Book Review: The Purpose Driven Life

Can an all-loving and all-powerful God possibly have reasons for allowing all the evil, pain, and suffering in this world? 

The Purpose Driven Life (hardback, Kindle, audio book) by Rick Warren is a book that I have meant to review for quite some time now. I had heard about it when it first came out in the early 2000s and had heard both raving reviews and scathing critiques. It was not until my pastor at the time did a sermon series on it that it really caught my attention. Over the years I have referred to it here and there in my blog posts, and I believe that the time has come for me to give it a full chapter-by-chapter review from the perspective of a defender of the Christian faith. 

Some people have wondered why I decided to review The Purpose Driven Life considering it is not a book that is focused on the defense of the Christian faith. My reason is quite simple: Rick Warren makes the claim in this book that God has multiple reasons for allowing evil, pain, and suffering in our lives. This claim, if demonstrated to be correct, directly addresses one of the most common and emotionally powerful challenges to God's goodness, His power, and even His existence: the problem of evil, pain, and suffering. 

Initially, I had separated this review into multiple posts to keep the individual posts shorter, but it has been requested of me that I publish the whole review as a single post. This review will consist of my usual chapter-by-chapter summary format with my recommendation at the end; however, I have added additional thoughts for each part of the book between the summaries of those respective parts. I will include some of my initial impressions from years ago and reflections on the book's content that have bounced around in my mind from the last several years (including some of the theological critiques).  

Part 1- What On Earth Am I Here For?

Chapter 1- It All Starts With God

Warren begins his examination of the purposes for our lives at the very foundational question: how do we determine what our purpose is? Warren explains that it is nonsensical for someone to look to themselves to determine their purpose. Just like we would not ask an invention what its purpose is, we should not ask ourselves what our purpose is. Rather, just as we would ask the invention's creator what its purpose is, we should ask our Creator (God) what our purpose is.

It is also nonsensical to simply guess or claim ignorance about our objective purpose. If someone was given an invention that had never been seen before, it would behoove the user to consult the instruction manual (inspired or written by the invention's creator) to discover its purpose and proper usage. The same goes for us; we need to consult the instruction manual (the Bible) inspired by our Creator to discover our purpose and the proper usage for our lives.

Chapter 2- You Are Not An Accident

Now, not every person is convinced that our lives have objective purposes; they take the position that no objective purpose exists and that they are free to make up their purposes as they go. In order to address this challenge, Warren appeals to the design of our universe and the design of our planet for advanced civilization to indicate that they were were designed by a Designer and that that Designer created them with the end goal of creating humans for His cosmic plans. (For those who wish to investigate this evidence in detail, I recommend reading two books by astrophysicist Dr. Hugh Ross: "Why The Universe Is The Way It Is" and "Improbable Planet: How Earth Became Humanity's Home".) This scientific evidence demonstrates that humans are not here by accident.

Warren also zooms in on the purposeful creation, from the view of humanity in general to individual humans in particular. Warren explains that God is sovereign over the entire context of how each and every human comes to be. Everything from their physical traits to the way they were conceived to their natural abilities were under His guidance by His knowledge and His omnipotence for His purposes. Everything that we, as individuals, are was guided by God. God even anticipated other individuals' sinful and careless free choices and actions. So, nothing about our lives is accidental. By His omniscience God had a purpose for our lives; by His omnipotence He created us for that purpose; but it is our free choice whether or not we will fulfill that purpose or not (the whole reason Warren wrote this book is because we each have this free choice, and he gives us reasons to make the choice to align our lives with God's purposes- more on this in Chapter 7). (If the reader is curious about the interaction between God's sovereignty and man's free will, I highly recommend the book "Salvation and Sovereignty: A Molinist Approach" by Kenneth Keathley.) The Creator created us, and His purpose for us exists independent of what we desire or believe. This purpose is objective; it is the purpose of our lives whether we believe it or not or whether we accept it or not.

Chapter 3- What Drives Your Life?

If we are to let God's objective purposes drive our lives, we must discover what is currently driving our lives and remove those driving factors. Warren observes that many people are driven by guilt, anger, fear, materialism, and/or the need for approval. None of those driving factors will lead to ultimate fulfillment, and all either lead to a dead end or a vicious, never-ending cycle. However, when we allow objective purpose to drive, our lives become meaningful, simplified, focused, motivated, and prepared for eternity.

Objective purpose gives our spent time meaning in that what we do with our time has correspondence to the Creator's cosmic purpose for His creation (us) and that time spent is not in conflict with those purposes. Objective purpose also simplifies and focuses our lives by filtering out activities that do not lead to the achievement of the Creator's cosmic purpose. Objective purpose motivates our lives by giving us the knowledge and security of an eternal legacy that is shaped by our life experiences and our choices to use them for God.

Chapter 4- Made to Last Forever

Building upon the concept of eternity. Warren points out that humans are obsessed with living longer and even achieving immortality in some way. The reason that humans have this desire is because the Creator has designed us with the desire for more than what this life and creation can afford us. This life is full of suffering and evil, and humans want that suffering and evil to have purpose. We also want to be able to escape the evil and suffering to realize this objective purpose. To deny such a desire (not only for ourselves but for others as well) is to deny our humanity and even deny any claim to objective morality.

It is only with an understanding of what "eternity" is, compared to our several decades of life in this creation, that we can begin to be prepared to focus our lives on the Creator's objective purposes. This life is merely a "blink of the eye" compared to eternity. So, the amount of time that evil and suffering are present will pale in comparison to the amount of time that they will be absent. The actions and decisions made with our time that correspond to the Creator's purposes will have an eternal legacy, while those that are in conflict will not. And to begin this journey of aligning our time, decisions, and behaviors to the Creator's objective purposes, we must begin our relationship with Jesus Christ, accepting that we are sinful and are in need of His forgiveness and redemption.

In this chapter, Warren makes it clear that what is to come in the rest of the book is not intended to communicate or present the Gospel, but rather that it assumes the reader understands the Gospel, believes it is true, and has surrendered their life to Christ. If anyone gets further into the book and thinks that Warren has taken a "self-help" turn or is presenting a different gospel that focuses on the sinful self, they need to refer back to this chapter to recall that Warren believes that the purposes he is about to describe are not subjectively grounded in our sinful desires but objectively grounded in the unchanging nature of our loving Creator and Savior.

