Megachurch Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church announced yesterday during the June 6 service that after 40 years as their lead pastor, he will be soon stepping back from his current role with the church, having begun the process of searching for his successor.
Warren, 67, oversees the 25,000-member, 14-campus Saddleback Church that has been peddling poison and spiritual strychnine in the form of The Purpose Driven Life for over four decades now, told the congregation:
Now, if you registered with our church family and you read your email today, you know that this next week, we are going to begin the official search for my successor. That’s a big deal. The official search for my successor. This isn’t the end. It’s not even the beginning of the end. It’s the beginning of the beginning.
But we’re going to start looking for the next-generation pastor who will replace me and lead our family into the future.
Taking the time to answer a series of questions, Warren explains that they have no intention of leaving the church, and in fact hope to die by it, but that he’s looking forward to the transition into a less visible role as “founding pastor.”
They don’t have anyone in mind to succeed them yet, but will be looking both internally and externally for someone “already doing purpose-driven ministry” that “fits the biblical qualifications.”
With the recent announcement that Warren and company have begun to ordain women, it’s not unthinkable that they would have a woman take over as Senior Pastor. He further explains that the number one qualification they are looking for in a pastor is one who will love them as Warren does.
They have no timeline or timetable of how long the transition team will take, only that the search team will be lead by the elders and will begin right away.
