Customer Reviews

The Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?

5 star:		(698)
4 star:		(138)
3 star:		(82)
2 star:		(86)
1 star:		(221)

 

 

The Purpose Driven Life is a devotional book, and with over 30 million copies sold, it's become quite popular. So what's all the fuss about? Well, the book offers readers a 40-day personal spiritual journey, and presents what the author says are God's five purposes for human life on Earth. They are:

1 You were planned for God's pleasure
2 You were formed for God's family
3 You were created to become like Christ
4 You were shaped for serving God
5 You were made for a mission

What you're suppose to do with the book is this. It's divided up into 40 brief chapters, and the reader is urged to read but one chapter a day so you can take time to think about it's implications for your life. Therefore, you really start finding yourself interacting with the book, and not just merely "reading" it. To that end, each chapter finishes with points to ponder, a verse to remember, and a question to consider.

All-in-all I found this to be a pretty thought provoking and inspiring book. The chapters are short, which I greatly appreciated due to my busy daily schedule. Additionally, I found the author's writing style easy going, which makes the book an overall enjoyable read. So if you're looking for a good book to help guide you along your spiritual journey, or a "workbook" to help you answer some of life's most important questions, I can definitely recommend you check it out. Other self-help books I liked include The Wishing Well Test: Take the Test - Get Your Wish!.

I try to keep abreast of things going on in the world. Sometimes things come along that are total fads: here one day, then gone and forgotten the next. It's sad to say, but as a Christian I have to admit that there are also fads in the contemporary American part of the Church. THE PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE is one of these.

I had never heard of THE PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE until a couple of local churches started doing the 40-Days of Purpose campaign. About the same time, a friend of mine mentioned this book as the next "big fad in the Church", and asked me if I got a chance, to read it. He believed I would agree with him and I do.

As a whole, there isn't really anything wrong with the book. Suspicious as his intentions might be, I'll give Rick Warren the credit and believe he primarily wrote this book to help Christians in their walk with Jesus. I believe that this book could be useful to a new Christian or someone who is possibly thinking about converting to Christianity. I also don't wish to discredit all those who have been helped in their life because of this book. The book is written in a very simply style that a third or fourth-grader shouldn't have a problem reading it. Warren supports much of what he says with Scripture and the book is filled with Biblical references.

However, the book is filled with severals flaws.

1. Warren says he purposely uses many different translations and paraphrases of the Bible to illustrate how relevant Scripture is to our day to day lives. However, Warren tends to rely on paraphrases more than actual translations of the Bible. This is a dangerous thing. Yes, the Bible was written in such a way that the "common man" could understand it's meaning. That's why paraphrases are so dangerous; they can change the entire meaning of a scriptural passage.

2. There is hardly any reference to the Holy Spirit. I am not a member of a charismatic church, but in many dominations across the country discussion of the Holy Spirit is totally ignored. Like it or not, the Holy Spirit is the seal that differentiates Christians from non-Christians. It is an essential part of the Trinity and to deny it, by ignoring it is very dangerous, almost blasphemous.

3. Though Warren uses a lot of Biblical references, there are several times that he says "The Bible says" without actually quoting any passages from the Bible. I found this to be puzzling in a book that contains so much scriptural support.

4. Warren tends to overgeneralize things. He uses words such as "all", "every", "everyone", etc. quite often. This was one of the more disturbing elements of the book to me. When I first started reading the book, I had considered purchasing it and giving it to my mother for a gift. However, about halfway through the text, I began to seriously disagree with some of what Warren was writing. The impression that the text leaves one with is that if you don't do things the way the book tells you to, then you're not a good Christian and there is probably something wrong with you. Many of the books suggestions aren't Biblical, just suggestions that Warren feels may help people out. But the impressions those suggestions leaves is not necessarily a positive one. Therefore, I am not giving this book to my mother.

