Pastor Rick Warren and his wife were thrilled to announce publicly on June 02, the next Senior Pastor of Saddleback Church, together with his wife, Andy and Stacey Wood.
The church’s news stated that they had served for 14 years at Echo Church in San Jose, California. They added that the couple started a brand new purpose-driven church with just a handful of individuals. Then they increased to about 3,000 attendees on four campuses.
Meanwhile, Warren, his wife, and their elders have selected Woods unanimously to lead them into the future as a church community. He noted that they are looking forward to working with this couple. The post mentioned that Woods is 40 years old and filled with God’s love.
History-Making News
After many discussions, interviews, and days of prayer, Warren said in his YouTube video that he had chosen the man who would be his successor. He also highlighted that he said he would serve the church for forty years. It was the most considerable number, and he committed forty years in January 2020.
In the final months of 2019, he said he felt like it was not yet the right time to resign. Six weeks after their 40th anniversary, he still needs to lead the church in times of pandemic and confusion.
On June 5th, he stated he started to search for a new leader. He studied, read about, and considered nearly a hundred candidates. He said that their church is blessed with a wide talented and potential leaders. There were thousands of pastors who knew their purpose and mission.
Successor
“No lasting success with a successor,” Warren said in his video,
Peter, his mentor, said that top leaders are hired based on performance, not potential. Because everybody that God created has potential, but the leading position has to be somebody who has proven they can do it.
His mentor added for Rick to find somebody younger but who has already built a great church in a difficult place just like he did. Warren was looking for a Biblical character described in the 1Timothy and Titus. These two scriptures are non-negotiable if someone wants to lead the church. But he said he made a personal list. He felt the new leader would need the quality.
Saddleback is a complex church with campuses on four continents, as stated in the video. Warren also highlighted that, according to Forbes Magazine, Saddleback is like Starbucks and Google. He said people listen to Saddleback, which is a great responsibility for the new leader.
Warren said he knew that their size and the purpose-driven system needed somebody unique to lead their church.
Andy & Stacie Woods
In the video, Warren gave their members a chance to hear from their next pastor and his wife, Andy and Stacey Woods. They noted that they are looking forward to doing their role, but it is still such a surreal moment for them to be called by God as the next Senior Pastor of Saddleback Church.
Woods said the church is an incredible tool God uses to influence the entire world.
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