Rick Warren Raising $71 Million for Saddleback Expansion
Pastor Rick Warren has announced plans for Saddleback Church’s biggest expansion yet: raising $71 million for 10 new campuses, 3,000 global outreach missions and more.
The so-called Daring Faith Campaign aims to raise the money over the next three years. Saddleback members have already donated $7 million since Warren’s announcement of the campaign.
“I’m going to stretch your faith, I’m going to challenge it,” Warren said to congregants when launching the campaign a few months ago. “We don’t grow in comfort. Growth is often uncomfortable. The result is blessing, maturity and answered prayers.”
Just over a week ago, the congregation responded with the $71 million pledge during Warren’s Victory Sermon at the Lake Forest, California-based church’s main campus.
“Seventy-one million dollars!” Warren said during the service. “That will reach thousands and thousands in Christ. Do you know anything bigger in your life? What’s more important than that? … We want to see people in heaven from every nation.”
Along with establishing 10 new Saddleback campuses and upgrading the church’s technology, the campaign also aims to build on-site PEACE centers, with an aim to have 40,000 weekly congregants by 2020. In an ambitious example of the church’s continued focus on reaching the lost across the globe, the campaign will also help the church to reach out to 3,000 unchurched tribes.
“This is the type of people who call Saddleback their home,” said Kay Warren, Pastor Rick’s wife. “These are just average people making those amazing sacrifices. That’s how Saddleback has grown.”
