(BP) — Author and pastor Rick Warren told Baptist Press in an email exchange Aug. 22-23 that he and his church remain committed to the Southern Baptist Convention, despite rumors to the contrary that began when he participated in a question and answer session with reporters in May.

But he also does not agree with all that the Southern Baptist Convention does, such as pulling out of the Baptist World Alliance. At the recent centennial celebration of the group in Birmingham, England, he called the Executive Committee’s decision a “silly mistake.”

He was a keynote speaker at the event where he said Baptists, as a global family, should be able to “celebrate our diversity and celebrate our unity.”

The author of the best-selling book The Purpose Driven Life, Warren called the rumors of his SBC allegiance “nonsense” and “completely untrue.”

“I’m Southern Baptist, our church is Southern Baptist, and we cooperate in SBC missions support at every level both in the United States and with our IMB [International Mission Board] missionaries around the world,” Warren told BP.

In May Warren appeared at an event in Key West, Fla., sponsored by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. A transcript was posted online. According to the transcript, Warren was asked: “Your church is not a Baptist church?”

 

Misunderstood

The transcript had him responding: “No – it was. In the early years, when we first got started, it was a part of the Southern Baptist Convention. One out of ten churches in America is an SBC church, and the reason the denomination’s so big is that every church is totally independent. The denomination has no control over it. So basically we cooperated with them in their missions program, but now we’re doing our own missions program.”

Warren, though, told BP he misunderstood the question, believing instead he was being asked if his church, Saddleback Community Church in Lake Forest, Calif., was “identified” as a Baptist church. Saddleback does not have the word “Baptist” in its name.

“I told her ‘no’ because we’ve never put Baptist in our name,” Warren told BP. “Later, reading the transcript, I realized the question was, ‘Is Saddleback not a Baptist church?’ Any public person who is frequently interviewed will eventually say something he didn’t mean, or intend, or even believe, out of confusion. But for 25 years our church has been involved in the SBC at the association, state, and national level.”

Despite his answer at the Pew event, Warren said, Saddleback has partnered with various Southern Baptist entities over the years, and continues to do so.

At the state level, Warren said, Saddleback has assisted “dozens of state executive directors” and “state evangelism directors” in training pastors and church planters.

Being a part of the Southern Baptist Convention, Warren said, has allowed his church to do things it could not do by itself. The autonomy churches enjoy within the SBC has also been a plus for Saddleback, he said.

Warren, though, doesn’t agree with everything Southern Baptists do. He told BP the SBC’s withdrawal from the BWA was a major mistake. He also told reporters “When the Southern Baptists pulled out funding, my wife and I wrote a check for $25,000 to BWA.”

Noting he had theological differences with many of the diverse denominations that invite him to speak, Warren added, “That doesn’t stop me from fellowshipping with them.

“I am praying for a second reformation of the church that will focus more on deeds than words.”