Op-Ed: Memo To Saddleback Church: Replacing Pastor Rick Warren ...

Maybe your like

News
- Home Page
- California
- Election 2024
- Housing & Homelessness
- Politics
- Science & Medicine
- World & Nation
Business
- Artificial Intelligence
- Autos
- Jobs, Labor & Workplace
- Real Estate
- Technology and the Internet
California
- California Politics
- Earthquakes
- Education
- Housing & Homelessness
- L.A. Influential
- L.A. Politics
- Mental Health
Climate & Environment
- Climate Change
- Water & Drought
Entertainment & Arts
- Arts
- Books
- Stand-Up Comedy
- Hollywood Inc.
- The Envelope (Awards)
- Movies
- Music
- Television
- Things to Do
De Los
En Español
Food
- 101 Best Restaurants in L.A.
- Recipes
Image
- Art & Culture
- Conversations
- Drip Index: Event Guides
- Fashion
- Shopping Guides
- Styling Myself
Lifestyle
- Health & Wellness
- Home Design
- L.A. Affairs
- Plants
- Travel & Experiences
- Weekend
- Things to Do in L.A.
Obituaries
Voices
- Editorials
- Letters to the Editor
- Contributors
- Short Docs
Sports
- Angels
- Angel City FC
- Chargers
- Clippers
- Dodgers
- Ducks
- Galaxy
- High School Sports
- Kings
- Lakers
- Olympics
- USC
- UCLA
- Rams
- Sparks
World & Nation
- Immigration & the Border
- Israel-Hamas
- Mexico & the Americas
- Ukraine
Times Everywhere
- 404 by L.A. Times
- Facebook
- Instagram
- LA Times Today
- Newsletters
- Photography
- Podcasts
- Short Docs
- TikTok
- Threads
- Video
- YouTube
- X (Twitter)
For Subscribers
eNewspaper
All Sections
_________________
LA Times Studios
- Business
- • AI & Tech
- • Automotive
- • Banking & Finance
- • Commercial Real Estate
- • Entertainment
- • Goods & Retail
- • Healthcare & Science
- • Law
- • Sports
- Decor & Design
- Dentists
- Doctors & Scientists
- Fitness
- Hot Property
- Live & Well
- Orange County
- Pets
- The Hub: Rebuilding LA
- Travel
- Veterinarians
- Weddings & Celebrations
- Deals & Coupons
- Newsletters
Live Stream
Events
- Screening Series
Crossword
Games
L.A. Times Store
Subscriptions
- Manage Subscription
- EZPAY
- Delivery Issue
- eNewspaper
- Students & Educators
- Subscribe
- Subscriber Terms
- Gift Subscription Terms
About Us
- About Us
- Archives
- Company News
- eNewspaper
- For the Record
- Got a Tip?
- L.A. Times Careers
- L.A. Times Store
- LA Times Studios Capabilities
- News App: Apple IOS
- News App: Google Play
- Newsroom Directory
- Public Affairs
- Rights, Clearance & Permissions
- Short Docs
Advertising
- Classifieds
- Find/Post Jobs
- Hot Property Sections
- Local Ads Marketplace
- L.A. Times Digital Agency
- Media Kit: Why the L.A. Times?
- People on the Move
- Place an Ad
- Place an Open House
- Sotheby’s International Realty
Special Supplements
- Healthy Living
- Higher Education
- Philanthropy

Copyright © 2025, Los Angeles Times | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | CA Notice of Collection | Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information Advertisement Voices Randall Balmer Memo to Saddleback Church: Replacing Pastor Rick Warren is a minefield

The Rev. Rick Warren gesturing during a worship service

By Randall Balmer June 28, 2021 3 AM PT

Share via Close extra sharing options
- Email
- Facebook
- X
- LinkedIn
- Threads
- Reddit
- WhatsApp
- Copy Link URL Copied!
- Print

Rick Warren’s announcement on June 6 that he plans to step away from his role as lead pastor at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest raises the issue of succession in evangelical megachurches. It’s a fraught process, complete with cautionary tales from other congregations.