Chapter 5: See Life From God's View

The Bible describes this life in three different ways: as a test, as a trust, and as a temporary assignment. Warren explains that most of life's experiences are due to God testing the character of His children. These tests are not because God doesn't know, rather it is to develop our character to be more like Him. One of the big tests is how we will act in the times when we cannot feel God (the challenge of God's seeming hiddenness in life). When we realize that life is full of tests which are designed to develop our character, we see even life's trivial experiences as purposeful. It is our choice as to whether or not we will respond to life's situations in ways that will allow God's purposes for them to be realized in our lives or not.

This life also represents a trust from God. God has trusted to us everything in our lives from our natural talents to those people around us, from the resources offered to us to the opportunities to use them. None of what we have is ours, but rather it belongs to God; He has merely entrusted us with what we have to be used for His objective purposes not our subjective desires. When we understand this reality and accept its responsibility, we begin to use what has been given to us more responsibly and understand that what God gave us was not for some arbitrary reason; it was to be used for God's purposes. The fact that we must choose how we will use what God has entrusted to us also tests and builds our character. This means that no matter how useless and/or gratuitous evil and suffering in our (and others') lives appear, they are not. If evil and suffering are wasted, it is because we have chosen not to use them for God's objective purposes. Ultimately, the responsibility for such "gratuitous" evil and suffering lies on our shoulders not God's.

Chapter 6: Life Is A Temporary Assignment

Everyone understands that this life does not last forever. We will eventually die, and this life will be over. This reality means that there is only so much time for each individual to accomplish the purposes for which God created them. In light of this truth, many of life's distractions (such as the "pursuit of happiness" and constantly being entertained) are seen as just that: distractions. Distractions take us down paths that will lead to either a dead end or an endless loop, both of which take up precious time but never bring us closer to fulfilling our objective purposes.

To help reduce our desire for these distractions, God has wired us to never be truly fulfilled by the distractions of life. There does come a time in which we will recognize the dead ends and endless loops that the distractions bring, and we will search for more; we will search for objective meaning and objective purpose to use our time and resources towards accomplishing. Warren is not saying that material goods or fame are bad or evil in themselves, but that they do not serve as ends in themselves. Prosperity is temporary, and we should never make the mistake of thinking that that is God's purpose for us. Those who have prosperity do because it can be used for God's objective purposes. Prosperity is a means to God's ends. We have only so much of it and so much time to use it. Just like this life, prosperity is temporary, whereas God's purposes are permanent.

Chapter 7: The Reason For Everything

Warren concludes this first section of the book by explaining that ultimately, everything that happens is for the general purpose of God's glory- no matter how bad things are, the world that God has created and placed us in is the best world to get to the best possible world (remember, this world and life are only temporary). Warren explains that everything in nature gives God glory because it was designed to do just that. Warren uses the example of ants. Ants bring God glory by being ants and fulfilling their purpose in the ecosystem. However, humans, because we have the ability to freely choose to love something more than God (sin), can fail to bring God glory. While God has created us with certain passions and talents, we have the ability to choose to not use them for God's objective purposes.

This is not to say that God is not sovereign over our choices; through His omniscience, He factored in every individual's free choices (including their obedience or disobedience) when He created this universe and when He created each individual in this universe, all so that His perfect will will be accomplished without fail (refer back to Chapter 2 for more on this). Warren's call to the Christian is to choose to use what God has given them to bring God glory. He then outlines the remainder the book and study. He will discuss the five more-specific objective purposes that God created us for that bring Him glory:

• Bringing the Creator Pleasure (Worship)
• Loving Other Believers (Fellowship)
• Becoming Like Christ (Discipleship)
• Serving Others (Ministry)
• Telling Others About Christ (Evangelism)

My Thoughts for the Apologist- Introduction: Created For A Purpose

In this first section of The Purpose Driven Life, Warren makes the case that humans were created for a purpose. Along with numerous passages of Scripture, he uses a few different familiar arguments from the fine-tuning of our universe and the design of our planet to defend this position. He is very clear that purpose is objective and that in order to discover our purpose, we cannot look to ourselves. The fact that he uses apologetic arguments and goes into the philosophy of purpose grabbed my attention right away. As someone who focuses heavily on philosophical foundations and logical connections between claims, I greatly appreciated how Warren chose to articulate his philosophical foundation and make the case for that foundation.

The intended audience of the book is the Christian, so this first section is not meant to be a full defense of God's existence. It is meant to be a defense of objective purpose in the Christian's life and a defense of the idea that God uses every aspect of our lives to accomplish that objective purpose. As a defender of the Christian worldview, the fact that Warren claims that all experiences in our lives (including evil and suffering) have a purpose immediately got my mind thinking about the problem of evil: This book could be indispensable as not just a practical book on the Christian life but an unexpected apologetics book dealing with one of the most persuasive (though unsound) arguments against God's existence. No doubt this first section really sets up a defender of the Christian worldview with high expectations that Warren is about to present a theology of suffering thus providing additional tools and resources to address challenges to the truth of Christianity.

Part 2- You Were Planned For God's Pleasure

Chapter 8- Planned for God's Pleasure

Warren begins his discussion of the first purpose (worship) by explaining that God does not need anything. God did not create man because He needs man (all God's needs are eternally met in the community of the Trinity), nor does He expect worship because He needs worship. He created us because He wants us and wants to spend eternity with us. We have objective and intrinsic value and purpose that is grounded in our eternal Creator.

Warren then helps define worship and clear up some common misunderstandings. God created man in His image, which allows us to experience emotions- including joy when we experience pleasure. God experiences joy as well, and worship is simply bringing God pleasure. Worship is more than just singing to God. Worship is bringing God pleasure in ordinary and extraordinary ways- in how we live our everyday lives and how we respond in specific circumstances. Everything we do can be an act of worship, if it is done "in spirit and in truth" (John 4:23). While worship is not about us, it brings us joy to know that we bring our eternal Creator joy just by our being alive.

Chapter 9- What Makes God Smile?

