After Son’s Suicide, Rick Warren Returns to Saddleback’s Pulpit
Pastor Rick Warren is expected to return to the pulpit this weekend for the first time since his youngest son’s death in April. A spokesperson for Warren announced Friday that the founder of Saddleback Church will begin a series of sermons titled “How to Get Through What You’re Going Through.”
On July 15, Warren tweeted that on July 27-28, he would “start teaching again. Come early for a seat.” His first service back at the Lake Forest, Calif., church is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. PDT on Saturday, July 27. The sermons will also be streamed live on the Internet at saddleback.com.
On April 6, Saddleback Church announced that Warren’s 27-year-old son, Matthew, had taken his own life with an unregistered gun he had purchased online.
Warren and his wife, Kay, appeared on stage at Saddleback Church in late May, announcing to his congregation that he would take a couple of months off to “recharge,” the Lake Forest Patch reported. Although emotionally and physically exhausted at the time, Warren said he had “spiritually never been stronger.”
In the interim, Warren, who is best known as the author of the tremendously successful book The Purpose Driven Life, has continued to share his teaching materials online at pastors.com, a website he founded for teaching pastors, and at rickwarren.org, his personal website.
