The Purpose Driven Life- An Apologist's Review- Part 6: The Mission

Book Review- The Purpose Driven Life- Part 6

A few weeks ago I began my chapter-by-chapter review of Rick Warren's popular book The Purpose Driven Life (hardback, Kindle, audio book). Rick Warren presents a theology of suffering in this book that caught my attention as a defender of the Christian worldview because of its applicability in addressing the problem of evil and suffering. Because the book has forty chapters, I decided to break up the review into multiple parts that coincide with the parts of Warren's book. For easy navigation of this review, here are the links to all the previous parts. Please check them out to learn more about the value of this book:

• Part 1: Created For God's Purpose
• Part 2: Created For God's Pleasure (Worship)
• Part 3: Created For God's Family (Fellowship)
• Part 4: Created To Become Like Christ (Discipleship)
• Part 5: Created To Serve God (Ministry)
• Part 6: Created For A Mission (Evangelism)

Part 6: You Were Made For A Mission

Chapter 36: Made For A Mission

The Christian has two ministries that affect eternity. A ministry to the Body of Christ that was the fourth purpose, and a ministry to unbelievers that is the fifth purpose. This fifth purpose is a mission of evangelism. Warren explains that evangelism is important because it is a command from Christ, but that command has a reason: man is sinful and the death and Resurrection of Jesus is how forgiveness and eternity with God is possible. If someone had a fatal disease and we had the cure, it would be evil for us to withhold that cure. The same goes for Christianity. Man has an eternally fatal disease (sin) and we have the eternal cure (Christ).

Christ did not save us for us to keep quiet; Christianity is not a private religion to be practiced behind closed doors; in fact, a Christian who is not evangelizing is not properly practicing what Christ commanded in the Great Commission in Matthew 28. Christianity accurately describes man's broken relationship to God, and it accurately describes the solution, thus it is the true worldview. For the Christian whose perspective is that of eternity, the purpose of evangelism must be part of their everyday life. Warren also reminds the Christian that the Enemy will do whatever he can to thwart our mission, so we must be ever-vigilant in carrying out this mission.

Chapter 37: Sharing Your Life Message

An important way that we carry out our mission is to give our testimony. Our testimony has two primary components: what were we like before we accepted Christ, and what we were like after we accepted Christ. Warren gives eleven questions to the Christian to ask in order to articulate the changes in their lives and how Christ has given meaning and purpose to the trying and painful events in their life. Having these answers on hand will prepare the Christian to be ready to share the Gospel to those who share those past experiences.

Chapter 38: Becoming A World-Class Christian

Fulfilling our mission is not something that just happens automatically. It requires attention and intention. We must expand our perspective from the right-now to eternity and from right-here to globally. Warren explains that our mission field is not just our family or our local community, it is our country and even our whole world. Warren points to how technology has seemed to shrink the size of our world so that all global locations are easily accessible. He encourages every Christian to go on at least one international mission trip to help expand their perspective beyond their local culture and understand better what God meant by "every tribe and every nation."

Warren encourages the Christian to always have on their mind how they can get unbelievers one step closer to accepting Christ. Their prayers have shifted from prayers for blessing and comfort to prayers of wisdom to see how to bring the lost closer to the Cross. God gives everyone a passion for a certain people group, and that passion should be used for expanding Christ's Kingdom and not our own. Warren reminds us that of all the purposes, this is the only one that will not continue into eternity, so there is a limited amount of time to complete it, and the sooner it is completed, the sooner Christ will return. He encourages every Christian to be a world-class Christian. A world-class Christian is a Christian that is not merely saved but one who has completely surrendered their lives and lives every moment of their lives for God's purposes for His glory and the expansion of His Kingdom.

Chapter 39: Balancing Your Life

While understanding that everything in our lives is and happens for God's purposes can bring relief and comfort in difficult times, it can also be daunting to carry out all five purposes. At times we will be more passionate about one purpose than the others, but it is important that we not neglect the others. They are all equally important and bring God glory. To help with keeping our focus balanced, Warren recommends keeping a journal of the lessons that we learn and how they can be used to bring God glory. Such documentation will also help us to see and internalize the reality that problems exist and we are taken through these hardships to shape us to worship Christ, become more like Christ, live with Christ's family, serve people, and bring others to Christ so that they may do the same and further build and strengthen the Kingdom of God.

