Rick Warren

Richard Duane Warren, known as Rick Warren, was born on January 28, 1954, in San Jose, California, and raised in Ukiah. He grew up in a Baptist home: his father, Jimmy Warren, was a Baptist minister, and his mother, Dot Warren, was a high-school librarian. That mix of church life and books helps frame the public work he later became known for, as an American evangelical Christian pastor, author, and organizer.

Warren graduated from Ukiah High School in 1972, where he founded the first Christian club on the school’s campus. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from California Baptist University, a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1979, and a Doctor of Ministry from Fuller Theological Seminary. He has said he was called to full-time ministry as a 19-year-old student. In 1973, he and a friend drove to San Francisco to hear W. A. Criswell preach, and afterward Criswell prayed for him, a moment Warren remembered in connection with that calling.

In January 1980, Warren began a Bible study group with seven people and his wife in their Saddleback Valley condo in Orange County, California. That April, Saddleback Church held its first public service on Easter Sunday at the Laguna Hills High School Theater, with 200 people attending. The church grew quickly, using nearly 80 different facilities over 35 years and averaging nearly 20,000 people in weekly attendance. Warren developed what became known as the Purpose Driven philosophy of ministry, built around worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and evangelism.

Warren’s best-known books brought that approach to a much wider audience. The Purpose Driven Church was published in 1995, and The Purpose Driven Life later sold more than 30 million copies. He also co-founded the P.E.A.C.E. Plan, a humanitarian initiative for churches. His work took him beyond Saddleback, with speaking invitations to the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, the African Union, the Council on Foreign Relations, Harvard Kennedy School, TED, and Time’s Global Health Summit. In 2005, Time named him one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World.”

Warren’s public role also brought debate. He opposed same-sex marriage and supported California Proposition 8, while also working with diverse religious communities and emphasizing dialogue. In 2008, he hosted the Civil Forum on the Presidency at Saddleback Church with John McCain and Barack Obama, their first joint appearance as presumptive nominees. Obama later chose Warren to give the invocation at his 2009 inauguration, a decision criticized by pro-choice and LGBT advocates. Warren retired from the lead pastor role at Saddleback in 2022, remained founding pastor, and became executive director of the Finishing the Task mission coalition. His words still connect because they are practical and direct, as in his line: “The best use of your life is to invest it in something that will last longer than your time on Earth.”