Warren takes a look at the story of Noah to help identify what brings God joy. Noah's love of, trust in, obedience to, gratitude to and use of his abilities for God demonstrate how to worship God. The Creator of the universe wants to have a relationship with us. It brings Him joy when we reciprocate that desire. One of the ways we bring God joy is by having faith in Him. This is not a "blind" faith but a reasonable trust. God has worked in the lives of our friends, family, numerous people separated from us by both time and geography, and even in our own lives. Even when we have limited information about what is to come, we have enough information about God's past trustworthiness that we can presently trust Him about what is to come. It brings God joy when we take this logical step of faith in Him.

Complete trust logically leads to complete obedience. God is all-knowing and desires the best for you. He knows what is ultimately and eternally best for you, so it brings Him joy when we wholeheartedly trust Him and follow what He has told us to do and reject what He has told not to do. As God demonstrates His trustworthiness in our lives, gratefulness should result. Just as it brings us joy to be thanked by someone who is grateful for something we have done, so too does it bring God joy when we are grateful for all that He has done for us. Finally, it brings God great joy when we use our God-given talents and passions. Everything that we do, except sin (disobedience), brings joy to God. This gives us much freedom and considerable relief to know that just being who God created us to be brings Him joy. God knows that we won't be perfect, but that does not keep us from bringing Him joy.

Chapter 10- The Heart of Worship

The heart of worship is surrender to God. Not "surrender" as in a reluctant acquiescing to a stronger or more clever opponent, but "surrender" as in a willing dedication of your life to another because of how much they love you. Warren explains that surrender to God is based on our knowledge of who He is and what He has done. How can we know that He loves us, is trustworthy with the unknowns of the future, and is worthy of our dedication if we do not know about Him? Because surrender is based on knowledge, it is hardly an illogical, emotional impulse. Rather surrender is the result of an intellectual, rational process of education about God that results in a deep and justified emotional feeling of love that spurs us to action.

Being fully surrendered to God is necessary for us to accomplish the purposes for which God created us. If we are fully surrendered to God, then there is no need to surrender to anything or anyone else. It frees us from the expectations and stresses that everyone else around us places on us. We can follow those expectations of others when they coincide with God's purposes, but at the same time, when they do not coincide or when they contradict God's purposes, then we will be faced with an uncomfortable choice, but a choice that has a most reasonable option: follow God, not man.

Whether it is due to our surrender to God and not man, due to evil of others, or due to natural processes, suffering will befall all, and all will be touched by evil. The surrendered heart has the answer to the problem of suffering and evil. In Warren's words, the surrendered heart states, "Father, if this problem, pain, sickness, or circumstance is needed to fulfill your purpose and glory in my life or in another's, please don't take it away." In that statement, the surrendered heart acknowledges that, even if we cannot see it right now or may not ever see it, God does have a purpose for the pain and suffering in our lives. The surrendered heart, that is suffering through a present evil, rests on its knowledge of God's purposeful past, God's consistency throughout time, and the logical conclusion of God's purposeful future.

Chapter 11: Becoming Best Friends With God

The surrendered heart naturally leads to another aspect of worship: friendship. One of the great distinguishing characteristics of the Christian God is that He does not desire merely a Creator/creature or master/servant relationship with us. God is not just our Creator, Savior, and Purposer, He wants to be our friend. It brings Him great joy when the surrendered heart is one that also desires the closeness of a dear friend. In order to be a friend, we must know the other person. We must understand them. Warren explains that two ways to build the friendship relationship with God is to constantly be in prayer and to constantly meditate on His Word. The communication from man to God is facilitated by prayer, and the communication from God to man is provided by God's Word. Both are necessary for a friendship relationship with God, so if either is missing from our lives, we cannot build a friendship relationship with God.

Warren mentioned before that everything we do throughout the day can be acts of worship. With that in mind, simple prayers throughout the day and/or a never-ending conversation with God punctuated by our daily activities keep us communicating with God. And our meditation on God's Word keeps Him in communication with us. The meditation that is necessary, though, is not in the eastern sense of emptying our minds of all thoughts, but rather it is of focusing acutely and thoughtfully reflecting on something: the contents of what God has spoken to us in the Bible. To bring God more joy, the surrendered heart continues to live a life of prayer and biblical study that increases their knowledge of, their surrender to and their friendship with their Creator, Savior, and Purposer.

Chapter 12: Developing Your Friendship With God

With all of the pain and suffering that we experience and have to witness those closest to us experiencing as well, it is important to remember that friendships only thrive with honesty. God desires that we be honest with our feelings about life. In our prayers, we can vent our frustration, pain, doubt, challenges, and even anger with God. God already knows our heart, and He created this universe (and every other person who lives in it with us), so He can certainly handle and even desires our total honesty with Him about our experiences.

Our honesty about our deepest feelings of pain and doubt can be the first step to a closer relationship with God. It is okay to voice doubts and frustrations honestly because when we are provided with answers, we get to understand why God allows these experiences. When we can see the ultimate good that will result, our initial bitterness towards God begins to erode, and that great barrier to a relationship with God gradually fades away.

Warren concludes this chapter by reminding the reader of the ultimate purpose behind pain and suffering in our lives. The purpose has nothing to do with God punishing us or acting in malevolent ways. He desires a loving relationship with us. He knows our hearts, and He knows what circumstances it will take for us to freely choose an eternal, loving relationship with Him. God allows a finite amount of pain and suffering in our lives in this world because it can result in an infinite amount of joy in our lives in the next world.

Chapter 13: Worship That Pleases God

The more we understand about God the more we are surrendered to Him. A surrendered heart exhibits worship that has four distinct characteristics. The first has already been hinted at: we must worship Him in truth. We must accurately understand who He is, what He has done, and why He has done it. Having a correct understanding of God (theology) is vital to being able to worship Him in truth. The second must be authentic worship. God created us to be emotional beings, so authentic worship is emotional. The emotion is not manufactured for one's own benefit or to put on a show, but it is heartfelt, the natural reaction to focusing our attention on God and our relationship to Him.

True worship is also thoughtful. God does not seek trite cliches or "worship" that is so familiar that it is robotic and comes with no conscious engagement. Worship must be intentional shifting of our focus away from ourselves to God and communicating with Him from our hearts. Finally, our worship must be practical. This means that we must set aside time for dedicated worship. While worship can take place throughout the day as we go along our day, that time still has a focus on ourselves. We must also set aside time to set our focus away from ourselves and place it on God. This dedicated time allows us to reduce distractions and will bring us closer to God. In coming closer to God, all other acts and times of worship (and our relationship with God) are benefited.