5. The other major problem I had with the book is that it is largely a piece of advertising. In various chapters (especially at the beginning), Warren discusses a point and says something like, "if you want more help with that topic, see my other book" or "see the resources of mine listed at the back" which you can purchase. It seemed like every other chapter contained at least one plug for one of Warren's resources which can be purchased. I have nothing against writers plugging there wares. I have nothing against Christian writers writing for money. I do have a problem with people using a tool that is supposed to be for evangelism but also use it as a way to advertise so that they can sell more products and make more money. Though this may not be the original intent of the author, the self-promotion throughout the book leaves a reader pondering Warren's true intentions.

As I mentioned earlier, the book as a whole isn't all that bad despite the flaws. I can't rate this book lower than a three because I know that despite the flaws, there is a lot of material in the book that can be helpful to a lot of people.

The Purpose-Driven Life focuses on helping readers answer the question, "What on earth am I here for?" Warren sets out to help readers become the people that God wants them to be.

He elaborates on five truths to answer this question of why we are here. According to Warren, we exist for the purposes of worship, ministry, evangelism, fellowship and discipleship. He states that in fulfilling these roles on earth, we find and fulfill our purposes.

This is a comprehensive book about how to live the Christian life successfully. It discusses most of the major themes of The Bible. Warren cites over 1,000 scriptures in the book. He rarely makes a point without quoting from the Bible. The messages of the chapters are relevant for new and mature Christians.

The book is formatted in 40 chapters. Warren suggests readers study a chapter a day for 40 days, so that the reader can take time to reflect and meditate on each chapter's lesson. Each chapter ends with a main point to consider, a scripture to remember and a question to answer. I found these questions to be thought-provoking and meaningful.

This book is an excellent tool for study groups to read and discuss. It emphasizes the importance of Christian character development and of becoming an active member of a community of believers. Warren provides reasons and practical ways for the reader to serve others inside and outside the church.

For a church wanting to develop individuals excited and prepared to do ministry, promoting studies of The Purpose-Driven Life would help to meet this objective. Warren concludes the book by addressing each person's mission within the church and world. He also includes an appendix with further questions to initiate discussion among readers.

In citing 1000 scriptures throughout the book, Warren uses 15 different Bible translations interchangeably. He explains that all translations have limitations and that he uses various translations to present scriptures in a fresh way. The references for the scriptures he quotes are in endnotes, so I was continually turning to the back of the book to discover the version and verse of a scripture. To a minor extent, I think this undermines the integrity and flow of the book.

I always try to keep in mind when reading a book like this that the author's opinions are not infallible like the Bible. I say this because there are a few times while reading this book when I disagreed with an opinion of Warren's which was stated as a fact. Readers should keep in mind that opinions of Christian authors are debatable and not gospel.

I don't think these two criticisms detract much from the value of this book.

Warren writes that "The purpose of your life fits into a much larger, cosmic purpose that God has designed for eternity. That's what this book is about." In The Purpose Driven Life, Warren has written indefatigably about this purpose, and I think reading it will help you identify and fulfill your purpose.

Craig Stephans, author of Shakespeare On Spirituality: Life-Changing Wisdom from Shakespeare's Plays

I picked this book up at our local Costco several days ago. So far I have gotten about half way through it and already feel changed.

To me this is like a mental and spiritual enema. There is so much garbage out there and so man negative influences. Since reading this book I have kicked the beer habit and not longer play pc games. I was hooked. I was also hooked on horror movies like Motel Hell and such.

Rather than watch that junk, I am now watching a set of Bible video tapes featuring Charleton Heston. I also went to see The Passion and this weekend started to go back to church for the first time in years.

I threw away all the pc games that I had. What a wanton waste of thime that was! Instead, I am researching religious articles on the internet and reading The Bible right along with The Purpose Driven Life.

I cannot recommend this book enough. It has changed my life.

According to reputable polls based on actual books sales and conducted by book stores. This book is still kicking (...). Notice those anti-Bush books come and go but this book stands firm!

Great book Rick. Looking forward to your next foray!

I rate this book as one of the best christian books available. Although I was aware of this book for quite some time, The Purpose Driven Life was given to me as a gift for Christmas. I read the whole book in a few days over the holiday vacation and have since started over taking a chapter a day and really absorbing the contents.

