Saddleback Church


Saddleback Church is a Baptist Evangelical megachurch located in Lake Forest, California, situated in southern Orange County, affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. The church has several campuses in California and around the world. Weekly church attendance averaged over 22,000 people in 2017. The senior pastor is Rick Warren.

History

In 1979, Rick Warren recently graduated in theology, settled with his wife Kay in the area of Saddleback Valley, in Orange County, California. He began to probe the people in his neighborhood to find out what prevented them from coming to church.
The answers that emerged were boredom, distance from everyday life, lack of welcome for visitors, insistence on money and inadequate programs for children. It is with these concerns that the church began in 1980, with a Bible study group, with seven people, the pastor Rick Warren and his wife, in their condo. The first worship service took place in the gymnasium of a high school on Easter Day in 1980. In 1995, it opened its main building in Lake Forest, with a 3,500-seat auditorium.
In 2017, the attendance was 22,000 people.
The Purpose Driven Church curriculum and Celebrate Recovery program were founded at Saddleback Church.

PEACE Plan

In 2003, Saddleback Church, Kay and Rick Warren founded the P.E.A.C.E. Plan, a humanitarian development program for churches.

Campuses

In 2006, the church inaugurated a second campus in San Clemente, California. Others have been opened Irvine South, Irvine North, Corona, San Juan Capistrano, Anaheim, Laguna Woods, Los Angeles, San Diego, South Bay, Newport-Mesa, Yorba Linda and 4 international campuses: South Manila, Philippines, Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, Argentina and Berlin, Germany. In addition, Saddleback offers an online worship service.

Global Summit on AIDS

In November and December 2006, Saddleback Church played host to the second annual Global Summit on AIDS and the Church. The summit featured 60 speakers, including Senators Barack Obama and Sam Brownback.

Civil Forum on the Presidency

On August 16, 2008, Rick Warren arranged a meeting between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama at Saddleback called the Civil Forum on the Presidency. The format of the forum was structured such that Warren first asked Obama a series of questions; he then asked McCain very similar ones subsequently. It was broadcast live on national news networks and streamed online. Tickets were distributed to the public through a raffle with seats listing as high as $1,000 and the event was sold out.