Chapter 14: When God Seems Distant

One of the biggest challenges to worship and to God's existence in general is His seeming hiddenness. It is difficult to worship God or believe He is even there when we cannot see or feel Him working. These difficulties most often come when we are experiencing pain and suffering in our lives or see loved ones suffering. Warren addresses this challenge by making a clear distinction between the fact of God's omni-presence, and the feeling of God's presence. The first is true in all places at all times, independent upon us (it is objective). God promised that His presence in our lives is a fact- He promised to never leave us. However the second is dependent upon the person (it is subjective), no such promise was made about it- God never promised that we would always feel His presence.

Warren explains that one of the biggest mistakes that Christians make is seeking a feelings-based experience of God and not seeking to know God. In seeking an experience, we are making our faith dependent upon the subjective feeling of God's presence, which will change levels throughout our lives. Instead, we should make our faith dependent upon who God is and what He has done for us in the past.

Warren encourages the Christian to focus on two things: the unchanging character of God and the reason for Christ's death and resurrection. If God did nothing else for us, He died for us and took the penalty of our sins upon Himself so that we would not suffer the penalty of our sins: eternal, conscious separation from Him. (For those readers who are interested in the evidence that establishes the historical event of the Resurrection, I highly recommend the book The Risen Jesus and Future Hope by Gary Habermas.) From His past work for us and the consistency of His character, we can know that God's promises are true. So, while we may not be able to feel that God is present, we can know that God is present. Basing our faith upon knowledge rather than feelings frees our faith from being dependent upon the ever-changing circumstances of life. It frees us to know that He is there and we can worship Him, even if we are not experiencing Him at that time in our lives.

My Thoughts for the Apologist- Purpose #1: Worship

I loved the way that Warren presents the purpose of being created to worship God. He presents faith in the biblical way of being based upon knowledge and evidence and not being blind or even despite the evidence. He shifts the Christian's focus away from subjective feelings of God to objective knowledge of presence God to address the concern of God's seeming hiddenness. He emphasizes that worship is more than just singing, it is being in a relationship with God. He encourages the Christian to always be in prayer and to study God's Word. And he reminds the Christian that no matter how much we may think that God is not there or doesn't care about us, God has already demonstrated His trustworthiness in the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross and His Resurrection from the dead. It is quite often that Christians lean heavily towards either an emotional faith or an intellectual faith to the minimization of the other, but in this chapter Warren begin to bring you, no matter which side you are on, closer to the proper balance in your thinking. Not only has Warren already begun preparing the Christian with a proper theology of suffering that will help sustain their faith in times of crisis, he is preparing them to be able to "worship the Father in spirit and in truth" in the middle of these crises.

Part 3: You Were Formed For God's Family

Chapter 15: Formed For God's Family

The second purpose for which you were created is to be part of God's family. Warren explains that because God is triune, His loving relationship was complete prior to His creative act, so He did not need to create us. Rather He desired to create us and bring us into a loving relationship with Him. When we accept Christ's sacrifice for our sins, we become part of His family, sons and daughters of the Father. With this eternal status comes a five-fold inheritance: we enjoy a loving relationship with our Creator and Savior forever; we are completely transformed to be like Christ; we are delivered from the evil, pain, and suffering of this world; we will be rewarded in eternity for our work in this world and given new, more rewarding, vocations, and we get to share in Christ's glory forever.

When we see the evil, pain, and suffering that we must endure in this life, it is encouraging to remember that it will all lead to this inheritance. Our temporary endurance of suffering will culminate in a permanent replacement of joy. Being part of God's family is the greatest honor that we can receive. And we share this honor with others who have also accepted Christ's sacrifice. (For those who are interested in the evidence for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, I highly recommend the books The Historical Jesus by Gary Habermas and Cold-Case Christianity by J. Warner Wallace.) We were created for the eternal inheritance, and we were created for the Church, our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Chapter 16: What Matters Most

But that eternal inheritance does not come without responsibility in this world. That responsibility, though, will become more natural as we are more conformed to the character of Christ and worship the Father more in spirit and in truth (the first purpose). We must remember, after all, that our lives are not about us; they are about God and His purposes for our lives.

Warren points out the obvious fact of everyone's life: it is finite, and we all have only so much time on this earth, so our time must be used responsibly. He goes on to explain that we must not spend our time on trivial pursuits of worldly achievement. Rather we must focus our time on love. Loving others is the most important use of our time. Particularly, Christians' love for each other. But why is love and why is this love what matters most? Warren explains that love within God's family has an indirect but powerful effect on our evangelism; its presence inside and visibility outside God's family draws unbelievers to Christ. John 13:35 states, "By this everyone will know you are my (Jesus') disciples, if you love one another." Thus the legacy of this love's effects lasts forever.

Warren then takes the time to remind the reader that "love" is worthless without action, and that action takes our time. Thus when we are faced with the decision to either spend our time building a loving relationship with someone (especially a fellow Christian) or pursuing money or power, we are morally obligated, as Christians- members of God's family, to choose to spend our time in relationship. Warren calls the reader to stop their delay of building loving relationships and adjust their priorities so that their finite time in this world will have an infinite effect.

As a side note, what Warren means by "love" should not be confused with the modern view of "tolerance" nor should it be confused with an ethical system based upon "love." Two recommended books on these issues, respectively, are "The Beauty of Intolerance" by Josh and Sean McDowell and "Christian Ethics by Norman Geisler."

Chapter 17: A Place to Belong

One of the best ways to build loving relationships with other Christians is to be committed to a local body of believers. The local church is a collection of Christians who do not merely meet together but are committed to each other just as much as they are committed to Christ. Belonging to a local church is not an option for a Christian, it is a command, and this command is given because of its necessity. Just as parts of a physical body cannot fulfill their purpose or even survive for long without being connected to their physical body, neither can a part of the spiritual body of Christ (individual Christians) fulfill their purpose or even survive for long as Christians without being connected to their spiritual body of believers.

