"Rick's powerful, but there's nothing more powerful than a group of seven or eight people who support one another and care for one another," says Brian Conner, an architect and former Toyota executive who has belonged to Saddleback since 1992.

By his own account, Warren is uninterested in operations. He is neither well- organized nor disciplined. "I'm a startup guy," he says. "I'm not a maintenance guy." A core team of about a dozen pastors and lay people manages the church and the Purpose-Driven nonprofit, as well as Warren's extensive travel and speaking schedule. A colleague explains, "Rick is like a hurricane. Before he blows into a place, some of us are the weather service, preparing for his arrival. Others come in after to clean up."

His Purpose-Driven Ministries nonprofit began when other pastors asked to visit Saddleback, hoping to learn why the church had done so well. To manage his time, Warren organized brown-bag lunches and church tours. They morphed into conferences about church-building that draw 3,000 or 4,000 ministers at a time. In 1995 Warren wrote a manual for building healthy churches called "The Purpose-Driven Church" that sold more than a million units. He sold books and tapes by mail, and by the time the pastors.com website launched in 2000, he had a big following.

Signs of Warren's influence can be found in many corners of America. This month 15 churches in Lodi, Calif., are organizing a campaign called "40 Days of Community" that includes service projects and lessons in spiritual growth using Warren's teachings. In Midtown Manhattan, a four-year-old evangelical church called the Journey regularly attracts 1,000 people. Started by a former Saddleback minister, it bills itself as a "casual, contemporary Christian church" and uses rock music and movie clips to teach biblical principles. Last year Mel Gibson persuaded Warren to use his network to spread the word about The Passion of the Christ, his movie about the death of Jesus that stunned Hollywood by grossing $370 million in the U.S. "All of it depends on the network," Warren says. "If I want to rally people, I push a button, and boom!"

Warren posts his sermons on the Internet, and sends a weekly e-mail to pastors with tips on church-building such as "10 Ways to Worship Without Music." He has a special fondness for small-town pastors like his dad. He says, "That guy's out flipping burgers or working as a mechanic during the week, and then, in four hours, trying to come up with something to say on Sunday.... If I can help that guy, if I can move him from a C to a B preacher, so be it. I'll make him a hero."

 
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