First, we should appreciate the scale of Warren’s achievements at Saddleback. Starting from scratch just over 40 years ago, Saddleback has grown exponentially; the church claims a weekly attendance of about 20,000 worshipers. Warren did not invent the evangelical megachurch — that distinction arguably belongs to Aimee Semple McPherson’s Angelus Temple in Echo Park — but he found innovative ways to perfect the model.

Warren recognized, as McPherson did, that evangelical church services are a species of entertainment. McPherson’s device was theatrical sermons — she was, after all, competing with Hollywood across town. Warren’s focus is on music, positing that one effective way to appeal to a variety of individuals is to offer a variety of musical styles at worship services. In addition to the central “worship center,” the Lake Forest campus is dotted with different musical “venues.”

Warren — who insists that he is not retiring, just paring back his role to “founding pastor” when a successor “lead pastor” is designated — has been a visionary in other ways.

FILE - In this Monday, Feb. 24, 2014, file photo, Saddleback Church founder and Senior Pastor Rick Warren poses for a photo at the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif. Warren has announced his retirement after 42 years of leading Saddleback Church in Southern California. The Orange County Register reported Monday, June 7, 2021, that the 67-year-old Warren shared the news with his congregation on Sunday. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File)

California

Rick Warren to retire as lead pastor of Saddleback Church

In a video message streamed Sunday, Warren said he will be transitioning to a role as “founding pastor” and that the church will search for a successor.

June 8, 2021

A bestselling author with “The Purpose-Driven Life,” Warren understood the importance of reaching out beyond his local congregation, encouraging support for ministries outside of Orange County. He’s famous for his four- and five-point plans that address everything from personal spirituality to global poverty. He heads one of the largest congregations in the Southern Baptist Convention, but he has defied some Southern Baptists strictures: Just this past Mother’s Day he ordained three women as pastors.

Warren’s are big shoes to fill, no doubt about it. And the nature of megachurches will only make it more difficult to replace him. Unlike other religious groups, evangelical congregations are not bound by long-standing hierarchy, creeds, liturgy or traditions. They tend, instead, to organize themselves around charismatic individuals, especially in recent decades. It is only a slight exaggeration to say that megachurch evangelicalism has devolved into a cult of personality.

Warren, however, has sought to avoid that. Although no one would accuse him of diffidence, he is rarely one to jostle for the limelight. (He invented the tag-team sermon, where he or an associate would begin a sermon and then hand it off to another pastor midway through.) Nonetheless, Warren is Saddleback’s star, one of a very few Christian ministers whose face and name you may recognize even if you’ve never lifted a hymnal.

That level of charismatic authority doesn’t transfer easily. It’s too singular, too dependent on individual style, charm, drive and personality. Even if it’s possible to find another pastor with star quality, will the faithful who have grown accustomed to one leadership style cotton to a newcomer?

Most megachurches try the dynastic approach to succession, and it typically fails spectacularly. Charisma isn’t necessarily hereditary.

Following McPherson’s death in 1944, her son, Rolf, took over her ministry, but he was unable to sustain the same devotion at Angelus Temple.

A more recent failure involves Robert A. Schuller and Sheila Schuller Coleman, two children of Robert Schuller, of “Hour of Power” and Crystal Cathedral fame. Internal family dynamics and financial woes figured in the two Schuller succession attempts. But the fact that the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove is now the cathedral for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange tells you all you need to know about the success of those handoffs.

Oral Roberts tried to cede the leadership of his eponymous university and evangelistic organization in Oklahoma to his son Richard. Richard resigned at ORU amid scandal. Donnie Swaggart is woefully unsuited to take over his father Jimmy’s congregation, even though I suspect that the elder Swaggart, age 86, would love nothing more than to be able to retire. Franklin Graham is a shadow of his famous father, Billy.

The Moral Majority’s Jerry Falwell designated one son, Jonathan, to succeed him as pastor at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Virginia, and the other, Jerry Jr., as president of Liberty University. The latter transition, at least, did not end well.

Dynastic succession does not appear to be an option for Saddleback Church. Sadly and tragically, Rick and Kay Warren’s younger son committed suicide in 2013, and his older brother has no apparent interest in succeeding his father.

When I wrote about Warren more than a decade ago, he conceded that “everything manmade has a shelf life. Even good organizations lose their effectiveness.” Then he added, with disarming candor, “Saddleback is not that great a model anymore.”

