What is the biggest mistake that you have made in preaching?
Warren: Well, I have made more mistakes. We have done more things that didn't work at Saddleback than did. We are just not afraid to fail.
I think the biggest mistake I made in the first couple of years of my preaching at Saddleback was not realizing the importance of drawing the net. I think drawing the net was an important thing. I didn't know as much as I do now. Forsyth says what the world needs today is the authoritative Word of God preached through a humble personality. I think a combination of confidence and humility goes together. I have learned the secret of spiritual power is integrity and humility.
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It is not vision. A lot of people talk about vision being a big thing to grow a church. Visions are a dime a dozen. A lot of people are visionaries who are not growing churches. What God blesses first is integrity, walking with integrity. Walking blameless. That we are exactly what we appear to be. The other is humility. Now humility is not denying your strengths; it is being honest about your weaknesses. We’re all a bundle of strengths and weaknesses. We all have strengths. We all have weaknesses. Paul could be very obvious about his strengths. He would say, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” Because he was also very honest about his weaknesses: “I am chief among sinners.”
I used to look at Paul and go, “Man I could never say that.” Follow Rick Warren as Rick Warren follows Christ? It seemed so arrogant, but then I realized people learn best by models. At least I am making the effort. I am not perfect, but you know what? I'd rather have people follow me than follow a rock star! I am at least making the effort, and they know what my weaknesses are because I am honest, I am authentic with the people.
I do believe in confessional preaching. I believe you should confess your strengths and your weaknesses. You don't dwell on yourself, but in many ways the minister is the message. The word must become flesh. The best kind of preaching is incarnational preaching. The most effective message is when I am able to get up and say, “This is what God is doing in Rick Warren's life this week. This is what I am learning. This is what I need to believe, what I need not to believe, what I need to do, what to not do,” – those four things. There is a ring of authenticity about that.
It is interesting that I have a thorn in the flesh that makes preaching extremely painful for me. I was born with a brain disorder, and I took epilepsy medicine through high school. Although I did not have epilepsy, they gave it to me because they did not know how to deal with it. I would faint; I would be walking down the street and just fall over and faint. It is a very complex thing, but I am under the care of Mayo Clinic. I have been to the best doctors in the nation. I have a very rare disease that less than two dozen people have; that’s what Mayo Clinic told me. My brain does not assimilate adrenaline correctly. So adrenaline, when it hits my brain, will tend to blind me, will tend to create headaches, dizziness, confusion, and all kinds of things.