Rick Warren

In observance of this year’s International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, the Southern California megachurch of popular preacher Rick Warren will host a forum on the persecuted church with some of the nation’s foremost experts on the subject.

According to an announcement, Warren, founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., will moderate the discussion on religious freedom and persecution this coming Sunday as millions worldwide unite for prayer. The civil forum will feature Michael Cromartie, vice-president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and vice chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom; Dr. Carl Moeller, president/CEO of Open Doors USA; and Pastor Dishan Wickramaratne, senior pastor of the 8,000-member Peoples Church in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Warren says Saddleback, in observance of IDOP, wants to remind people that the Church is still suffering around the world. more >>

The Purpose Driven Connection magazine will no longer be published by The Reader’s Digest Association as of 2010, announced Rick Warren’s media representative Wednesday.

Less than a year after its launch, the quarterly magazine will release its last print issue in mid-November before going to an all-digital format. Issues in 2010 will be posted online, free of charge on www.purposedriven.com. The content will be operated solely by Warren’s Saddleback Church in Southern California.

“Our biggest discovery was learning that people prefer reading our content online rather than in print because it is more convenient and accessible,” said Warren, who noted the online format will make the content available to a wider international audience that could not afford the subscription fee. more >>

Rwandan President Paul Kagame shared with Pastor Rick Warren on Friday that the role of the government is to embrace everyone and “bring them together.”

He was reflecting on the roles of the government and the church in the area of national reconciliation based on his own country’s experience with genocide as he spoke at the Saddleback Civil Forum on reconciliation, according to The Orange County Register.

Kagame became president of Rwanda in 2000 after the country’s 1994 genocide that left 800,000 to 1 million people dead within about 100 days. more >>

In the days leading up to the 46th annual Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) convention, evangelical megachurch pastor Rick Warren opted not to speak with the media regarding his guest appearance.

But to his congregation at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, the “Purpose Driven” preacher made it clear that his goal behind every speaking engagement is always the same – for the “global glory of God.”

“I invest my time speaking to groups of unbelievers that most pastors never get the opportunity to share with,” Warren wrote in a recent update to the Saddleback family. more >>

WASHINGTON – Evangelical pastor Rick Warren told a crowd of some 8,000 Muslim Americans that he wasn’t satisfied with just talking to them.

“I will tell you that I am not interested in interfaith dialogue. I am interested in interfaith project. There is a big difference,” said Warren to attendees of the 46th annual Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) convention Saturday evening.

“Talk is very cheap. You can talk and talk and talk and never get anything done. Love is something you do,” Warren maintained. “It is something we do together.” more >>