On the back cover of the Rev. Rick Warren's bestseller book, "The Purpose-Driven Life," Bruce Wilkinson, author of the former bestseller, "The Prayer of Jabez," is quoted as saying, "Rick Warren's new, ground-breaking manifesto will set millions of people free to live the lives God intended."

No it won't. Give Warren a chance and he'll put you on a performance treadmill you can never step off even when taking out the garbage or scrubbing your toilet bowl. There's no relaxing in who God has made you in Jesus Christ—it's do, do, do.

"At the end of you life on earth you will be evaluated and rewarded according to how well you handled what God entrusted to you," writes Warren. "That means everything you do, even simple daily chores, has eternal implications."

In another passage, he lectures, "God doesn't owe you an explanation or reason for everything he asks you to do. Understanding can wait, but obedience can't. Instant obedience will teach you more about God than a lifetime of Bible discussions."

He further admonishes, "You say 'yes, Lord' to whatever he asks of you. . .you can't call Jesus your Lord when you refuse to obey him. . . Surrendered people obey God's word even if it doesn't make sense."

To prove the seriousness of his take on godly obedience, Warren's Saddleback Church in southern California has taken to "removing hundreds of members for nonparticipation or for unrepented sin," according to an article in Christianity Today magazine (Nov. 2002).

A person's life, says Warren in his book, is "tested by God even in actions such as opening a door for other people, picking up a piece of trash or when polite to a clerk or waitress." A "very important test," he says, "is how you act when you can't feel God's presence in your life."

In case you weren't aware, we're all going to be "audited" by God in a "final exam," he assures in the book. He says "it's from the Bible that we can surmise God will ask two crucial questions":

1. "What did you do with my son, Jesus Christ?"

2. "What did you do with what I gave you?"

Using the big "IF," and repeating the no-loophole "everything," he writes, "If you treat everything as a trust, God promises three rewards in eternity."

The first reward, says Warren, is God will exclaim, "Good job! Well done!" Secondly, He'll grant you a promotion for "greater responsibility in eternity." Third, you'll be "honored with a celebration: 'Come and share your Master's happiness.' "

The last time I was in Chicago in January of 2003, the Sunday morning sermon at my church was on the "falling away" the Church the Body of Christ could expect in the "last days" leading up to the Rapture and the subsequent rise of the Anti-Christ.

The text for the message was II Thess. 2:3, in which the Apostle Paul warns, "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition."

As my pastor explained, a three-level departure of Believers from the truth of the Bible would occur.

The first departure would be from Paul's unique apostleship as the Apostle of the Gentiles and spokesman for the "mystery dispensation" revealed to him by revelation from Jesus Christ (Eph. 3:1-11; Eph. 1: 9-10; Col. 1:25-28; Gal. 1:11-12).

The second departure would be from adherence to Paul's basic gospel message of justification by grace through faith alone, laid out in chapter 5 of Romans. Distinctions between God's prophetic law program for Israel (found in the Old Testament, the Four Gospels and the early part of Acts) and the "dispensation of grace" for the Church the Body of Christ (detailed only in Paul's epistles) would be lost on people.

The third departure would be from the salvation message altogether. "People will lose the ability to keep the clarity of the gospel straight," my pastor explained.

Who knew it, but at the exact same time of my Chicago visit, Warren's book—which exhibits all ingredients for the three-level departure—hit the New York Times bestseller list for the first time. Two years and 22 million purchased copies later, Warren, age 51, is being dubbed "the most influential pastor in America today." (Christianity Today magazine)

"Warren is an instant celebrity, a standard-bearer for a new generation of evangelists who has caught the attention of President Bush and other national policy-makers," reports an Associated Press wire story earlier this month.

USA Today gushes, "Rick Warren is the master marketer of a single message: 'You are here for God.' Yet, the fellow behind this sophisticated international high-tech operation appears more like a backyard barbecue host — Hawaiian shirt, deck shoes, no socks. And no pretensions."

Forbes magazine, in a quote appearing in Warren's book, observes, "If Warren's ministry was a business it would be compared with Dell, Google, or Starbucks in impact."

For his own assessment, Warren, according to a New York Times Sunday magazine feature last month, "describes his purpose-driven formula as an Intel chip that can be inserted into the metaphorical motherboard of any church."

That's right, any church. Catholic, Pentecostal, Mormon—it's all good by Warren's estimation. He reasons, "It takes all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people. If you're getting the job done—lives are being changed—then I like the way you're doing it, whether or not it's my style of ministry."

According to a USA Today profile, Warren's pastor-training programs welcome Catholics, Mormons, Jews and ordained women. This is in spite of his church's formal affiliation with the Southern Baptist Convention, which firmly holds to tenets such as the "literal and infallible Bible" and the exclusion of women as senior pastors.

"I'm not going to get into a debate over the non-essentials. I won't try to change other denominations. Why be divisive?" he asks in the USA Today article, pointing to Billy Graham—"a statesman for Christ ministering across barriers"—as his model.

Besides, Warren writes in his book, "God won't ask about your religious background or doctrinal views."

The first line of the first chapter of his book lectures, "It's not about you." If you're a pastor, Warren will let you know in the strongest terms that it's about your church attendance rolls, not your imparting any strong meat from God's Word (Heb. 5:12).

"The reason Jesus attracted such large crowds is because He loved people," pontificates Warren on his website, Pastors.com. "On the other hand, I've heard churches justify their lack of growth by saying, 'We're small because we haven't watered down the gospel.' But maybe the real reason they don't have a crowd is because they don't want a crowd! They love their own comfort more than they love lost people. To reach unbelievers you have to move outside your own comfort zone and do things that often feel awkward and uncomfortable to you. It takes unselfish people to grow a church."

Warren actually says, "If you want to change lives, you must craft the message for impact, not for information."

In an interview Q&A on his website, he judges, "Most pastors do not understand the power of preaching. But even more important than that is they don't understand the purpose of preaching.

I probably have the largest library of books on preaching in America. I've read over 500 books on preaching. Maybe some seminary might come close to that, but I am sure that no pastor comes close to 500 books on preaching.

"And as I've read them, the vast majority do not really understand that preaching is about transformation, not information."

Yes, it's outright sin for a pastor to preach without entertaining, Warren assesses.

"I believe it is a sin to bore people with the Bible," he says in the same Q&A. "The problem is this: When I teach God’s Word in an uninteresting way, people don’t just think I’m boring, they think God is boring! We slander God’s character if we preach with an uninspiring style or tone. The message is too important to share it with a 'take-it-or-leave it' attitude."

When asked what is the purpose of the Bible, Warren gave this response:

"Well, it says in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, 'All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished unto every good work.'

"People misread that verse most of the time. The purpose of the Bible is not for doctrine, not for reproof, correction, or instruction in righteousness.

"Those are all 'for this' in the Greek. For this, for this, for this, in order that. The purpose is in order that.

"So doctrine in itself is not the purpose of the Bible. Reproof in itself is not the purpose; correction and training are not the purposes. The bottom line is to change lives. 'That the man of God may be thoroughly furnished unto every good work.' So every message must be preaching for life change."

Editor's Note: I'm still laying the groundwork here for my expose. More to come.