[UPDATE 4:45 p.m.] Rick Warren, lead pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., tweeted Thursday afternoon: "Someone on the internet sold Matthew an unregistered gun.I pray he seeks God's forgiveness. I forgive him. #MATTHEW 6:15."

[This is a breaking news update. Check CP's earlier story below.]

Police of Orange County's Sheriff's Department in California are saying that Matthew Warren, son of Pastor Rick Warren, was "probably not" the owner of the gun he used in a tragic suicide. more >>

Well-known Pastor Rick Warren's personal tragedy of losing his son Matthew as the result of suicide last Friday has not only garnered sympathy and condolences from around the world, but also online vitriol from his detractors. Perhaps most disturbing to Warren and many in the Christian community is that some of the attacks have come from people professing to be Christians, as well.

Warren posted through Facebook and Twitter: "Grieving is hard. Grieving as public figures, harder. Grieving while haters celebrate your pain, hardest. Your notes sustained us."

Upon learning of the news of Mathew Warren's death and the response on the Internet by some Christians, Beth Moore, founder of Living Proof Ministries, wrote in her blog post that after a mixture of emotions on Saturday, she became "madder and madder at the bullies in the Body of Christ." more >>

Christians throughout the world were shocked to learn that Matthew Warren, the son of Pastor Rick Warren and his wife, Kay, had committed suicide Friday evening at his home in Mission Viejo, Calif., following a lifelong battle with depression and mental illness.

A 2012 report published by the Centers for Disease Control reveals that 38,364 people died in the United States in 2010 from suicide – an average of 105 deaths each day. From 2008 to 2009, an estimated 8.3 million adults reported having suicidal thoughts. And among teenagers and young adults, 15 to 24, suicide accounts for 20 percent of all deaths each year.

The Rev. Dawn Anderson, a part-time pastor at Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas, started the Christian Survivors of Suicide (CSOS) support group 17 years after she experienced the trauma of coping with the aftermath of her late-husband's suicide in 1993. more >>

The memorial service for Matthew Warren, the son of Pastor Rick Warren who took his own life last Friday, will be a private one, Saddleback Church announced via its website.

"Since the Warren family is loved by so many, no building in Orange County is large enough to hold an open memorial service," church officials stated. "The family decided it was best to have a small, private service for their son."

The well-known Lake Forest, Calif., pastor "will speak publicly to our church family about the tragedy when he returns to preaching after a grieving period," they said. more >>

SANTA ANA, Calif. – An official autopsy report released today by the Orange County Coroner's Office concluded that Matthew Warren, the 27-year-old son of Pastor Rick Warren, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound last Friday.

"The autopsy today was completed today on Matthew Warren, 27, of Mission Viejo. The cause of death is a self-inflicting gunshot wound," O.C. Sheriff's Department Office spokeswoman Gail Krause told The Christian Post over the phone, reading from the official statement.

Krause said she did not expect any other announcement coming from the sheriff's department. more >>

In the wake of this past weekend's tragic death of Matthew Warren, son of Pastor Rick Warren and wife Kay, Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research, stressed the need for the church to address mental illness.

Along with shedding the shame and stigma that often accompanies mental illness, Stetzer recently wrote that he believes Christians need to address the issue of medicine relating to mental illness in the church.

"We should not be afraid of medicine," Stetzer, an expert in church planting and lead pastor at Grace Church in Hendersonville, Tenn., wrote in a recent post for CNN's belief blog. more >>