Few pastors have become more influential in shaping church life today than Rick Warren, founding pastor of Saddleback Community Church in southern California's Orange County. Under his leadership, the church has grown from the Warren family alone to regular worship attendance of more than 15,000 each weekend. Warren has taken the insights he learned at Saddleback and shared them in the book The Purpose-Driven Church, which has become one of the most popular Christian books of recent years. Warren is now a member of the Board of Contributing Editors of Preaching, and recently the editor visited Warren's office to talk about the role preaching has played in the life and growth of Saddleback.

Preaching: Rick, we were just looking at some examples of The Purpose Driven Church as it has been translated into different languages. 21 languages, a million copies, it is just an incredible story. How did the concept of the purpose-driven church come to be a part of your ministry?

Warren: It actually started when I was a short term missionary in Japan being sent out by the Baptist Student Union years ago in college. While I was there, I began to say, "What is it in our churches that is cultural, and what is really biblical?" As I looked al the Japanese churches I saw that they were adopting a lot of the things that were not working here so it just got my mind thinking. So I began -- while I was in Japan -- a lifelong study of what is it that makes a healthy church. Not necessarily a growing church but a healthy church.

I believe health creates growth. I don't have to tell my kids to grow. If they are healthy, they grow automatically. So the focus is often on the wrong thing -- on growth. I began several things: first, I read through the New Testament over and over looking for principles, of what is a transcultural principle. If it is biblical, I believe it will work anywhere. American principles only work in America but if it is biblical I believe it is transcultural. So, I read through the New Testament over and over and over. I've read every book in print that I could find on the church or church growth or church structure. At that time it was about 80-something books.

Then I also wrote the 100 largest churches in the United States. I just researched them and personally wrote them a letter and did my own personal research project. I discovered that, of course, it takes all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people. There is more than one way to grow a church and I say if you are getting the job done I like the way you are doing it. The only wrong way is the one that you think everybody should do it your way.

What I began to see is that God uses all kinds of styles, all kinds of methods, all kinds of formats to reach all kinds of people. But the common denominators were: every church that is going to be healthy has to worship, has to evangelize, has to help Christians grow, discipleship, has to do ministry in the world and has to have fellowship. I began to see these over and over in the New Testament -- I really saw them in the great commandment and the great commission.