Rick Warren

Rick Warren appears in Kyle’s notes as a church-growth authority quoted throughout David G. Stewart’s Law of the Harvest. The book leans on Warren for a receptivity-first theory of evangelism: “Growing churches focus on reaching receptive people. Non-growing churches focus on reenlisting inactive people,” with Warren arguing it takes “about five times more energy to reactivate a disgruntled or carnal member than it does to win a receptive unbeliever” — pastors are “called to catch fish and feed sheep, not to corral goats.” He reframes the diagnostic question from “What will make our church grow?” to “What is keeping our church from growing?”, treating a church as a living organism that grows naturally when healthy, so leadership’s task is to “discover and remove growth-restricting diseases and barriers.” He also warns against cutting the evangelism budget when finances tighten, calling it “the source of new blood and life for your church.”

Context: Rick Warren is an American evangelical pastor who founded Saddleback Church in Southern California and authored the best-selling books The Purpose Driven Church (1995) and The Purpose Driven Life (2002).

Where this appears

• Law of the Harvest — quoted repeatedly for his receptivity-first, “church as living organism” theory of growth and his insistence on protecting the evangelism budget.