40 Days of Purpose 

Strengths

There are some wonderful things that are a part of the 40 Days of Purpose program.

It’s a program that encourages unified prayer, commitment to ministry, evangelism, Scripture memory, and daily devotions.  Those are wonderful and very important things.  If the program is successful in instilling those habits, that’s great.  The program is based around teaching the people that they were planned for God’s pleasure; formed for God’s family; created to become like Christ; shaped for serving God; made for a mission.  That is an excellent and much needed message.

Weaknesses

Reliance on Human Methods

I do have a couple concerns about the program, however.

Recently I got a CD in the mail that has a video advertising 40 Days of Purpose, and there were some things on the CD that were alarming to me.

The stated purpose of this program is “to take the people deeper into discipleship.” 

One of the most obvious drawbacks of the seeker movement is its failure to take discipleship seriously.  There is such a focus on getting the highest possible number of first time “decisions” for Christ, that the Sunday morning service is very often devoted to targeting unbelievers rather than feeding believers.  

Discipling believers is relegated to a less convenient, lower-attended time such as Wednesday night.  (You can tell what is most important to a church by what they do on Sunday morning, when the greatest number of people are there).  

And even what takes place at those meetings tends to be very shallow.

As I pointed out in my message from Jn.6 about “Jesus and the Seekers,” the results of this have been disastrous.  

Churches that do that become malnourished spiritually, which means all of the ministries suffer, because the body is not being equipped properly.  

The main goal of the Church is to bring God’s people to maturity (Eph.4:13).  The question is, how is that done?

The temptation is to attempt to manufacture that goal through human methods rather than following the prescriptions in God’s Word.

The Seeker movement tends to have a disdain for the traditional way churches operate, which has been very simple: teach God’s Word to the people, and engage in fellowship, prayer and worship.  

They see churches like that, where the people come in and do that every week and leave each week apparently unchanged, and they think, “There must be a more effective procedure.” 

They have that response because they are governed primarily by the externals that they can observe and measure – things like how many people attend, how many make a decision by marking a card, how many small groups there are, how many sign up for formal ministry positions, etc.

In that kind of a system, there is a very high premium placed on externals, and very little attention paid to the real evidences of spiritual progress, such as humility, patience, contentment, love for God and others, hope, faith, etc. 

While Scripture sometimes mentions numbers in passing, without question the highest goal in church growth in the Bible is spiritual growth.  

And the means by which we can reach that goal are quite clear in Scripture.  They are the same old methods the church has been using for 2000 years – the preaching of God’s Word, prayer, fellowship and worship.  

But people with a program-oriented, man-centered philosophy of ministry tend to be dissatisfied with those methods, because by human standards they seem to work so slowly and imperceptively.  If all you do is feed the sheep, they seem to grow so slowly, many pastors think they need to figure out ways to artificially grow the sheep in a matter of days.

But Jesus didn’t say, “Grow My sheep.”   He said “Feed my sheep.” 

Scripture compares our spiritual progress to long term things like seeds grown, buildings being built or children growing.  Spiritual growth is like physical growth.  

Very often a young child will be frustrated with the slowness of his growth.  He will measure his height, go eat a big meal, and then measure again the next day.  

A teenager who wants big muscles might lift weights faithfully every day for a week, and then measure his biceps, only to find they are exactly the same as they were the beginning of the week.

We are the same way spiritually.  We want shortcuts that work overnight.  

Just feeding the soul with God’s Word, prayer, fellowship and worship, and then waiting years to see significant growth does not fit with our instant gratification culture.  

So we have turned the life-long sanctification process into a quick, easy zap from heaven.  People expect to be transformed overnight by going to a conference, seminar, retreat, concert or special event.

Leaders with that mentality will willingly set aside the Scripture means of growth (such as Bible studies, expository sermons and prayer meetings) in favor of the latest program that promises instant growth.  40 Days of Purpose is the latest such program.

In my opinion, the greatest error in the Seeker movement’s (and Rick Warren’s) approach to ministry is the idea that it is completely within the reach of human ingenuity, methods and procedures to bring about spiritual fruit. 

When someone says something like, “This program is guaranteed to bring this much spiritual fruit,” the implication is that it’s the program that does the work, rather than a sovereign God who chooses how and when He will work.

An example of this is on page 219 of Warren’s earlier book, Purpose Driven Church, where he says, “Anybody can be won to Christ if you discover the key to his or her heart.”  If you find the right technique, you can make anyone a Christian.  Jesus said just the opposite: "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44).

