The P.E.A.C.E. PLAN

The P.E.A.C.E. Plan

(and Rick Warren)

Contrary to the ongoing criticisms of Rick Warren's P.E.A.C.E. Plan, and the accusations against him regarding his motives for initiating the P.E.A.C.E. Plan, the P.E.A.C.E. Plan has nothing to do with:

1. ushering in the occult New Age

2. promoting a one-world religion

3. advancing a social gospel

4. ceasing Cheistian missionary efforts

5. turning evangelicalism into a liberal enclave

The P.E.A.C.E. Plan is a vehicle designed to spread Christianity to unreached parts of the world, while at the same time meeting people's physical needs, using five methods for touching humanity:

P - planting churches (evangelism, preaching the Gospel, teaching spiritual maturity);
(Note: This has recently been changed to "Promote Reconciliation," as a means of slightly changing the focus of the "P" to make it broader in scope, as well as effectiveness);

E - equipping servant leaders (i.e., helping church leaders/members lead like Jesus led his followers);

A - assisting the poor (self-explanatory);

C - caring for the sick (self-explanatory); and

E - educating the next generation (self-explanatory).

The P.E.A.C.E. Plan is Warren's attempt to return evangelicalism back to the nineteenth century, a time when Christians not only preached the Gospel, but also demonstrated the truth/love of that Gospel by being socially active to help those in need. I interviewed Rick Warren regarding his P.E.A.C.E. Plan, and in his explanation of it, there was not a hint of anything about him trying to simply make Earth a better place, just allevaiate suffering, or unite all religions. As the following interview with Warren shows (excerpted from my book Rick Warren and the Purpose that Drives Him), Warren's critics are delivering a grossly distorted image of the P.E.A.C.E. Plan.

The P.E.A.C.E. Plan is not only about being obedient to the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37-40) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20), but is also about living as a church in obedience to the commands found in James 1:27 ("Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world") and James 2:14-17 ("What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead").

THE DAVOS CLIP

Despite Warren's clear teachings concerning the purpose, meaning, and motivation behind his P.E.A.C.E. Plan, numerous critics continue to insist that the P.E.A.C.E. plan is actually about watering down Christianity, embracing pluralism, denying the Gospel, and compromising the Christian mandate to preach the unvarnished Gospel. One piece of so-called evidence that is now being conistently pointed to as proof of such allegations in a very short video clip of Rick Warren speaking at the DAVOS discussion group in Europe (see .mp4 or .wmv). But Warren says nothing unbiblical in the clip. Here are the points he makes in summary:

1. Christians need combat the world's biggest problems: extreme poverty, pandemic diseases, illiteracy, corruption, and spiritual emptiness

2. The problems are so immense that they can only be effectively dealt with by cooperation among the public sector (governments that make laws), the private sector (businesses that contribute funds), and the faith sector (religious individual who are spread throughout the world).

3. People of all faiths need to work together to help address the world problems.

4. People are motivated by different things to help others. if someone is willing to help us Christians help others, then we should accept that help and reach out to the world to alleviate suffering.

5. As Christians, our motivation is Jesus' words, "Love your neighbor as yourself." But that might not necessarily be the motivation of others who want to help Christians. And that's fine with him.

It remains unclear to me exactly why anyone would become so flustered over this short video clip. He gives no endorsement to any kind of New Age, one-world religion. He does not deviate (doctrinally speaking) from any Christian beliefs. He never encourages people to stay in whatever religion they happen to be in. He at no point undermines the heart of the Gospel (the life, death, resurrection of Jesus). All he says, in a nutshell is:

"HEY EVERYONE! I just wanted to let you know that I'm really gonna try to work on all these terrible things that are making people suffer. And I don't care who you are, where you are, or what you believe, but if we work together, maybe we can all help some people. I sure think it'd be a great thing if we could alleviate a lot of the pain in this world."

And to top it all off, Warren was able to even sneak in a reference to his own motivation, which is Jesus. That is no small task in a highly secularized environment. And that is the P.E.A.C.E. Plan. And contrary to what some Christians are saying, Warren's willingness to acecpt the help of non-Christians (i.e., secularists, those of other faiths, and liberals) does not conflict with the biblical mandate to not be unequally yoked with unbelievers (see Working Socially With Unbelievers).

