Rick Warren

Purpose-driven pastor Rick Warren was born on January 28, 1954 in San Jose, California. The son of a southern Baptist preacher, Rick showed a strong dedication to Christianity in both his personal life and academic pursuits. After earning his Bachelor of Arts degree from California Baptist University, he went on to earn his Masters of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a Doctorate of Ministry from Fuller Theological Seminary.

Shortly after graduating, Rick felt that God was calling him to start a church in Orange County. With his wife, Elizabeth (Kay), Rick held the church's first meeting in their living room in 1979 with one other family in attendance. One year later, the Saddleback Valley Community Church, as it is now known, had drawn 206 attendants to its first public service. Today, the church boasts a membership of over 20,000 members, a 120-acre campus, and a diligent approach to helping others hands-on, carrying out more than 300 community outreach ministries to groups such as prisoners, CEOs, addicts, single parents, and those with HIV/AIDS. Recently, the church initiated a program for the feeding of 42,000 homeless people three meals a day for 40 days.

Rick’s humanitarian efforts and teachings focus on tackling what he refers to as the five “Global Goliaths” facing the world today: Spiritual Emptiness, Egocentric Leadership, Extreme Poverty, Pandemic Diseases, and Illiteracy or lack of education. He points out that these problems have so far been insurmountable for the public and private sector, and believes the only organization big enough to take on these problems is the world’s network of Christian churches.

In addition to Saddleback, Rick has also founded the Purpose Driven Network – a global movement of churches in 162 countries that has trained over 400,000 ministers and priests in his theology and outreach methods. On August 22, 2005, Time magazine reported that Rick had been asked by Rwanda’s President to help his country become a "Purpose-Driven nation." The Saddleback Valley Community Church responded by mobilizing 2,000 church members and the cooperation of 600 Rwandan churches in a national initiative, along with Rwanda’s Business leaders and leaders of parliament.

After a hostage situation had occured in Atlanta where the hostage read the book 'The Purpose Driven Life' to the hostage taker, Rick was interviewed on the Larry King show when he revealed that the student missing in Aruba, Natalee Holloway's stepfather gave a copy to the father of one of the suspects and that Scott Peterson's ex-lover, Amber Frey, had even given Scott a copy

Rick has been a guest-speaker at such national and international forums as The United Nations, The World Economic Forum in Davos, The African Union, The Council on Foreign Relations, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and TIME’s Global Health Summit.

Rick and his wife, Kay, have three children, Josh, Amy, and Matthew. The couple donates 90% of their income to three foundations: Acts of Mercy, serving those infected and affected by AIDS; Equipping the Church, training church leaders in developing countries; and The Global PEACE Fund, fighting poverty, disease, and illiteracy.