The Purpose Driven Life is truly a life changing book and a must read for anyone who wants the most out of life and live their lives according to the principles of God.

The Purpose-Driven Life is a blueprint for christian living in the 21st century---a lifestyle based on God's eternal purposes, not cultural values. Using over 1,200 scriptural quotes and references, it challenges the conventional definitions of worship, fellowship, desclipleship, ministry, and evangelism.

I have the book as well as the cd. This is a program that you will want to read and re-read, listen to and re-listen to over and over. It will be a classic treasured by generations to come.

My personal testimonial is that I have been following the program for just under 40 days and feel renewed.

Some people have written in their reviews that they have a problem with Rick Warren because he recommends going to church. Say what! People don't want to attend church? Any church? They can go to the movies, but can't go to church? Can spend hours on the internet bashing good, quality books like this one, but can't find the time to go to church? Well I think that speaks for itself.

In this volume, Rick Warren, founder of the famed Saddleback (mega) Church expands on some of the ideas in his previous "The Purpose-Driven Church". Warren tells us that we are created for God's purposes, those purposes being giving God pleasure, being a part of his family, becoming Christ-like, serving others, and spreading the Good News of the Gospel that Jesus has paid the price for our sins. It is pretty much Evangelical Chrstianity 101, peppered with rapid-fire Biblical quotes and memorable anecdotes. Someone who is looking for a basic primer in what the Christian life is all about could do alot worse than "The Purpose-Driven Life".

I especially liked the fact that Warren doesn't assume that everyone reading this book is already signed on for the purposes he discusses. He even realizes that not all of his readers are even Christians. He hits the very basics with an exposition of the gospel and several calls for the unsaved reader to make the commitment to Christ. Another thing I particularly liked in the book was his discussion of how we can discover where we can be of most service to God's kingdom. He talks about several things here -- prayer, Bible study, spiritually discerning friends -- but it was refreshing to see someone say that what you are good at and what you enjoy are also indicators of where you can best serve God. When I was coming along twenty years ago or so, the standard line in most "fervent" evangelical camps was that what you were good at had nothing to do with what God wanted you to do, and that what you enjoyed should be avoided at all costs because it would just be a big distraction from what you really should be doing. I hope this means the Evangelical community is growing up a little.

But there are a couple of problems with this book. Most egregious is Warren's insistance on quoting scripture from various "hyper-modern" translations like the CEV or the New Living Translation or even paraphrases like "The Message" or the Living Bible. (Don't tune me out here, folks. I am *not* in the "King James Only" camp!) Warren says he likes to quote from these versions because "... we often miss the full impact of familiar Bible verses, not because of poor translating, but simply because they have become so familiar! ... Therefore I have deliberately used paraphrases in order to help you see God's truth in new, fresh ways." What the reader (especially the "inexperienced" Christian reader that Warren is writing for) needs to realize is that the reason these translations and paraphrases sound so "new" and "fresh" is that they are just plain bad translations. They don't sound like the old translations because they are changing the meaning of what is being translated! Read this book with an NIV or an NASB Bible in hand and refer to it frequently!

Something I find a little dangerous in this book is Warren's tendency to say things like, "The Bible tells us we are here for the following five purposes..." and "The Bible tells us God wants us to look at our lives in the following three ways ...." and so on. Why does this bother me? Think about it. If I can write a book that can reduce all the things the Bible tells us to a few short lists, then what do we need the Bible for anymore? Warren continually sends us back to the Bible, thank goodness, but it's not clear why he would feel the need to if his book really covers all the things he seems to imply that it does.

Of less importance, but still worth mentioning, is Warren's style of writing. He likes short sentences and short words and lots of lists and little cute decorative pictures in the margins. He has definitely written this book for an American population that expects to see everything said through MicroSoft PowerPoint.