AN EVANGELISM STRATEGY

An important aspect of the P.E.A.C.E. Plan is alleviating suffering on a large scale. And that is only possible with help from others, even other religions, and governments possibly hostile to religion. It is difficult to see why changing the "P" from planting churches to promoting reconciliation would be very strategic—i.e., more people might be inclined to help Warren if they didn't have "PLANTING CHURCHES" shoved in their faces (even though a few churches might actually end up being planted all over the world).

Whether or not churches are planted is almost immaterial since there will certainly be a sharing of the Christian gospel by Christians in places that would otherwise be closed to them. It all makes perfect sense. Interestingly, at purposedriven.com it says:

"The P.E.A.C.E. Plan is a massive effort to mobilize 1 billion Christians around the world into an outreach effort to attack the five global, evil giants of our day. These are the world's biggest problems, affecting billions, not just millions, of people: spiritual emptiness, corrupt leadership, poverty, disease, and illiteracy. These five global giants ravage the lives of billions of people worldwide and all work together to constrain them and cut them off from knowing the saving grace of a loving God who sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die for their sins allowing them eternal hope and security" (P.E.A.C.E.).

Notice that Christians are the main participants. This statement also indicates that a main problem resulting from these global giants (spiritual emptiness, corrupt leadership, poverty, disease, and illiteracy) is the way the Gospel is kept from reaching people who are being cut off "from knowing the saving grace of a loving God who sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die for their sins allowing them eternal hope and security." We can see easily in these words what Warren's primary motivation for destroying his "global giants" is evangelism!

We can see easily in these words what Warren's primary motivation for destroying his "global giants"—evangelism! Equally clear are the sentiments expressed on the official P.E.A.C.E. Plan website under "The Solution" summary:

"These giants [spiritual emptiness, corrupt leadership, poverty, disease, and illiteracy] work together to constrain and prevent masses of people from knowing the saving grace of a loving God who sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins allowing us eternal hope and security. . . . The only successful solution is the global Church of Jesus Christ."

Notice that the solution is the global church of Jesus Christ, not some pluralistic one-world, New Age, religious melting pot. And we again see Warren's primary motivation for destroying his "global giants"—evangelism! He wants to get rid of the social giants of that working together to "constrain and prevent masses of people from knowing the saving grace of a loving God who sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins allowing us eternal hope and security."

By attacking spiritual emptiness, corrupt leadership, poverty, disease, and illiteracy, Warren is apparently hoping to not just alleviate suffering, but more importantly, he is looking to open the doors for evangelizing the people who are being helped!

As the official P.E.A.C.E. Plan web site reads: "Billions . . . don't know that they're not an accident, and that Jesus Christ died for them so that their past can be forgiven, and they can have purpose for living, and they can have a home in heaven" (What's the Problem?). This is why a halt to missions and missionary work is NOT part of the P.E.A.C.E. Plan (no matter what the "P" stands for). The official P.E.A.C.E. Plan website clearly states:

"The P.E.A.C.E. Plan is not advocating giving up supporting full-time missionaries. The P.E.A.C.E. Plan is a supplement not a replacement for what is being done on the mission field today. Our purpose is to mobilize Christ followers around the world into an effort to disciple every nation, not just plant a church in every geo-political region. As we look at the statistics there are 3,500 people groups who are considered unengaged. The need for the local church to become involved is critical to fulfilling the Great Commission" (see "Where does the P.E.A.C.E. Plan fit historically in the global effort of mission sand what is the effectiveness of small groups?," under Frequently Asked Questions).

This sounds exactly like the original "P" (for Planting Churches) as it was explained back when Warren first launched his idea. The fact that the "P" now stands for "Promote Reconciliation" apparently has had very little overall effect on the primary, initial, main objective: i.e., evangelism. (For more information on Rick Warren and "Reconciliation," see Rick Warren and Reonciliation).

The P.E.A.C.E. Plan is also often referred to by Warren a "New Reformation" of deeds, rather rather creeds. This phraseology, too, has raised a number of additional accusatiosn from his critics, none of which are based on accurate facts or thoughtful arguments (see Rick Warren's Second Reformation).