This faith in programs and human techniques pervades everything at Saddleback Church.  I recently attended there and was astonished at the message.  The name of Christ was never mentioned once in the entire service (not even in the “Gospel” presentation!), and the message of the sermon was about the importance of small groups.  

During the sermon a couple came up and gave their testimony, the summary of which is as follows: “Our marriage and our spiritual lives were terrible.  We were converted, but that didn’t help, we tried reading the Bible and prayer, and that didn’t help.  But then we got into the small group program, and that turned everything around overnight.”

Example of a focus on the external rather than the internal.

The following quotes are from Rick Warren on the promotional DVD.

* Example #1 
“Like your church, we’ve tried a lot of programs and strategies and approaches.  Some of them work a little bit.  But nothing ever brought real renewal and revival to our church like the 40 Days of Purpose Strategy…It has absolutely revolutionized our church and brought incredible growth…Since we did the 40 Days of Purpose three years ago our church has grown 100 percent in the number of people participating in a small group, in those serving in a ministry, and in those sharing their faith and going on mission trips…Nothing has ever been as effective in developing disciples as this program.”

Notice, “real renewal and revival” is measured in terms of externals only, such as numbers of people attending a small group.

* Example #2
One of the fundamentals of the program is what Rick Warren calls, “exponential thinking.”
“This is the faith factor and it’s what takes the program out of the realm of what we’ve always done…and instead expects one to do what has never been done before in your church.”

“You know the Bible says, “anything that is not of faith is sin,” and “according to your faith it will be done to you”…In this kind of thinking you just add a zero to your goal.  For example, if you have five Sunday school classes or small groups, you ask, ‘What if we tried and worked to start 50 classes or groups?”  He went on to give the example of how Saddleback decided to start 3000 new groups instead of their original goal of 300.

His idea of faith is picking a number larger than what God normally does, and expecting God to do that just because you picked that number.

That is not faith; it’s presumption.  Faith is believing what God has said, and trusting Him to do what He has promised – not telling Him to meet our demands.

What if five classes would be better spiritually for a church than 50?  According to the logic of exponential thinking, why not shoot for 5 million classes?  Would that be the greatest faith of all?

True faith never short-circuits wisdom.  

* Example #3
The first problem this program is trying to solve is the problem of lack of workers in the church.

“In most churches the load and responsibility for the church rests on just a few, faithful servants who are tired and worn out.  And most of the members do nothing but attend services.”

A statement like that comes from a mentality that only recognizes people with official titles as being involved in ministry.  It completely ignores the hundreds of thousands of acts of service that take place in an unofficial capacity.

Most members do nothing but attend services?  That’s probably true in churches like Saddleback, where the majority of the people are probably unbelievers.  But it is not the case in a church comprised of believers who are  being fed week by week.

If you think the load of responsibility of the ministry is being carried out by just a few, just think that through for a moment.  Imagine your church all gathered in a room together.  Then imagine all those involved in any formal ministry leaving the room.  Now, of those who are left, imagine those involved in informal ministries leaving the room.

Ministries like running a food pantry, teaching Sunday school or leading children’s church are not mentioned explicitly in Scripture.  Let’s take a look at the ministries that are explicitly mentioned.  Romans 12:7 mentions the ministry of serving.  Of those left in the room, imagine all those who sometimes serve people in the church, leaving.  

Verse 8 goes on to mention the ministry of encouraging.  Of those who still remain, imagine all those who sometimes encourage people in the church, leaving.  Verse 8 also mentions giving and showing mercy, so all those who do that now leave.  

How many do you think would be left?

That’s just two verses.  I could take you to several other places in Scripture.  But just from that, let’s take a look at where your church stands.  Picture that group standing outside the doors.  Does that look to you like a few tired, worn out servants carrying the whole load while everyone else does nothing but attend services?

The problem with giving too much attention to the external, visible things is that it sends the message that the internal, invisible things (the very things Scripture highlights as most important) are of lesser importance.  

Example #4
As evidence for the effectiveness of the program, Warren says that the average church that has participated in 40 Days of Purpose, experienced an increase in Church attendance of 22%, an increase in small group attendance of 80%, and an increase in offerings of 20% in just 40 days.

