Rick Warren says he's battled an autoimmune disease for past 2 years: 'It's debilitating'
Retired megachurch pastor and bestselling author Rick Warren revealed in a podcast this week that he has been battling an autoimmune disease for the past two years.
Warren, who co-founded the Saddleback Chruch in California alongside his wife, Kay, appeared on "The Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast" Wednesday to discuss his new book and ministry goals after retiring from Saddleback Church last year.
The 69-year-old author of The Purpose Driven Life shared that he has been in a two-year-long battle with an autoimmune disease, which he assured is not life-threatening and won't last past three to five years. However, he admitted that the illness is "debilitating" and causes him constant pain.
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"It leaves all my major muscles in pain, pretty much, 24 hours a day," he said. "It's debilitating. It's tough walking, working. But it hasn't changed the way that I think. The problem is sometimes I feel like I am this brain on fire, and I'm like in a wheelchair. I'm not in a wheelchair, but the bottom line is it's difficult to move around."
Warren's condition has not deterred him from his current ministry objective, leading the Finishing the Task Coalition. The project aims to fulfill "Jesus's call to make disciples of all nations" by mobilizing the global church to ensure everyone has access to God's word.
"I do believe, as Scripture says, my times are in His hands," Warren said. "And I want to be directly at the center of the will of God. I don't want to get ahead of His will; I don't want to get behind His will. But I want to be at the pace that He wants."
He said the "physical ailment and constant pain" he has been enduring for nearly two-and-a-half years is "brutal."
"Sometimes walking up the stairs is brutal. Sometimes in the morning, I can't tear open a packet of sugar or turn the pepper shaker. ... My hands are so tight," he continued. "When I first took this role that God was calling me to lead the Finishing the Task Coalition, ... I thought it made sense that God would call me to do this because I'm not afraid of complexity. ... But when I began to look and see how difficult it was with the pain I've been going through, I realized God said, 'I didn't choose you for your experience. I didn't choose you for your years of skills that you've developed. ... I chose you because I knew you would trust me even in pain."
The pastor has a new book titled Created to Dream, which walks readers through God's process for helping people fulfill their dreams. He related the subject of the book to his present circumstances, emphasizing that all things that happen in life are "Father-filtered."
"Nothing could come into my life without the heavenly Father's permission," Warren said, citing his belief in the concept of spiritual warfare.
In Christianity, spiritual warfare involves fighting against the work of evil spirits that attempt to turn mankind away from God. Warren said that he repents in situations where he is at fault and resists when Satan tries to tempt him.
"But in all situations, I need to relax because God is God, and I'm not," Warren said. "I've had many ups and downs in 50 years of ministry, and God is faithful."
Warren said he wants to help people across the world access the Bible in their "heart language" and access a church.
"Any church can plant churches if they're planting house churches, if they're planting small groups," he said.
Another goal is for every person to hear the Gospel through credible witnesses and not just the media. The worship leader said that this would involve an emphasis on evangelism and training.
However, he said Christians must learn to evangelize in a new way, claiming believers often memorize a bit of Scripture and present it like a "sales pitch." He called for Christians to learn how to evangelize the way Jesus did, which involved meeting people where they were.
The religious leader's final goal is for everyone to be prayed for within the next 10 years.
"I can step out and take on the biggest goal that you can think of, the evangelization of the whole world because for 50 years, I've been taking smaller steps," he said.
Last June, Warren announced his successor at Saddleback Church, Andy Wood, who served as the lead pastor of Echo Church in the San Francisco Bay area. The move came after over 40 years of Warren's ministry spanning 197 countries and raising more than $1 billion to Christian causes.
Earlier this year, the Southern Baptist Convention cut ties with the Saddleback Church and four other churches for the decision to allow women to assume the role of teaching pastor.
In a podcast interview last month with former SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Russell Moore, Warren explained that three Scripture passages changed his mind three years ago about the idea of female pastors.
He pointed to Matthew 28:19-20, where Jesus tells his disciples to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."
"We claim that we believe that the Great Commission is for everybody, both men and women are to fulfill the Great Commission," Warren argued.
"There are four verbs in the Great Commission: 'go,' 'make disciples,' 'baptize' and 'teach.' Women are to go. Women are to make disciples. Women are to baptize and women are to teach, not just men."
The Christian leader also highlighted Acts 2, which describes the Holy Spirit coming down upon the early church, and the people present, which included women, spoke in foreign tongues. In addition, he quoted the Old Testament verse of Joel 2:28, which states, "on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy."
Another verse Warren cited as evidence was John 20:17 when Jesus told Mary Magdalene to tell the disciples about his resurrection, noting that Jesus "chose her to be the first preacher of the Gospel."
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
