Rick Warren speaks at 36th annual
Los Angeles Mayor's prayer breakfast

By Verna Brown

Los Angeles, CA (Feb. 14, 2009) — The music was performed by the Salvation Army band and the invocation was given by Rosey Grier. Scriptures were read from the Old and New Testament and prayers for the Mayor and Los Angeles were given.

The keynote speaker was Dr. Rick Warren, the founder of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif. Dr. Warren and his wife Kay began Saddleback Church as a small group in their home in January, 1980. Today it is an evangelical congregation averaging 22,000 weekly attendees, and has more than 300 community ministries.

Pastor Rick and his wife Kay give away 90 percent of their income through three foundations: Acts of Mercy, which serves those infected and affected by AIDS; Equipping the Church, which trains church leaders in developing countries; and Global Peace Fund, which fights poverty, disease, and illiteracy.

He talked about the five giant problems that affect billions of people on our planet:

1. Spiritual emptiness – billions live without hope, and in conflict. They don't know that they're not an accident, and that Jesus Christ died for them so that their past can be forgiven, they can have a purpose for living, and a home in heaven.
2. Self-serving leadership – Jesus said leadership is about serving, and if you want to be great, learn to be the servant of all.
3. Extreme poverty – half the world lives on less than two dollars a day; three billion people are in extreme poverty.
4. Pandemic diseases – billions of people are still suffering from diseases that we know the cure for, and that's unconscionable.
5. Rampant illiteracy – half the population of the world – three billion people – is functionally illiterate. How can anybody make it in the twenty-first century if they can't read or write?

No one person or organization can provide significant relief. The United Nations hasn't been the solution. Governments haven't, businesses haven't.

None of these has the advantages the church has. The purpose of the church is to help fulfill God's purposes for our lives. And the greatest motivation is – love.

Dr. Warren developed a plan to attack the five global giants. His plan is called P.E.A.C.E.

P — Promote reconciliation
E — Equip leaders
A — Assist the poor
C — Care of the sick
E — Educate the next generation

The benediction was given by Dr. Barry Corney, president of Biola University.