So much for the book itself. Now, about the book in context. Like I said, if you're looking for a primer in basic Christianity, you could do alot worse. But I have a hard time understanding the curent Evangelical fascination with this book because it doesn't present anything that lots of other Evangelical books haven't been presenting (often more eloquently) for most of the past two centuries. The "Experiencing God" Bible study, which was a hit about ten years ago, comes to mind, as does J.I. Packer's classic "Knowing God". There is also Eric Liddel's "The Disciplines of the Christian Life", published posthumously in the mid eighties and John Stott's "Basic Christianity" from the late fifties. If you're new in town and aren't familiar with these older books, starting with Warren's book is just fine. But you really need to know that if you have these books already sitting on your shelf, you aren't going to learn anything new in "The Purpose-Driven Life."

And then there's the marketing campaign. First, Warren, or Saddleback Church, or somebody has actually registered a copyright for the phrase "Purpose Driven". Crassness aside, isn't that a little like trying to claim that you invented the phrase "nutritious and satisfying"? And then there are all the Purpose-Driven (TM) paraphernalia you can buy: the Purpose-Driven Life Journal, Purpose-Driven scripture memory cards with mahogany wood card holder, the music CD, the videos, the t-shirt, the baseball cap, the Purpose-Driven Day Timer, the bumper sticker. (Now, half of those are real and half of them are my own invention. Can you tell which is which?) I'll end my sarcasm here and let all the paraphernalia speak for itself.

End result: 4 stars for content and 2 for the horrid marketing campaign gives this book an average of 3.

The Purpose-Driven Bandwagon

I recently led a small-group study of The Purpose-Driven® Life. I started with no preconceived notions, but long before I reached the middle of the book, I was ready to throw it out the window. Only my commitment to the group kept me going to the end.

This book plays to those who are looking for easy answers, to those who believe the keys to living a faithful life can be reduced to a Purpose Driven® bumper sticker or bookmark . The book does contain much useful content, but it suffers from major problems, both substantive and stylistic. These include the following:

1. The author uses an alliterative bumper-sticker style of writing-"planned for God's pleasure", "formed for God's family"-that quickly becomes very annoying.
2. Content is repeated multiple times in an attempt to artificially fill a symbolic 40-day structure without 40 days' worth of material.
3. The book is highly commercial, with a trademark in its title and a bunch of offshoot products that the author does not hesitate to endorse throughout the book.
4. The author quotes Scripture out of context and massages Biblical content to suit his purposes. For example, to show how God can bring good out of evil, he says, "Ruth [a non-Jew]...broke the law by marrying a Jewish man" (p. 196), yet nowhere in the Book of Ruth is she accused of any wrongdoing, let alone "evil." (At the very least, it would be her Jewish husband who broke Jewish law, not Ruth.) This manipulation of the Bible means that conscientious readers cannot just trust the quotations and examples as presented. However, the tedious page-flipping required to read the endnotes means that many will quit checking the sources.
5. The use of different translations of the Bible is effective in bringing freshness to familiar passages and making Biblical language more accessible. However, the author relies too heavily on The Message, which is a paraphrase written from a particular viewpoint, rather than a true translation.
6. Christians who were baptized as infants and have grown in their faith without a specific conversion experience should take exception to the author's view that "the only way to get into God's family is by being born again into it (p. 118). Warren makes other sweeping theological statements that many faithful Christians will not agree with. It is ironic that many churches whose teachings Warren would seemingly reject are jumping on the Purpose Driven® bandwagon.

On the positive side, let me say that the book provoked great discussions in my college-age Sunday School class. In rejecting Warren's approach, these students have been forced to examine their own beliefs and the teachings of our denomination.

I was very excited about Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life as I started reading it. But as I went through day by day as the instructions suggest, I found that I was not discovering my Purpose in Life, but rather being directed to attend church and be a good church member. This book is really about how to support your church--not how to find God's Purpose for YOU. If you want to learn how to be the perfect Church member, being active, supportive, loyal to the your church no matter what--being a "servant leader" and so forth, you will make your pastor's job much easier and certainly, if everyone in church does it, your church will become paradise. However, how you run the rest of your life is up to you!