Many evangelicals will dispute that, however, and Saddleback Church will have no shortage of suitors eager to assume the mantle of leadership.

My own nomination for the post is Beth Moore, the talented Bible teacher who recently left the Southern Baptist Convention because of its attitudes toward women. Bequeathing Saddleback to Moore would be a powerful statement, one befitting Warren’s pathbreaking career.

Randall Balmer teaches religion at Dartmouth College. The fifth edition of his book “Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America” includes a chapter on Rick Warren.

Podcasts

Rebuilding L.A.: Case Study Houses For the 21st Century, After The Fires

Thousands of homes must be built in SoCal. Architect Dustin Bramell’s “Case Study: Adapt” revives the post-WWII Case Study movement to build stylish, efficient homes designed for fire and climate risk.
Crimes of the Times: “The Trials of Frank Carson” Update

Attorney Frank Carson defended the accused for decades. Framed for murder and later acquitted, a star witness admitted he lied. Stanislaus County paid $22.5M to settle his estate’s lawsuit.
Boiling Point: Smoglandia Pt 6: FUTURE ELECTRIC, FUTURE TROUBLE

Hear from the winner of the 1968 Caltech vs MIT electric car race. But it’s not all fresh air: smog devastates communities of color, and the Trump administration may pull the plug on California’s ability to clear its own air.

Subscribers are Reading

Veteran leadership and talent at the forefront of Chargers’ late-season surge
Here’s the reason Troy Aikman didn’t get thanked by that UCLA football player
Times Investigation: LAFD report on Palisades fire was watered down, records show
Chaotic night on L.A. roads: Ambulance chase, Porsche crash, 210 ejection death
Two very Los Angeles latkes for anytime of the year from OyBar’s Jeff Strauss

Latest Opinion Voices

Voices
Letters to the Editor: Trump’s new disparaging presidential plaques are ‘despicable’
Dec. 20, 2025
Voices
Letters to the Editor: Yes, technology has long been part of art, but AI is different
Dec. 19, 2025
Voices
Letters to the Editor: Immigrants are key to our healthcare. Let’s not make their jobs even harder
Dec. 19, 2025
Voices
Letters to the Editor: The LAFD still hasn’t answered one major question regarding the Palisades fire
Dec. 19, 2025
Voices
Letters to the Editor: A 3-year-old defending herself in immigration court? What’s happened to our country?
Dec. 19, 2025

Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement

Tag » Why I Left Saddleback Church

Rick Warren to retire as lead pastor of Saddleback Church

More to Read

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who became America’s son Theo Huxtable on ‘The Cosby Show,’ dies at 54

Cecil ‘Chip’ Murray, L.A. civil rights icon and spiritual leader, dead at 94

Sarah Jakes Roberts is remaking the image of the modern Christian pastor

More From the Los Angeles Times

Granderson: What Epstein ‘hoax’? The facts are bad enough

Contributor: The real lesson of the Hanukkah story

Contributor: Who can afford Trump’s economy? Americans are feeling Grinchy

The financial engine behind millennial and Gen Z malaise

Podcasts

Rebuilding L.A.: Case Study Houses For the 21st Century, After The Fires

Crimes of the Times: “The Trials of Frank Carson” Update

Boiling Point: Smoglandia Pt 6: FUTURE ELECTRIC, FUTURE TROUBLE

Subscribers are Reading

Veteran leadership and talent at the forefront of Chargers’ late-season surge

Here’s the reason Troy Aikman didn’t get thanked by that UCLA football player

Times Investigation: LAFD report on Palisades fire was watered down, records show

Chaotic night on L.A. roads: Ambulance chase, Porsche crash, 210 ejection death

Two very Los Angeles latkes for anytime of the year from OyBar’s Jeff Strauss

Latest Opinion Voices

Letters to the Editor: Trump’s new disparaging presidential plaques are ‘despicable’

Letters to the Editor: Yes, technology has long been part of art, but AI is different

Letters to the Editor: Immigrants are key to our healthcare. Let’s not make their jobs even harder

Letters to the Editor: The LAFD still hasn’t answered one major question regarding the Palisades fire

Letters to the Editor: A 3-year-old defending herself in immigration court? What’s happened to our country?

Contact