Day 00: I just dropped Rick Warren in the bath

Not from shock, just carelessness. But why take 'The Purpose Driven Life' there in the first place? I get asked lots of questions and from time to time people are curious about my opinions. One question that comes up from time to time is Rick Warren and the Purpose Driven phenomena. 'What do you think?' folks ask. I generally try not to comment on things I have not had personal experience with, so my comments have usually been restrained and somewhat negative. Why negative? Well I have a couple of prejudices. Like all prejudices they have some reasons and lots of gaps. I have two potential areas of problem; the Merchandising of Christianity and 'How to' Christianity.

Franchising is an effective marketing methodology. It gives the product a high profile and the power of any exposure is thus acculmulative. It produces the 'one size fits all' phenomena of MacDonalds and Starbucks. It also produces the kind of thinking which thinks that the whole world wide church should be marching to the sound of a single drum. After all, 20 million Christians can't be wrong. (20 million copies of The Purpose Driven Life have been sold) The book of the Revelation contains messages to 7 churches. Each church was distintively different to every other and the word of God was carefully tailored to each separate church. No 'one size fits all' here. God's physical creation doesn't support this model; there are no two blades of grass the same and in the whole of creation there is scarcely a single straight line. The New Testament refers to the 'variagated grace of God'. Perhaps I'm just a congenital non-conformist but I love 'difference'. I am also deeply suspicious of mega-buck generating Christian enterprises.

When I was much younger there was a popular TV programme called 'The 6 million dollar man'. The plot was a test pilot who suffered a major accident and whose body was pretty well mangled. As the opening shots showed the event and the rush to the surgery we hear the famous words, "we have the technology, we can rebuild him'. It was part of the 'can do' philosophy of the USA during those years; the worship of 'method' and 'projects' and 'technology'. My own opinion is that this philosophy has had a devastating effect on genuine Christianity and has substituted method for Spirit.

Still I hate to judge a thing before I have examined it and a 'free' copy came my way so I determined to give it a fair crack of the whip. So I determined to, at least, make a start and thought a blog might be a useful way of recording my reactions. I doubt that I will manage a full 40 day immersion but I will give it a try.

I have a single criteria in reading and commenting... the book 'The Purpose Driven Life'. I am not going to comment or judge the Rick Warren juggernaut, just this book. I will try to react and respond to what it says and not to what I have heard Rick Warren believes or does, or his friends and associates believe and do. This is to be Biblebase and the Purpose Driven Life! So we were all ready to make a start... when I dropped the book into the bath! So we have a short pause while it dries out and then we will see where it leads.

If you would like to comment or disagree with this blog you can join the Biblebase Discussion Forums. See you there.