3.23.2005
Rick Warren on Larry King Live
HIS RESPONSE TO FAME:
KING: So, the question is, how do you keep your balance?
WARREN: Well, you know what, when the book, Larry, and this caller, when it began to become a big success world-wide, I actually began to got to scripture to pray about what I called the stewardship of have affluence and the stewardship of influence. And that was, God, what do I do with me money, and what do I do with the notoriety. Because, I don't think God gives either money or fame for your own ego, certainly not a pastor. And I didn't want it. And in fact, that's the whole reason why I never put our church services on television. Twenty Five-years-ago I made the decision to never be on television as a church service, because I didn't want to be a televangelist. I didn't like the lifestyle. And I didn't like a lot of the -- I think always being in the spotlight blinds you. And Kay (ph) and I made two very important decisions, based on two passages of scripture. First Corinthians 9 and Psalms 72. First with the money, we made five decisions. First was, we weren't going to change our lifestyle one bit, no matter how much money came in. So, we still live in the same house. We didn't buy a bigger house. We don't own a guest house. We don't own a yacht. I still drive a 4- year-old Ford. And we're just are not going to let money change your lives, and I'm not going to use it to impress people. The second decision we made was, I stopped taking the salary from my church about three years ago. The third decision is, I added up all that the church had paid me in the past 25 years and I gave it all back. And I did that because I don't want anybody to ever think that I was doing this for money, because I don't. I would have done it for free from the start if I could have. And now the book made it possible for me to give all that money back.And right after I did that, I was interviewed by a major news magazine. And the first question was, what's your salary? And I was able to say, well, actually, I've now serve my church for free for 25 years. Then we set up, No. 4, we set up three foundations, one of them called Acts of Mercy, which is used to help those who are infected and affected by AIDS globally. And then the fifth is, we actually became reverse tithers, which means that when Kay and I got married, we began to tithe 10 percent of our income to charity, and each year in the last 30 years we've raised it a percentage, and we're not actually reverse tithers, so we give away 90 percent and live on 10 percent. Now, that was the easy part.
HIS RESPONSE TO USING FAME FOR GOD'S GLORY:
WARREN: Well, as the caller said, how are you dealing with the notoriety? And I really began to ask God, what am I supposed to do with this? And as I read scripture, Psalm 72 is Solomon's prayer for more influence. And it sounds pretty selfish. He says, God, I want you to make me more influential, I want you to bless me, I want you to give me more power. And that sounds pretty selfish, until you read the rest of the Psalm, where he says, "so that the king may support the widow and orphan, care for the poor, help those who are oppressed and in prison, defend the defenseless and the foreigner." And basically he is talking about all of the marginalized of society. And out of that passage of scripture, I believe that the message was that the purpose of influence is to speak up for those who have no influence. And I committed to use the rest of my life, my time and my money to help those who are the unfortunate. And as I traveled around the world, Larry, I began to say, what are the global giants, the big problems that are so big no nation can even solve them, not even the U.N.? And I came to the conclusion that there were five what I call global giants. Spiritual emptiness, self-centered leadership, poverty, disease and ignorance or illiteracy. You know, half the world lives on less than $2 a day and half the world cannot read. And so we came up with the plan called the PEACE plan, p-e-a-c-e. Plant churches, equip the leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation. And we're right now doing a test pilot of the PEACE plan in 67 countries. We're about a year and a half into it. It's a two-year test plan. We plan to go public with it -- well, now, it's going public on LARRY KING -- but we plan to go public with it in 2006, which is to mobilize hundreds of thousands of small groups that have done the 40 days of purpose in churches and communities and civic groups and corporations -- churches that have done 40 days of purpose in groups to do these five things around the world. And that's really why I was in Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya, to test that.
KING: So, the question is, how do you keep your balance?
WARREN: Well, you know what, when the book, Larry, and this caller, when it began to become a big success world-wide, I actually began to got to scripture to pray about what I called the stewardship of have affluence and the stewardship of influence. And that was, God, what do I do with me money, and what do I do with the notoriety. Because, I don't think God gives either money or fame for your own ego, certainly not a pastor. And I didn't want it. And in fact, that's the whole reason why I never put our church services on television. Twenty Five-years-ago I made the decision to never be on television as a church service, because I didn't want to be a televangelist. I didn't like the lifestyle. And I didn't like a lot of the -- I think always being in the spotlight blinds you. And Kay (ph) and I made two very important decisions, based on two passages of scripture. First Corinthians 9 and Psalms 72. First with the money, we made five decisions. First was, we weren't going to change our lifestyle one bit, no matter how much money came in. So, we still live in the same house. We didn't buy a bigger house. We don't own a guest house. We don't own a yacht. I still drive a 4- year-old Ford. And we're just are not going to let money change your lives, and I'm not going to use it to impress people. The second decision we made was, I stopped taking the salary from my church about three years ago. The third decision is, I added up all that the church had paid me in the past 25 years and I gave it all back. And I did that because I don't want anybody to ever think that I was doing this for money, because I don't. I would have done it for free from the start if I could have. And now the book made it possible for me to give all that money back.And right after I did that, I was interviewed by a major news magazine. And the first question was, what's your salary? And I was able to say, well, actually, I've now serve my church for free for 25 years. Then we set up, No. 4, we set up three foundations, one of them called Acts of Mercy, which is used to help those who are infected and affected by AIDS globally. And then the fifth is, we actually became reverse tithers, which means that when Kay and I got married, we began to tithe 10 percent of our income to charity, and each year in the last 30 years we've raised it a percentage, and we're not actually reverse tithers, so we give away 90 percent and live on 10 percent. Now, that was the easy part.
HIS RESPONSE TO USING FAME FOR GOD'S GLORY:
WARREN: Well, as the caller said, how are you dealing with the notoriety? And I really began to ask God, what am I supposed to do with this? And as I read scripture, Psalm 72 is Solomon's prayer for more influence. And it sounds pretty selfish. He says, God, I want you to make me more influential, I want you to bless me, I want you to give me more power. And that sounds pretty selfish, until you read the rest of the Psalm, where he says, "so that the king may support the widow and orphan, care for the poor, help those who are oppressed and in prison, defend the defenseless and the foreigner." And basically he is talking about all of the marginalized of society. And out of that passage of scripture, I believe that the message was that the purpose of influence is to speak up for those who have no influence. And I committed to use the rest of my life, my time and my money to help those who are the unfortunate. And as I traveled around the world, Larry, I began to say, what are the global giants, the big problems that are so big no nation can even solve them, not even the U.N.? And I came to the conclusion that there were five what I call global giants. Spiritual emptiness, self-centered leadership, poverty, disease and ignorance or illiteracy. You know, half the world lives on less than $2 a day and half the world cannot read. And so we came up with the plan called the PEACE plan, p-e-a-c-e. Plant churches, equip the leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation. And we're right now doing a test pilot of the PEACE plan in 67 countries. We're about a year and a half into it. It's a two-year test plan. We plan to go public with it -- well, now, it's going public on LARRY KING -- but we plan to go public with it in 2006, which is to mobilize hundreds of thousands of small groups that have done the 40 days of purpose in churches and communities and civic groups and corporations -- churches that have done 40 days of purpose in groups to do these five things around the world. And that's really why I was in Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya, to test that.
