The founding pastor of Saddleback Church in California, Rick Warren has been in attendance at the Baptist Centenary Congress in Birmingham, UK. He has been amongst a high-profile list of leading Baptist leaders as well as other Christians that have gathered at the momentous event to celebrate with 12,000 delegates.

Rick Warren is one of the most high-profile among the attendants; as the author of one of the most read Christian books worldwide in recent times – The Purpose Driven Life. The book has sold more than a million copies in 20 languages across the globe.

Christian Today had the chance to speak to Warren, and he reported that he was “humbled to be here at the Centenary Congress”.

“My parents attended the 75th Jubilee Baptist Congress, and I always thought that it would be so great to be at one of these events,” expressed Warren.

The Baptist Centenary Congress is the largest event ever held at the International Convention Centre reported the conference director, with about 1,000 more attendees than expected prior to the event.

When Warren was asked what was hoped to be gained from the four-day event, he answered: “This is a celebration of diversity and unity at the same time. You can get 10 Christians in one room and they will not all agree on certain issues – we have 12,000 here. If we all have to agree to make a fellowship then the fellowship would remain very small. So celebrating both unity and diversity is what this congress is about.”

The Saddleback Church in America began as just a home church in 1980, with just one family as its congregation. The work of God in the ministry has been extraordinary, however, with the church currently attracting more than 16,000 each weekend, with more than 50,000 names on the church roll.

Warren’s Saddleback Church has been boasted as being the fastest growing Baptist church in history, and now has 34 daughter churches, and 4,000 missionaries on various projects around the world.

Warren testified his heart towards pastors as he told, “My father was a pastor...and I grew up in churches all with less than 100 in congregation. My heart is definitely with the pastors, and my goal for the past 25 years has been to teach and encourage pastors.”

He continued, “I put my full trust in pastors, and they are the best equipped leaders in the world to make a significant and prominent difference.”

As Christian Today continued to ask Warren about the great success of his Purpose Driven Church in the US, the Baptist pastor was humble in his response: “What surprised me most about the book is that I got to write it. For seven months as I wrote the book I did not preach, yet the church still grew by 800 people. This shows it is not a personal church. This year so far I have been away from the church (Saddleback) for 2 months but it has grown from strength to strength. So a church is built on the purpose of God and not the individual.”

In particular, about his worldwide bestselling book, The Purpose Driven Life, Warren told Christian Today: “It is the sovereignty of God that blessed the book. It deals with the fundamental question of life – ‘Why am I here?’ This is fundamental to everyone and is something that everyone wants to know the answer to.”

Christian Today went on to ask Warren what his was message to the churches in the UK and in Europe as he continues his visit. In response Warren gave the advice: “My message to the UK is that too often it is talked about how things change, and there is too much focus on change. The focus has to be shifted to what has not changed and what will never change. By this I mean human nature, human need, and God’s answer to these.”

The UK had “to have the vision to understand what the time is now and to adapt. The message of Christ does not change, but the method changes. If you do not change the method according to the time then you will be irrelevant. Faith was something delivered to the saints, and you cannot change the faith or you are being arrogant, but the method is something that must change, and should change even according to who you are targeting.”

Warren concluded by saying to Christian Today, "My message to the churches in the UK is to study the pubs and places such as Starbucks. These places are not offering beer and coffee, but they are offering people community. People find the excuse to get together, and they have a longing for belonging. When the church can fulfil this longing to belong in people then they will not be able to keep people out."