Many Christians resist such a commitment due to many reasons, but most of those reasons boil down to being unwilling to love those who do not act or believe precisely the way they do. But this is not God's expectation when he commands us to be committed to one another. He commands us to love sinful people the same way that He does. We will never find a perfect church because it is comprised of sinful people who have accepted Christ's sacrifice for their sin, but who, while still on this earth, will sin until either they pass into eternity or Christ returns. Part of our commitment to one another is loving each other despite their sin and encouraging them to reject their sin. Such a commitment is not easy because it is a two-way street; those who are committed to us will stand alongside us and call out our sins. Rather than rejecting such a strong connection, we should embrace it and understand that it is vital in helping us to become more like Christ. A church that does not confront sin, or even encourages it in the name of "tolerance" (see The Beauty of Intolerance), is not functioning properly at all and is standing in blatant disobedience to God's command to love one another.

Chapter 18: Experiencing Life Together

Fellowship has taken on a more generalized and shallow meaning since the time of the early Church. When the Church first started, having "fellowship" meant that those involved were an extremely tightly-knit group. The individuals experience life together complete with its victories and failures, and joys and sufferings. In order to have true fellowship the members must be truly committed to one another. This means that honesty and vulnerability are necessary. We are called to "bear each other's burdens," but that cannot happen if we do not communicate our struggles or if we are not willing to support one another in their struggles.

Life brings intense struggle, some so intense that it causes Christians to doubt God's goodness, faithfulness, or even His existence. When we honestly communicate these struggles, those around us can carry us emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, and practically. Warren encourages those who others confide in to have faith for the person who is struggling as they go through the struggle. As deep emotions brought by struggle are communicated, they are affirmed and experienced together...

Chapter 19: Cultivating Community

...but the "affirmation" of emotions that Warren describes is not an affirmation of sinful behavior. While someone may have strong emotions about continuing in a sin (or their emotions may be producing a spiritual blind-spot), and those emotions can be acknowledged; that acknowledgement cannot result in and is not to be understood as the approval of the sin. Honesty is key to cultivating community in the Church. Not just honesty from someone who feels like doing something sinful, but honesty from those who recognize the action or behavior as sinful. Honesty is not an excuse to be rude, unloving, or judging of a person's soul; it is a call to loving correction- an explanation that their choice to continue violates the objective moral law of God, and that God calls us to repent and to choose otherwise.

When we are honest about others' choices, we are being protectors and enablers of their relationship with Christ. When we see others' concern for our relationship with Christ, we see a common bond and a common purpose with eternal implications that binds us together in a trusting and loving community. But we must remember that honesty and cultivating this type of community is a multi-way street. While we may be honest about one person's behavior being sinful, we must be willing to accept others' honesty about our own sinful behaviors. And we must treat others in the middle of their struggles the same way we would like to be treated in the middle of our own struggles. Warren reminds the reader that cultivating community requires us to surrender our self-centered nature to focus on true fellowship with the Body of Christ. We must be patient with each other just as Christ was patient with us.

Chapter 20: Restoring Broken Fellowship

Warren points out that because Christ called for unity within the Church, when fellowship is broken it does great harm not only to the Body of Christ but to their witness. We are called to show love to one another, and the lost are watching how we treat one another, especially when we disagree to see how they will be treated when we disagree with them. Warren explains that no Christian is without sin and will offend a brother or sister. Some offenses are so devastating that they cause broken fellowship among them. These broken relationships must be repaired as quickly as possible through honesty, humility, confession, forgiveness, and love. The hurt feelings must be understood, responsibility must be accepted, mercy and forgiveness must be extended, and change (when sin is involved) must take place. This kind of reconciliation prepares the way for a resolution. We must remember that Christ called for unity, not uniformity, so Christians will have legitimate disagreements over non-essential issues that must be debated, but those debates should never result in broken fellowship.

Chapter 21: Protecting Your Church

Warren concludes his discussion of fellowship with a call to unity and a reminder that no church is perfect. Because of the fact that all churches are comprised of sinners, there will be disappointment. But that is no reason to leave a church (only to be disappointed by the next one). God calls us to fellowship because He wants us to learn together and to live together. If we are too hasty to leave a church because of our disappointment, then it is a sign of immaturity. We must fight for unity within our church by focusing on our common beliefs and mission. This is not a call to ignore sin or theological disagreements (Warren is not encouraging cultural tolerance or requiring uniformity, respectively), but it is a call to remember that both can be dealt with in the context of God's desire for us to grow together. Is the Church full of hypocrites? Yes, you're one of them; I'm one of them, and neither of us can escape any of rest of them.

God calls us to treat others the way we want to be treated. If we want to be lovingly and respectfully corrected, we must be willing to do the same for others. Dealing with matters in unloving and disrespectful ways only causes disunity and strife, and frankly, does not encourage someone to change or to reconsider but to desert- to run away from the Body of Christ where they do not have the protection of the Body from the Enemy. Unity is vitally important to the Christian life and it must be protected. (For more on properly communicating in difficult circumstances, I highly recommend the book Before You Hit Send by Emerson Eggerichs.)

My Thoughts for the Apologist- Purpose #2: Fellowship

This is one of the sections that I have seen Warren taking some of the most heat from fellow Christians. Many have accused Warren of saying that "love" means to be inclusive of immoral behaviors and even non-Christian theologies. I even heard one person state that Warren was going down the same path as the Progressive Church in this book. However, when the full context of this part is read, and especially read within the greater context of the whole book, we see that those accusations simply are not correct.

I greatly appreciate how Warren emphasizes that we must love others in the Church but that that love, because all are still sinful and not omniscient, will often take the form of correction. It is not to say that just because someone disagrees that their view is therefore correct, it is to say that we must be willing to change our behavior and/or beliefs when a fellow brother or sister in Christ makes a legitimate case that we are wrong. And this can only accomplished if the Body of Christ follows one of the key requirements for the first purpose: study God's Word. Later when Warren discusses discipleship, we will further see how this is important and is vital to being able to accomplish God's purposes for our lives.

