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Rick Warren, the well-known pastor of Saddleback Church and best-selling author of The Purpose Driven Life, visited Biola on Friday morning, March 18, where he was the opening speaker at the Evangelical Missiological Society’s Southwest Regional Meeting.

Warren, who has a doctorate in intercultural studies and world missions, opened his remarks by mentioning that his great grandfather was sent to America by Charles Spurgeon to be a church planter, and that “you should judge the health of a church not by its seeding capacity, but by its sending capacity.”

“It has never been my goal to build a big church; it’s always been my goal to be a sending church,” added Warren, who has grown Saddleback Church to a congregation of more than 20,000, a church that sends out church-planting missionaries to all 195 nations of the world.

Warren spent the majority of his 20-minute address talking about the “P.E.A.C.E. Plan,” his five-point call for church-led efforts to tackle global poverty and disease: Plant churches that promote reconciliation, Equip leaders, Assist the poor, Care for the sick and Educate the next generation. Warren said that these were five things Jesus did in his ministry that Christians should model across the world.

“God loves the poor,” said Warren. “And if you want to do the work of Jesus, you must love the poor. And do you know where they are? They’re in the urban setting.”

Warren urged the crowd of missionaries and missiologists to approach missions from a place of humility rather than authority, and to go out into the world as servants, not as “solvers.”

Warren’s address kicked off the day-long EMS conference on the theme of “Urbanization: Mission in the Context of the City.” The event, hosted by Biola’s Cook School of Intercultural Studies, also included paper presentations, roundtable discussions and short presentations by over 50 urban ministry organizations.

The EMS conference coincided with Biola’s — a three-day event put on by Biola’s Student Missionary Union (SMU), the largest student-led missions organization in the United States. This year’s conference, themed “,” featured speakers Kevin Humble, Mark Parker and JFK Mensah, as well as dozens of seminars, exhibitors and a 24-hour prayer room.

President Barry Corey spoke both at the Missions Conference and the EMS Conference, where he observed that “the Great Commission is still central to what we do at ������ʷ.”

Jenna Bartlo, Media Relations Coordinator, can be reached at (562) 777-4061 or through email at jenna.l.bartlo@biola.edu .