Saddleback Church (Rick Warren)
Major California evangelical megachurch founded by Rick Warren (1980). 'Purpose Driven Life' best-seller. 2023 SBC disfellowship over female associate-pastor ordination.
CLCI radar
BITE breakdown
0 — major evangelical megachurch; mainstream low-control reference.
Profile facts
In context
Saddleback Church is one of the largest US evangelical megachurches. Rick Warren's 'The Purpose Driven Life' (2002) sold 50+ million copies. SBC disfellowshipped Saddleback in 2023 after Warren ordained women as pastors.
Recovery resources
- ICSA (International Cultic Studies Association) — General referral and cult-aware therapist directory.
- INFORM (Information Network on Religious Movements) — LSE-founded UK research-based information service covering new religious movements.
- Freedom of Mind Resource Center — Steven Hassan's organisation; BITE-model resources and family-side exit guidance.
See the full curated list at /resources.
Evidence by BITE axis
- mainstream low-control reference
Timeline
- 1980Saddleback founded by Warren
- 2002'Purpose Driven Life' published
- 2023SBC disfellowships Saddleback
Evidence matrix
Structured sources cross-linked to the claims they document. Tiered per the source hierarchy. For free-text citations see the Sources section below.
| Title | Type | Reliability | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Cellular Church | Journalism | Secondary | — |
| Southern Baptists expel Saddleback megachurch over female pastor | Journalism | Secondary | — |
| Offering Ministry, and Early Release, to Prisoners | Journalism | Secondary | — |
| Southern Baptists say no to women pastors, uphold expulsion of Saddleback megachurch · archive | Journalism | Secondary | — |
Sources
- Various Rick Warren publications search ↗
- The Cellular Church — https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/09/12/the-cellular-church open ↗
- Southern Baptists expel Saddleback megachurch over female pastor — https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/22/southern-baptist-saddleback-church-stacie-wood open ↗
- Offering Ministry, and Early Release, to Prisoners — https://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/10/us/offering-ministry-and-early-release-to-prisoners.html open ↗
- Southern Baptists say no to women pastors, uphold expulsion of Saddleback megachurch — https://www.npr.org/2023/06/14/1182141691/southern-baptist-convention-sbc-women-pastors-saddleback-megachurch open ↗
We cite sources by name and outlet rather than fabricating links. Where a source includes its own URL, the open ↗ link opens it directly; otherwise search ↗runs a Google Scholar query for the cited title — useful for verifying academic sources. For news outlets, search the outlet's own archive.
Change history
Substantive edits logged per the score-updates policy.
- 2026-05-29Phase 1 Batch J: per-group recovery resources applied via programmatic palette (closest-fit by category + subCategory + score). Palette: Mainstream-comparator lighter.
- 2026-05-20Score band scheme migrated from 4 bands to 5 (Minimal 0–5 / Low 6–12 / Moderate 13–20 / High 21–30 / Extreme 31–40). No CLCI value changed; the new Minimal band was carved out of the bottom of the previous Low band.
Key terms in this profile
Relevant hubs
Curated entry points on CLCI Hub for situations connected to this group.
You may also want to explore
Found something wrong on this profile?
We accept correction requests from anyone — current and former members, researchers, journalists, family members, and the listed organisation. Submissions are reviewed by an editor; we do not auto-publish.