Saddleback Church is a large Evangelical Christian church in Lake Forest, situated in southern Orange County, in Southern California. The church was founded in 1980 by pastor Rick Warren. Since its founding, the church has grown to an average weekend attendance of over 20,000. On Easter, 2005, the church celebrated its 25th anniversary and had over 45,000 attendees. The church campus is 120 acres.

The Purpose Driven movement originated at Saddleback Church and the church promotes this movement through Purpose Driven Network, a network of over 400,000 Christian congregations, from over 200 denominations. The movement emphasizes intentionally structuring a congregation around what they view as Biblical purposes of the church as established by Jesus Christ:fellowship, discipleship, ministry, evangelism, and worship. The Purpose Driven movement started 1985, and garnered national attention with the publication of the New York Times Bestseller, The Purpose Driven Life, written by pastor Rick Warren.

Criticisms of Saddleback Church

• Attempts a
  
  
  
  Balancing Act Between Predestination and Free Will, and ends up embracing "Evangelical Deism" and the Ancient Heresy of "Dualism."
• by Brian Jonson "The video on exponential growth, presented by Warren, is one of the most shocking teachings I have ever seen emerge from a Southern Baptist. Our denomination is considered conservative and thoroughly Bible-based. When a minister in the SBC presents philosophies or doctrines that are contrary to scripture, he must be rebuked. This is true of the pastor of the smallest congregation as well as the largest. The fact that Saddleback Church is the largest in our movement makes this action so much more urgent."

See also

• Rick Warren
• The Purpose Driven Life
• Purpose Driven

Bibliography

• The Purpose Driven Church (ISBN 0310201063)
• The Purpose Driven Life (ISBN 0310205719)