Part 4: You Were Created To Become Like Christ

Chapter 22: Created to Become Like Christ

Warren begins by explaining what it means for humans to be "created in the Image of God." It means that we are spiritual beings; we are intellectual beings; we are relational beings, and we have a moral conscience. He goes on to explain that despite this, humans are fallen and are sinful. This leads to the third purpose: to become like Christ. Warren reminds the reader that God is much more concerned with our character than He is with our comfort. Warren takes this opportunity to explain further that Jesus' promise of an "abundant life" has nothing to do with a life of ease, health, and wealth. If someone thinks that this is what Jesus meant, then they are setting themselves us for disillusionment with Christ and life. Jesus was speaking of character development not the "health and wealth" gospel that is often preached today.

Warren makes it very clear that the character development required to become like Christ cannot be done on our own. The work of the Holy Spirit is absolutely necessary, but it takes the free will decision of the individual Christian to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. This is not salvation that is cooperative (that is through Christ and Christ alone); this is spiritual growth that both the Holy Spirit and the Christian are necessary. (For more on God's sovereignty and man's free will, I highly recommend the book Salvation and Sovereignty by Kenneth Keathley.)

Finally, Warren warns the reader that this is not a quick process- it will take a lifetime. As long as we are on earth, we have room to grow. If we become impatient or disillusioned with the work that God is doing in our lives, then we have lost the eternal perspective and have slipped into a narcissistic view of our lives. Like with the other purposes, we must remember that the experiences God takes us through are preparing us for spending eternity with Christ.

Chapter 23: How We Grow

Warren emphasizes the necessity of being intentional about becoming like Christ. Our character development does not happen by accident, and it does not happen if we are resistant to it. The Holy Spirit is necessary for our discipleship but so is our continuous, conscious choice to become like Christ. Warren explains that when the Apostle Paul stated that Christians must "work out" their salvation (Philippians 2:12-13), this was a statement to Christians- meaning that they were already saved by grace alone by Christ alone, but that their growth and becoming like Christ is what needed to be worked out with the power of the Holy Spirit. Warren goes on to explain that "work out" is much more than just changing the way we act, but it is changing the way that we think. Right thinking precedes right action, so it is important that we adjust our thinking to match the reality that God exists and has created a specific world for us to live in and with.

Chapter 24: Transformed By Truth

In order to change the way that we think, to live rightly in the world God has created, we must conform our thinking to truth. Many of the problems that we face in this world are because we have a false view of the world, and that false view causes us to bump against reality in painful ways. But how do we change the way that we think to be more inline with reality? Ask the Creator of this world. God has given us His Word that gives us much information about this world, including how man acts, how man is supposed to act, how man is separated from God, and how man can be reconciled to God. However, in order to allow God's revealed information to transform us, we must make a conscious choice to accept the authority of God's Word, fill our minds with God's Word, and apply its principles to our lives. It is through these chosen actions that the Holy Spirit can transform us to be more like our Savior.

Chapter 25: Transformed by Trouble

This world is full of trouble. Man is evil, and his evil choices cause much suffering of himself and others. God's plan is for us to spend eternity with Him; however, we must become like Christ before we can do that. God created this world to prepare our character, so suffering is a part of it, but man's evil compounds that suffering. But, God did not fail to anticipate every choice of every person that would lead to more suffering. And knowing how each of us would freely react to those circumstances, He permits them to take place to make us more like Christ and prepare us for eternity. Every event is an opportunity to grow, and we have a difficult choice of how we will react.

As we are transformed by truth, we are better prepared to make the right choice. It doesn't make the choices easier, but it does convert our prayers from requests for survival of the circumstance to requests for transformation of our character by the circumstances. When our hearts desire to be more like Christ, our purpose is conformed to God's purpose for our lives, and He honors that request. This doesn't just happen once, and it happens many times over the course of a lifetime (why we must be gracious and patient with our brothers and sisters in Christ- see Part 3 on Fellowship). That is why we cannot focus solely on the pain in the moment. We must look past the moment to eternity and see that the suffering that we are currently experiencing "is not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us." Every troubling event is an opportunity to grow to be more like Christ, and Warren encourages Christians to thank God, not for the evil, but for the fact that what may be "intended for evil, God intended for good."

Warren reminds the Christian that God is not distant, making these proclamations without experiencing their implications Himself. The second person of the Trinity became man and suffered unjust crucifixion to make His eternal purpose possible. He rose from the dead to prove that He conquered suffering and accomplished the ultimate good purpose through suffering. If we have accepted the transforming power of the Resurrection over our future (we are saved), we should also accept its transforming power over our character.

Chapter 26: Growing Through Temptation

Another way that we become more like Christ is through overcoming temptation. Temptation is unique in its character-building capability in that it presents an option: to either do right or to do wrong. It often causes a struggle between what our fallen nature predisposes us to do and what we know we should do. The emotional and intellectual struggle is real and causes much pain in this life. But, the more that we choose to do right, the more we become like Christ. Warren explains that God promises not only that none of us are above temptation, but He will always be there to help us overcome temptation. Overcoming temptation is not something to be accomplished on our own.

The Enemy uses our desires (both legitimate and illegitimate) to tempt us to do what is wrong in the hopes that we will choose disobedience of our Creator and in the hopes of causing more havoc in our and others' lives. Warren explains that it is important to identify various circumstances in which we are most vulnerable to sin and be prepared for the temptation, so that when it comes, we can ask God for help to overcome it. Warren reminds the Christian that God is faithful, ever-patient, and eager to help us overcome temptation, so God never tires of helping us. However often we need His help, we simply need to pray and ask.

Chapter 27: Defeating Temptation

Defeating temptation is not easy. God has promised Christians that He will help them if asked. Warren points out, though, that God has revealed several things that we must do as well. We cannot just ask God to deliver us and it be done; we must demonstrate a willingness and effort to overcome the temptation. Warren starts with explaining that when temptation comes, it is important to ignore the temptation and focus our mind on something else. For the more we focus on something (even if it is to ignore it), the more we focus on it and the more it grabs our attention and the harder it is to overcome. Memorization of Scripture is one of the best things to refocus our attention towards. Along with the worship of God, this is another reason by meditating on Scripture constantly is so important.

Warren explains that one of the lies that Satan tells people who he is tempting is that they are alone and the only one to ever experience it. This is to isolate them from The Church (fellowship) and its godly members who could help a brother or sister through temptation. Confiding in another allows us to support each other as part of God's family. Many times when we ask God for help, He does not just give us a way to escape that one instance of temptation, but He places a member of the Body of Christ in our lives who we can rely upon when we know we are weak.

