![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Rick-Warren.jpg\")
Lead pastor of U.S-based mega church, Saddleback Church, Rick Warren, has announced plans to step down.<\/p>\n
Pastor Warren announced his plan on June 6, saying the process for the search for his replacement would commence in the coming week.<\/p>\n
Saddleback Church, a mega church, based in Southern California, was established in 1980. It has a congregation of about 30,000 and 7,000 small groups every week.<\/p>\n
The church grew from a modest Bible study in Warren\u2019s home attended by a few families to 19 domestic campuses and four others in the Philippines, Germany, Hong Kong and Argentina.<\/p>\n
Pastor Warren is widely known for his books Purpose Driven Church<\/em> he wrote in 1995 and which has sold more than one million copies worldwide and Purpose Driven Life<\/em> he authored in 2002 and which has sold more than 50 million copies.<\/p>\n He also authored Dynamics Bible Study Methods, God\u2019s Answers to Life\u2019s Difficult Questions<\/em>, God\u2019s Power to Change Your Life <\/em>and What on Earth Am I Here For?<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>He was named one of the \u201c100 Most Influential People in the World\u201d by Time magazine in 2005.<\/p>\n Warren, 67, announced his retirement during a sermon titled, \u201cHow to Discern the Best time to Make a Major Change.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis next week, we are going to begin the official search for my successor. That\u2019s a big deal, the official search for my successor,\u201d Warren told his congregation via video and in person at the Lake Forest campus.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not the end of my ministry. It\u2019s not even the beginning of the end. It\u2019s the beginning of the beginning, but we are going to start looking for the next-generation pastor who will replace me and lead our family into the future.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are going to take one step at a time in the timing of God\u2026\u2026God has already blessed me more than I could ever possibly imagine. I don\u2019t deserve any of it, and so this next transition in my life is something I am anticipating with zero regrets, zero fears, zero worries.\u201d<\/p>\n He recalled that he pledged upon founding the church to lead the Saddleback family for the next 40 years.<\/p>\n He said he would make the \u201csmooth transition into a less visible role of founding pastor.\u201d<\/p>\n He added, \u201cNow, this is such a significant decision because I am only (the) lead pastor our church family has ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n The clergyman explained that Saddleback does not have a successor in mind already, adding that it would search for one inside and outside the church.<\/p>\n He said the church is looking for \u201ca leader who is already doing some purpose-driven ministry\u201d \u2013 a term synonymous with his (Warren) life and leadership.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t have to see the ultimate step to take the first step; you just take the first step,\u201d he explained about the search.<\/p>\n Warren said he and his wife, Kay \u201cknew this day would eventually arrive,\u201d adding that they were already waiting on God\u2019s perfect timing to commence the process of finding the next lead pastor for the church.<\/p>\n In 2019, while preaching his 40th<\/sup> Easter service, Warren said he and his wife had made a promise to lead Saddleback for 40 years.<\/p>\n He said, \u201cKay and I made this crazy promise when we were 25 years old that we would give 40 years to one location, that we wouldn\u2019t move and that we wouldn\u2019t be tempted to go to another church.\u201d<\/p>\n Warren noted that now that the United States is already emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, he and his wife felt God saying \u201cnow is the time\u201d for another person to step in.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lead pastor of U.S-based mega church, Saddleback Church, Rick Warren, has announced plans to step down. Pastor Warren announced his plan on June 6, saying the process for the search for his replacement would commence in the coming week. Saddleback Church, a mega church, based in Southern California, was established in 1980. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"0","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-uncategorized"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1101"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1104,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101\/revisions\/1104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}