The great commandment gives us two purposes, the great commission gives us three. The great commandment -- Love God with all of your heart -- that is worship. Worship is expressing my love to God. Love your neighbor as yourself -- that is ministry. So two of the purposes of the church, worship and ministry, come from the great commandment.

Three of the purposes of the church come from the great commission. It says to go make disciples -- that's evangelism. It says to teach them to do everything I have commanded you -- that is discipleship. But right in the middle it says to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now why did God put baptism between these two great purposes of worship and evangelism? I think because of what it represents. Baptism does not just represent new life in Christ; it represents incorporation into the body.

The Bible says we are baptized into the body of Christ. And so I think that baptism is a symbol for fellowship or incorporation. It says that I am not ashamed to say that I am a believer. I have identified myself as a Christian, and the point is that we are called not to just be believers but belongers.

I finished Southwestern Seminary in December 1979, moved here with no money, no members, no building. All I have every had really was a bunch of ideas and knew I was going to build it on the five purposes. Really nothing more than that. Of course over the years the vision gets clearer.

I have what you call Polaroid vision. That is, you take a picture and you hold it. The longer you look at it the clearer it gets. So when I was 25 years old, all I knew was I wanted to build these five purposes into the church. But over the years I learned that you have to have a strategy and structure and there are certain things that you have to do to make it happen.

If you don't have a strategy or structure to intentionally balance the five purposes, the church tends to over-emphasize the purpose that the pastor is most passionate about. So, for instance, if I am gifted in teaching I tend to produce a classroom church that has Christians growing but maybe nobody is coming to Christ.

If I have gifts in evangelism, I tend to produce a soul winning church where lots of people come to Christ out there is no depth. I may have gifts in the area of ministry -- we'll have what I call a "family reunion church" with great fellowship, great koinonia but no evangelism, no discipleship. Or you can have gifts in the area of worship and build what I call an "experiencing God" church -- God comes down, the Holy Spirit falls, maybe there are signs and wonders. It's great worship, but no ministry or no fellowship or no evangelism. So, I need a strategy and structure to keep me from killing the church!

Preaching: Where does preaching fit into that whole matrix?

Warren: The bigger the church gets the more important the pulpit becomes because it is the rudder of the ship. Where else do you get an hour of undivided attention with all these people on a weekly basis? Most pastors do not understand the power of preaching. But even more important than that is they don't understand the purpose of preaching.