Chapter 28: It Takes Time

As much as we would like for it to be, discipleship is not a quick-fix. Becoming like Christ is a long process that takes a lifetime of learning to choose to follow Christ through life's experiences. Even though Christians have received a new nature in Christ, they still are affected by the Fall of Adam and Eve and still have much to learn about what it means to "be like Christ." Warren reminds the Christian that God is more concerned about lasting change than an immediate fix. Unfortunately, it takes us humans numerous times of learning the same lesson to finally get it to stick. This is why we must experience the same things over and over again. This is why others must experience the same things over and over again. No suffering is gratuitous. God knows what He is doing. And what He is doing is developing the character of His children. God is patient enough and loves us enough to see us through learning the same lessons over and over again. If God is that patient with us, then we need to be patient with God as He is conforming us, though our life's repeated experiences and our repeated choices, to the image of His Son.

My Thoughts for the Apologist- Purpose #3: Discipleship

Two of the things that I greatly appreciate in this part is that Warren comes out explicitly against two false modern ideas that have sneaked their way into the Church: the idea that man is not naturally sinful and that God has promised us health and wealth if we obey Him. Warren not only makes his case bibically but also practically. Further the denial of man's sinfulness is essentially the affirmation that we are already like Christ, thus this section about how to become like Christ would be useless. And the belief that if we follow God that we will always be healthy and wealthy would make this entire book about a theology of suffering pointless. It is precisely because of evil and suffering that we long for answers of their purpose (the "why" question) from our all-loving and all-powerful God.

If suffering does not have a purpose, then it is, in fact, gratuitous. The fact that Warren emphasizes that God's concern is our character rather than our comfort lets us know that we should expect trying events in our lives. Whether we did not learn to be more like Christ with an event or if the effects of learning have worn off, repeated events present us with additional opportunities to choose to follow Christ and become more like Him. So, no instance of suffering in our lives is gratuitous. And God does this for every Christian, so none of their suffering is gratuitous either.

Part 5: You Were Shaped For Serving God

Chapter 29: Accepting Your Assignment

Once we accept Christ's sacrifice, we are not immediately taken to heaven because God has a purpose for us in this world before He takes us to the next. The fourth purpose that God created us for is service to others, also known as "ministry." The sufferings that we endure as part of our spiritual maturing (discipleship- the third purpose) is vital to accepting and fulfilling our assignment from God to serve others. If every event in our lives (no matter how small or how painful) is for our spiritual growth, and if our spiritual growth is for our serving of others, then every event in our lives (no matter how small or how painful) is for our serving of others. God has given us a role in this world that gives us objective value and objective significance in this world. This means that our sufferings in this world do not only have meaning, significance, and value in the next world, they also have meaning, significance, and value in this world.

It is important to understand that we do not serve for salvation but we were saved for serving. So, if we choose to not serve others, we are not fulfilling one of the reasons for which Christ saved us. Because service to others is essential to the Christian life, it is not something to be merely squeezed into our busy schedule when and where we have extra time. It must be an essential part of our schedule and other activities are squeezed in when and where we have extra time. Warren observes that many churches are dying today because its members, the Body of Christ, have not accepted their assignment in this world to serve others and are merely waiting for Christ to take them to the next world. Warren makes the point that if God's purpose for you in this world was complete, He would have taken you home already, but the fact that you are still here in this world indicates that you still have a purpose to fulfill here.

Chapter 30: Shaped for Serving God

God created each of us with a particular shape that was designed specifically to serve Him and His purposes for us. Warren explains that this shape is a gift that God has graciously given us; it is not earned or deserved, but undeveloped and unused it is pointless. Warren presents an acrostic to help identify the unique shape that God has given each person to service others:

Spiritual Gifts
Heart
Abilities
Personality
Experiences

Spiritual Gifts- God has not given everyone the same gifts; this reinforces our dependence upon each other thus the necessity of fellowship. God gave us our gifts not to hoard for our own use, but for the service of others. If we are to use our gifts only for our benefit, others suffer, and if others use their gifts only for their benefit, we suffer. Because we all have different gifts and we are still sinners, we are tempted to fall victim to two vices when it comes to gifts: gift envy and gift projection. The first is being dissatisfied with the gifts that God has given us, coveting the gifts of others, and ultimately refusing to use our gifts for the service of others. The second is thinking that others should possess our gifts, be as passionate as we are about these gifts, and ultimately thinking that our gifts and service are more valuable than other gifts and service.

Heart- What we find that we are passionate about is a key indicator of the gifts that God has given us to serve others. We must identify what we are passionate about and develop that for service to others. Two things must be considered, though. As already mentioned, not everyone will be passionate about the same things as you are, so don't be discouraged by others' lack of passion for your passion. And we cannot forget that we are sinful, so it may be that we are actually passionate about a sin or something that is contrary to God's nature. In order to distinguish between legitimate passions and illegitimate passions for service to others, we must recognize that all the purposes are to be fulfilled together, so worship, fellowship, and discipleship must all be used in identifying legitimate passions. We must worship the Father in spirit and in truth, we must submit to godly brothers and sisters, and we must allow God to develop our character to reflect the image of His Son.

Chapter 31: Understanding Your Shape

Abilities- God created each of us with a unique combination of abilities. Warren appeals to studies that indicate that any one person could have in excess of 500 unique, natural abilities- many of which are laying dormant. These have all been given by God and can be used to serve Him and others, but we must identify the legitimate abilities (just like identifying legitimate passions) that we have the passion to develop and utilize them in God's service. Unused abilities that we have the passion to develop and use for service leave a hole, while missing abilities that we may be passionate about but do not have can bring damage to others because the abilities are misused (similarly to gift envy).

Personality- Our shape is further defined and made unique by our personality. While we may have similar abilities and passions as others, our different personalities will allow us to use those abilities in unique ways that others, with the same abilities and passions, are not equipped to use them in. God has created us with diverse shapes because the world we live in provides diverse circumstances, and people in each of those diverse circumstances need to be served by the diverse abilities that He has given to others but not necessarily to them. The great diversity of circumstances and human personalities further reinforces the significance and value of each person and the purpose of fellowship.

