authenticity (14 percent). Evangelicals again differ from the overall group on this point, with 42 percent of them saying their passion for God is their best leadership quality. more >>

Shaun King, former pastor and self-described techie-humanitarian, spoke with The Christian Post this week about the new project he's working on, his difficulty leaving pastoral ministry and how churches should be tapping into their members' talents and leveraging social media. The Kentucky native and recent NYC transplant also discusses his Twitter beef with Pastors Mark Driscoll and Rick Warren over statements they've made concerning President Obama's policies and faith.

In 2010, King debuted the first Twitter charity auction, TwitChange (which he no longer owns), to help raise aid for victims of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. King, 33, followed up with HopeMob in March of last year, which aims to become "the largest, most active, effective, innovative community of generosity in the world." (Read CP's coverage on how HopeMob). King's crowdfunding platform has won numerous accolades and been spotlighted on Oprah.com, Fast Company and CNN for the way it connects people and organizations with financial needs to people who are able to donate money. Next for the tech innovator is a product called Upfront, a new social platform and possible game-changer King and his colleagues are preparing for launch. Check back with CP for an exclusive report on Upfront.

Below is a transcript, edited for brevity, of CP's phone interview with King, who is married with five children ranging in ages from six months to 13 years old. more >>

IRVINE, Calif. – More than 4,000 Christians interested in becoming better leaders packed out the Catalyst West conference held at Mariner's Church in Orange County beginning last Wednesday and ending Friday.

"We were praying that for every leader here this would be a bench mark for them or a marker on the road of leadership for them," Catalyst President Brad Lomenick told The Christian Post backstage at the event. He said that he hopes leaders would be able to look back at the conference and say that it was a significant turning point in their lives.

"We pray that with a fearless sense and an aggressive belief that it is going to happen for leaders individually," Lomenick said. "I feel like that it is happening [at Catalyst West]. The unity, the fun, and the energy are here. It's always here [at Catalyst conferences], but we feel like we dialed it up a bit." more >>