Rick Warren is one of the best-known and most influential pastors in the world. He started the Saddleback Church, which is the eighth largest church in the U.S. Time Magazine named Warren one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World,” and he is involved in more than 300 community ministries. This Evangelical minister is also a successful author. His books include “The Purpose Driven Church” and “The Purpose Driven Life,” which was on the New York Times Best Seller list. He has spoken at many important national and international events, such as the World Economic Forum in Davos, the United Nations, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and Time’s Global Health Summit. He was also the host of the Civil Forum on the Presidency, where John McCain and Barack Obama were interviewed right after each other. Warren is a pastor, philanthropist, theologian, and global strategist. He has been involved in social causes and spoken in churches around the world about things like poverty, diseases, and the need for more education and jobs.
Early years and childhood
Richard Duane Rick Warren was born in San Jose, California, to a Baptist pastor named Jimmy Warren and a high school librarian named Dot Warren. He was raised in the area around Ukiah, California.
In 1972, he graduated from Ukiah High School, where he started a Christian club called The Fishers of Men Club. He went on to get an arts degree from California Baptist University.
In 1979, he got his Master of Divinity degree from the South-Western Baptist Theological Seminary. He then went to Fuller Theological Seminary and got a Doctor of Ministry degree.
A Later Life
In 1973, when he was nineteen and still a student at California Baptist University, he was called to full-time ministry. He also went to San Francisco that year to hear Pastor W.A. Criswell preach.
In 1980, he gave his first speech for the public good at the Laguna Hills High School Theater, California, where he started the Saddleback Church. It was Easter Sunday, and 200 people went to the service.
In 1995, he put out a book for pastors and church leaders called “The Purpose Driven Church.” In this book, he focused more on God’s plan than on the ideas of the people in charge of the ministry.
In 2002, Zondervan, a Christian media and publishing company, put out his book, “The Purpose Driven Life,” which was a devotional book.
In 2006, he spoke at the TED global conferences, and in the same year, his church, the Saddleback Church, hosted the Global Summit on AIDS, which Barack Obama went to.
In August 2008, he ran the Civil Forum on the Presidency, where Barack Obama and John McCain were interviewed right after each other.
In 2009, he worked with the Readers Digest Association to start the quarterly publication The Purpose Driven Connection.
In 2010, he was one of the speakers at John Stephen Piper’s “Desiring God” conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Piper is a Calvinist Baptist Christian preacher and author.
Works of note
In a poll done by George Barna, his book “The Purpose Driven Church,” which came out in 1995, was chosen as the second most influential book.
When it came out in 2002, “The Purpose Driven Life” was on the New York Times list of best-selling books. This was one of his most popular books, and more than 30 million copies of it were sold.
He started the evangelical Christian megachurch called Saddleback Church. It is the eighth biggest church in the whole country.
Awards & Achievements
He was one of the people who were elected to the Council on Foreign Relations in 2005 and 2006.
In 2005, he was named “one of America’s Top 25 Leaders” by the U.S. News and World Report.
He was named one of the “15 World Leaders Who Mattered Most in 2004” by Time Magazine.
Newsweek named him one of the “15 People Who Make America Great” in 2006.
Personal History and Legacies
He is married to Kay Warren, and they have three kids: Amy, Josh, and Matthew. Also, they have four grandkids.
Matthew, his youngest son, killed himself in 2013. This was a terrible event for his family. People think that he killed himself because he was very depressed and had a mental illness.
Estimated Net worth
Rick Warren is an evangelical Christian pastor and author from the United States. He has a net worth of $25 million. Rick Warren was born in 1954 in San Jose, California. His mother was a librarian and his father was a Baptist minister. He started the first Christian club in high school and went on to get a number of degrees.
Trivia
This American Christian Pastor and the author gave back 25 years’ worth of his salary to the church where he worked after the sales of his books went up.