Chapter 40: Living With Purpose

Finally, Warren encourages the reader to develop a "purpose statement" that is regularly revisited. He explains that having a statement in writing helps to define and bring focus to God's five purposes in our lives. The statement should include what should be the center of our lives (worship), the character of our lives (discipleship), the contribution of our lives (ministry), the communication of our lives (evangelism), and the community of our lives (fellowship). By having this statement we will be more prepared to properly understand the experiences that God takes us through and identify how they can be used to build Christ's Kingdom.

Purpose #5: The Mission (My Thoughts for the Apologist)

This is probably the first point at which I had a stark disagreement with Warren (I had a few others throughout the book, but they were not of this magnitude). Of all the parts of the book, I believe that this one is woefully incomplete for today's Christian to fulfill this purpose in a skeptical culture. Warren set presenting one's testimony as being more valuable than, ironically, providing an intellectual defense for the truth of the Christian worldview in our mission. He did not say that they were mutually exclusive, though. As many of my readers are already thinking, Warren really limits the success of completing our mission in today's world when he implies that an intellectual defense is unnecessary. For if two people of two different worldviews offer very different explanations (testimonies) for their similar histories to a third person who is on the fence, how is that third person to discover which worldview is correct? How are we to help our children determine which worldview is correct (no doubt, part of our mission)?

In today's world, where intellectual challenges come from the average unbeliever who all Christians encounter in their local mission field, Warren's focus on the subjectivity of a testimony in the absence of the objectivity of evidence jeopardizes the Christian's fulfillment of this purpose. Don't get me wrong; what Warren says in this chapter about preparing a testimony is certainly important because the one true worldview must be able to consistently explain all experiences, and this is why I'm not saying to just skip this section altogether.

If Warren were to write another edition of "The Purpose Driven Life," I would like to see the content of chapters 39 and 40 moved to an epilogue or a 41st chapter (since they are concluding the whole book) and replaced by one new chapter that succinctly builds the case for an evidential faith (see "Forensic Faith" by J. Warner Wallace) and another new chapter that presents the evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (the one event that no other worldview can consistently explain- see "The Risen Jesus and Future Hope" by Gary Habermas). This would help the Christian to present their subjective experience (testimony) in the context of the objective evidence for the truth of Christianity- making them not only a world-class Christian but a world-class evangelist for Christ. Including this additional content would also serve to augment the content in the discussions of the purposes of worship, discipleship, and fellowship (particularly building community) and tie the purposes even closer to one another.

My Recommendation

In this book that focuses on purpose, Rick Warren essentially presents a theology of suffering. This is particularly important in dealing with the problem of evil and suffering. I see great value for the apologist in what Warren has presented in his book. Because of its popularity in Christian circles, many people may already have a copy or be familiar with its content, so the Christian defender can easily utilize its content to address honest questions about evil and suffering.

When an all-loving and all-powerful God has purposes for our lives that cannot be accomplished without our spiritual development, and when spiritual development cannot take place without experiencing evil and suffering, then by logical extension this all-loving and all-powerful God has purposes for our experiences of evil and suffering. And further, when we can positively identify those purposes that God has for our lives, we can also positively identify those purposes that God has for our experiences of evil and suffering. The logical problem of evil and suffering is defeated; the probabilistic problem of evil and suffering is defeated; the purposes for evil and suffering are identified, and the emotional pain of evil and suffering is transformed to joy.

For those who are feeling defeated by evil and suffering and are questioning God's goodness, His power, or even His existence, "The Purpose Driven Life" could be what points them to the light of Jesus' Resurrection that is at the end of their dark and depressing tunnel of emotional and intellectual doubt.

Obviously, I highly encourage you to read "The Purpose Driven Life" and not just apply it to your life, but use it as part of your intellectual testimony to and intellectual defense for the truth of Christianity. And as you encourage people to read "The Purpose Driven Life," you must also encourage them to be in prayer daily and be in God's Word daily. That is exactly where they need to be and exactly where Warren points them.

If this is the first part of this review you've encountered, please check out the reviews of the other parts of Warren's book:

Part 1: Created For God's Purpose

Part 2: Created For God's Pleasure (Worship)

Part 3: Created For God's Family (Fellowship)

Part 4: Created To Become Like Christ (Discipleship)

Part 5: Created To Serve God (Ministry)

Part 6: Created For A Mission (Evangelism)