Experiences- The diversity of our experiences further refine our shape for ministry. Particularly our painful experiences. Just like with the purpose of discipleship, painful experiences are vital to the purpose of ministry. Who better to minister to a person than the ones who have first-hand experience with the pain and suffering of a particular experience but have been carried through that experience by Christ? Our experiences uniquely equip us to minister directly to the hurting hearts of others. We are the Body of Christ, and our shape (including our experiences) makes God's presence and heart a very tangible reality in this world for others. Our experiences can help with the discipleship of another, which will strengthen their worship of their Creator and Savior. This further gives our painful experiences objective purpose and eternal significance. For those who think God is hidden in their lives or that God has deserted them in their pain, either they are covering their eyes to the Body of Christ around them or the Body of Christ in their lives is refusing to minister.

Chapter 32: Using What God Gave You

Not everyone has been given the same spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, and experiences so it is important to identify what shape that we have and what shape you do not have. It can be difficult to identify, but Warren encourages the Christian to simply jump in and serve in different capacities to identify their gifts, passions, and abilities, and how their personalities and experiences can contribute to their service. When you serve in a capacity that you find that you have little interest in and/or little ability for, you will have limited results.

We often continue in a ministry we have no ability to accomplish because we have a passion for it. Continuing to attempt to serve in a capacity that God did not shape us for will cause more damage than benefit and will hinder those who God truly shaped for that ministry. We must run from the temptation of ministry envy by using our passion for that ministry in two ways: first, to encourage those who have the ability and were shaped for it; second, allow those who were shaped for it to minister to us.

Now, we must also allow ourselves to let go of performing that particular ministry we were not shaped to fulfill and move on to the next experimental ministry. This whole process will need to be done until that ministry (or ministries) that "clicks" is identified. Once identified, run with it. Do everything you can to develop it and serve others.

Chapter 33: How Real Servants Act

Unfortunately, it is possible to serve for a lifetime without ever possessing a servant's heart. Serving according to the shape that God has given us is the primary aspect of our ministry. However, serving in seemingly mundane ways when called upon demonstrates a posture of the heart that is always ready to serve. The seemingly mundane tasks are not ones that require any special shape, but they are necessary, and our willingness to do them when necessary demonstrates maturity. Having a servant's heart affects all areas of ministry. When we have this maturity, we actively look for ways we can serve others. We look for others' needs; we accomplish the service despite constraints that we have; we see the value in even the seemingly mundane services; we remain faithful to our ministry, and we do all this outside the limelight.

Through our serving of others, God is not only using our shape, but he is still shaping us. This portion of our ministry overlaps with the purpose of discipleship. It is through our serving of others that we continue to develop humility and integrity. It is through this portion of ministry that God further develops our character to be like Christ to guard against our falling prey to the temptations of ministry envy and ministry projection. This further enhances the results of our primary ministry and others' primary ministry. We cannot ignore or attempt to excuse ourselves from this type of ministry, unless we wish to place limits on our and others' ability to serve others. This secondary portion of our ministry is just as important as our primary, if not more so because of the primary's dependence upon the secondary for its level of effectiveness.

Chapter 34: Thinking Like A Servant

Unfortunately, many people serve in order to satisfy their own needs and desires or to get others to do something for them. Worst yet, some people serve with the mindset that they are making a bargain with God to get something they want out of Him, and "He'd better hold up His end of the deal!" This is not true service; this is manipulation. In order to think like a servant, a complete shift in thinking from what our sin nature and culture promote is required. Thinking like a servant involves moving the focus from one's own self, desires, and purposes, to those of God and others.

Warren contrasts four sets of opposite ways of thinking to explain this. Servants think like stewards not owners. Servants think about their work not others' work. Servants based their identity in Christ not in what they do. Servants see ministry as an opportunity not an obligation. Culture would have us believe that we own everything, focus on criticizing others' ministry in an effort to make ours look better, based our identity and worth in what we accomplish, and see serving others as something that we have to do. On the other hand, servants know that God owns everything (we're just utilizing it for His purposes), that God does not compare our ministry to others' ministry, that our identity is absolutely grounded in Christ, and that serving others is perform out of joy and gratitude for what Christ did for us.

Chapter 35: God's Power In Your Weakness

While we all have strengths that help us identify our primary ministry, we all have weaknesses as well. Some weaknesses are natural for us and others are the result of circumstances. The strengths and weaknesses together form our shape and further help refine our service to others. Warren explains that often, it is not our strengths that make a ministry effective, rather it is our weaknesses. Everyone knows that everyone else has weaknesses, including those serving them. People connect on a personal level more easily with those who are authentic about their weaknesses because they demonstrate a humility and a humanity. When weakness is understood and even openly discussed, God can use that weakness to touch the heart of those we serve.

We may even find that our worst weaknesses end up being our best strengths. Where we are weak is where we can often be the most effective in our ministry. Weaknesses are planned and allowed by God so that we can minister to those who have similar weaknesses. Every feature of our bodies that we may see as a weakness, every event in our lives that dramatically changes the trajectory of our lives for the "worst"- they all have a purpose in God's eternal perspective. If we are willing to admit our weaknesses, be content with our weaknesses, share our weaknesses, and even boast of our weaknesses, God can take each one and give it purpose and meaning for eternity.

My Thoughts for the Apologist- Purpose #4: Ministry

In the very first chapter of this section, Warren explains the connection between discipleship and ministry. In the previous section Warren talks about how every event in our lives can be used by God to make us more like Christ. So, every event has purpose that directly applies to us. His connection of discipleship to ministry gives those same events an additional purpose of affecting other people. Not only do events have immediate purpose for the character development of the Christian, they have purposes for the service to others further down the road.

In this section, Warren has not just defeated the logical problem of evil and suffering by saying that God could have a purpose for evil and suffering, he has positively identified not just one but two purposes that God does have for evil and suffering in our lives. And when the connection of ministry further builds fellowship and help another to worship the Father "in spirit and in truth, the events in our lives have been shown to have four explicit purposes that our all-loving and all-powerful God has for them.

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.

My Thoughts for the Apologist- Purpose #5: The Mission

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.

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