Why I Left Saddleback Church: One Member's Reasons

I left Saddleback Church for two reasons: it appointed women as pastors, and its most famous book, The Purpose Driven Life, drifts from biblical teaching. This is one member’s account, written from a conservative Baptist view. Here is what pushed me out and why I think the issues matter.

What Is Saddleback Church?

Saddleback Church is a large evangelical Baptist megachurch in Lake Forest, California. It is one of the biggest churches in the United States and the largest in California.

The church runs many campuses across California and around the world. It draws about 28,000 people a week. The lead pastor is Andy Wood, who took over in 2022 after founder Rick Warren retired.

Saddleback belonged to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) from its start until February 21, 2023. That day the denomination’s executive committee voted to expel the church over its choice to make women pastors. Saddleback appealed, and on June 14, 2023, the full convention voted at its annual meeting in New Orleans to uphold the removal.

People leave Saddleback for many reasons. Here are the two that drove me out.

Female Pastors

Saddleback ordained three women as pastors on May 6, 2021.

“What’s wrong with this?” you might ask.

Southern Baptists, the largest Baptist denomination and the second biggest denomination in the United States, reject women pastors because they read it as unbiblical. The Bible, on that reading, reserves the pastor’s office for men.

This is a hot topic today, but I see it as a plain matter. Don’t read the Bible through your own worldview. Read your worldview through the Bible. Scripture should be the basis of Christian belief, not a mix of Scripture and what feels right.

For the case against women serving as pastors, read this article from Christianity.com. It is short and grounds the argument in Scripture.

Kay Warren, Rick Warren’s wife, also preached at the church on Mother’s Day. Many liberal churches use Mother’s Day to blur the rules around who may preach. Beth Moore’s exit from the SBC shows how sharp that fight has become.

This was not the only time Kay Warren preached there. For years the SBC let Rick Warren run the church his way. Once Saddleback named women as pastors, the convention had to act. Letting it slide would have invited other churches to do the same.

The Purpose-Driven Life

Rick Warren’s best-seller, The Purpose Driven Life, came out in 2002 and has sold tens of millions of copies. Many Christians love it. But Christians argue over Bible translations, then hand this book a pass. Why?

Many critics have pushed back on it, including Tim Challies, Jason Harris, and Robert Price. Here are three objections.

Not based on the Bible

The book quotes Scripture more than a thousand times, yet its guidance flows from Warren’s own experience. That makes the framework secular at its core.

Scripture out of context

Warren cites many Bible passages, but he often reads his own ideas into them. He pulls verses out of their setting to back up points they were never making.

Challies points to Job 22:21: “Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.” Warren leans on this verse. But in context, it is bad counsel from one of Job’s friends. Warren uses it without weighing what the passage actually means. That pattern runs through the book.

Missing gospel

The book urges you to believe in Jesus, but it never names sin, the need for a Savior, or Christ’s death and resurrection. Which Jesus does Warren point to? Without those facts, it is not the Jesus of the Bible.

So why believe? In Warren’s telling, faith hands you purpose, and purpose is the prize. A faint gospel, a focus on something other than Christ, and loose handling of Scripture add up to a different gospel.

Final Words

A church can be large, rich, and led by a famous pastor and still fall short. The pastor’s books can top the charts. The ministry can grow without limit. None of that proves it is sound.

Be careful. My rule is simple: when everyone adores a church or a book, I look harder for the flaw. Call it cynical if you like. Saddleback and churches like it win people with warmth and self-help sermons. They water down the gospel, soften sin, and bend to pop culture.

These churches promise people eternal life before they have heard the full gospel. Before such people hear Jesus say, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity,” (Matthew 7:23), we have to expose the error and show them the truth.