The following letter was written by Rick Warren to a gentleman named Steve Blackwell, who attacked Warren on his blog. This bothered Warren so much, that he wrote to Steve in hopes of clearing up any misunderstandings. Sadly, even after Warren had taken the time to write this personal response, Mr. Blackwell replied online by basically calling Rick Warren a liar.

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Hello Steve,

It has been widely misreported and repeated that Robert Schuller was “my mentor”—since Rev. Schuller once claimed on a Larry King Show. I’m sure he had his reasons for stating this, but it simply is untrue. My ministry mentors were my own father, a Baptist pastor for 50 years, Pastor Harry D. Williams, Dr. W.A. Criswell, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas for decades, and the books of Rev. Charles Spurgeon, C.S. Lewis, Francis Schaeffer, and William Wilberforce.

In 1979, while in seminary in Texas I was given 3 scholarships to attend 3 different pastor’s conferences in California. One of the 3 conferences was held at Garden Grove Community Church. It was a good conference and challenged to “start where people are” when sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. I still think that is a good idea. However I also noticed that the church did not seem to take them much further spiritually. So when I started Saddleback Church in 1980, I created a systematic discipleship plan based on the 8 things Jesus did with his own disciples in the New Testament. That process of covenants, commitments, and spiritual disciplines became known as the “purpose driven” plan. Actually Saddleback has almost nothing in common with Schuller’s church —we’re not on TV, we don’t wear robes or use an organ, our building is quite simple, we have crosses and Christian symbols everywhere, including scriptures written on the walls of our entrance, we hand out Bible outlines each week, we memorize scripture in the services, and do hundreds of other things that would be the exact opposite of what Rev. Schuller did.

I did not even meet Rev Schuller until six years after I founded Saddleback Church, when I was asked by one of his staff members to share a testimony at a pastor’s conference. I’ve had, maybe three conversations with him in the past 28 years. I did write him once telling him that I thought he was harming the church by using testimonies of Mormons and Muslims in his worship services, since they both deny the orthodox belief in the Trinity, which is essential to our faith as Christians.

Also, In reference to Norman Vincent Peale—I’ve neither met him, nor read any of his books, so he certainly had no influence on me. Again, that myth has been reported in books by and articles by people who make up stuff, didn’t bother to confirm the truth, or even talk to me.

Another correction: I don’t believe that Rev.Schuller ever taught at Fuller Seminary (there is no Fuller University). I studied world missions at Fuller Seminary but my theology degree is from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

I would appreciate your correcting this. You know how people pass stuff along the internet that simply isn’t true. Thanks Steve. rick