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Examples of relying on programs to accomplish the work of the ministry:

* Example #1
“40 Days of Purpose is not some theory…about 3000 churches of all sizes and shapes and denominations…are reporting it was the most transforming event in their congregation’s history…One pastor wrote, ‘I’ve seen more growth in our members and in our church in 40 days than in the previous 13 years.”

Transformation happens through the work of the Holy Spirit by His ordained means, which is a continuous diet of God’s Word.  What kind of arrogance suggests that suddenly we have now developed a better method?

* Example #2
“Most believers will rarely or never share their faith with anybody else unless we teach them some new, fresh, relevant…approaches.”

It’s not enough to just teach people how to articulate the gospel.  We have to teach them approaches – techniques that are new and fresh and that appear relevant by the world’s standards of what is relevant.

That’s the way it is when you rely on programs.  Programs work in a limited context for a limited time, and then they are out of date.  So when your ministry depends on innovative techniques, you have to constantly invent new ones and stay up to date.

And they get more and more complicated.  The next thing you know you have to go to a 14-week class on how to come up with clever ways to engage people in conversation about the Gospel.  

Meanwhile the woman at the well, 5 minutes after meeting Christ, goes into town and wins the entire town to Christ just by saying, “Come see a man who told me everything I ever did.”

Example #3

The DVD sounded like a typical late-night infomercial, where outrageous promises are made about a product.  Consider the following promises this product will deliver:

“How can we get our members to love each other with genuine fellowship and real unity instead of being divided by jealousy and conflict and pride?  How can we cultivate a deeper spirit of harmony and love and caring for each other in our church family?

“Through 40 Days of Purpose thousands of people have come to Christ, been baptized, welcomed into membership, connected to a small group or Sunday school class or fellowship, taught the meaning of real worship, equipped for personal ministry, and commissioned to fulfill their mission in the world.  Troubled marriages have been healed.  Broken relationships have been restored, and a new spirit of unity and vision and purpose has swept through all of these congregations.”

In just 40 days, Rick Warren’s program will accomplish what God’s Word and the Holy Spirit couldn’t manage to do in decades.  In just over a month, there will suddenly be genuine love, fellowship, unity, harmony, and caring.  Jealousy, conflict, division and pride will be gone.

People will be saved, sanctified and equipped in under 6 weeks.

On top of that, Warren promises that the campaign will help the people
* become doers of the Word
* Center their lives on God
* Live a lifestyle of worship for the glory of God
* Cultivate spiritual maturity and godly character
* Develop the habits necessary for spiritual growth
* Contribute to the church in ministry
* Communicate God’s love to others
* Develop a heart for the world
* Learn to share their faith
-	all in just 40 days.

Warren acknowledges the principle that spiritual growth is slow in the book, but that belief doesn’t seem to find its way into his program.
Church Takeover

One final alarming part of this is the fact that so many church leaders are willing to make a wholesale surrender of the leadership of the church over to Rick Warren.

“You cannot do 40 Days of Purpose without clearing your calendar for it.  You will need to temporarily cancel some of the activities and programs that you normally do during 40 Days of Purpose.”  He goes on to tell you that they will provide materials that will help you deal with the lay leaders who will be unhappy about their ministries being canceled.

In order for the program to work, it’s essential that the whole church begin by listening to what Rick Warren describes as, “an inspiring and motivating 90 min. seminar in which I share an overview of God’s five purposes for our life.”

(And the proof he offers for the effectiveness of that message is the fact that over one million people have watched it.)

He makes a big point that it is essential that all six parts of the program be used.  If you leave one or two out, you won’t see the kind of results that the other churches have seen.

And one of those parts is the fact that for the entire program the pastor must not preach his own sermons from his own study.  It’s essential, in order for this program to work, that the pastor preach Rick Warren’s sermons, which are supplied in the kit.  

And the worship leader must do the worship sets supplied by Saddleback.  

In Essence, Saddleback Church (a church with very poor theology and discernment) is completely taking over the leadership and ministry of thousands of churches for 40 days at a time.

In fact, it’s even required that everyone use Rick Warren’s book for their personal devotions!  It’s 40 days of input from Rick Warren and Rick Warren only.

Why can’t the principles just be taught to the pastor, and he can pass those principles along in his own words.  That was Jesus’ approach.  He didn’t write verbatim sermons for the Apostles.  Instead He just trained them to pass along the message.

You can do that with a message, but not with a program engineered to manipulate people.

One of Warren’s final statements shows his inflated thoughts about his program: “40 Days of Purpose…is much bigger than any individual church or denomination.”