A Rick Warren blog

We need to care for the sick

By Mark Kelly

There was a time in my life when I was very sick – deathly ill, in fact. For three years, I struggled with Crohn’s disease. I lost a quarter of my body weight and lived in almost constant pain. Because I was self-employed, we had no health insurance. Some of you know firsthand what it is like to be in such dire straits.

God used that time in our lives to deepen us spiritually and draw us closer to himself. But I’m not sure we would have made it if it hadn’t been for the people who took the time to care for us. Friends from church brought us meals, helped with our expenses, even paid some doctor bills. God ministered to us at times by making his own presence very real, but most of the time we experienced his love through our church family.

People who have been seriously ill know how uncertainty about the future can fill your heart with anxiety, how weary you become of symptoms that just won’t go away, how tired your family grows in constantly caring for you – and how much it means to have other members of God’s family be there with you. Even when they don’t know what to say or do, the simple fact that they care enough to be there is a profound, tangible demonstration of God’s love and care for you.

Most of us underestimate how much we can help people who are sick. We tend to think only medical professionals can really make a significant contribution. But each of us can care for the sick, even in overseas settings that we tend to think must be left to the professionals. What you understand about basic hygiene would be lifesaving information in some villages. And many infants and children die from illnesses that could be prevented if you were there doing something as simple as handing out mosquito nets.

We need to care for the sick – the fourth element of P.E.A.C.E. – because God commands us to do it. In a column from The Better Life, Pastor Rick says there are seven ways you can help.

Read it here.

Size, location don't matter

By Mark Kelly

The Purpose Driven paradigm works in all churches because God gave the Great Commandment and Great Commission to every church, regardless of size and location. As Rick Warren says, "Purpose Driven is a biblical strategy, and anything that is biblical will work anywhere!"

We know the PD paradigm works in small churches because Saddleback started out as a small church. It grew large, by God's grace, using the Purpose Driven process. The PD paradigm worked when it was a small church, and it still works now that it is a mega-church. The point of the paradigm is not growing a mega-church; the point is helping a congregation achieve health and strength by focusing equally on all five of its biblical purposes.

You don't have to take my word for it. Listen to the testimony of a couple of pastors:

Assisting the poor

By Mark Kelly

With the passing of Jerry Falwell, voices in the major media have been musing about the “new breed” of evangelicals. Some seem to think evangelicals will be less concerned about political “hot button” issues.

That’s not very likely, but there does seem to be a new spirit of understanding among followers of Jesus that God cares about the whole gamut of problems that keep people from experiencing the full, free, and forever life he created them to enjoy – and that Jesus died to give them. While the major media have made a big deal out of renewed evangelical concern for “creation care,” the new awareness reaches far beyond that.

More and more evangelicals are realizing that God’s concerns transcend political platforms. His heart breaks for the oppressed. Injustice makes him angry. And he has a special love for the poor – the weak, vulnerable, voiceless half of the world’s people who live in extreme poverty. Jesus made it very clear that when we help “the least of these my brothers,” we have helped him. (Matthew 25:31-46) If Jesus cares like that, his followers ought to do something about it.

Saddleback’s P.E.A.C.E. initiative envisions God’s people all over the world rising up to tackle the “global Goliaths” – spiritual emptiness, self-serving leaders, extreme poverty, pandemic disease, and lack of education. In this issue of The Better Life, Rick Warren focuses on the problem of poverty: what causes it and what you can do about it.

Read: Four ways to help God's favorites, the poor