Rick Warren, best-selling author of The Purpose Driven Life: What On Earth Am I Here For? and founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., announced on Wednesday the Easter Sunday launch of Daily Hope with Rick Warren circadian (M-F) national radio programming. This includes a 25-minute program and one-minute teaching spots, to begin Monday, April 1.
The half-hour daily program will feature a practical, applicable and meaningful message from Scripture by Warren, intended to encourage, equip and train people to fulfill God’s purposes for their life. The daily 60-second teaching spots address timely issues and topics.
“For 32 years, I said ‘no’ to radio because I felt God called me to preach to my local congregation rather than compete with other local churches for a national audience,” said Warren. “But one year ago, He began to put a burden on my heart and a passion for broadcast ministry, born from three deep convictions.
“First, in the wake of a weak economic recovery from recession, a high rate of joblessness, natural disasters, painful school shootings and gridlock among political leaders, America is discouraged,” said Warren. “With the coarsening of our society, there is a clear loss of civility, and more than ever before, people need to hear a message of hope found in the Gospel.
“Secondly, I am deeply concerned about the erosion of our first right of religious liberty in America, which needs to be protected,” Warren continued. “On every front—school campuses, businesses, hospitals and even churches—secularists in government are increasingly trying to limit, undermine and even outlaw historic protections of our religious freedoms, which will likely become the civil rights issue of the next decade.
“Thirdly, taking the gospel to the ends of the earth is our greatest goal, including reaching the remaining 2,900 unengaged tribes and people groups who have yet to hear that message,” Warren concluded. “The Daily Hope radio program can expose listeners to the potential of involving themselves or their church in the PEACE Plan to help accomplish our ’20/20 Vision’ to reach every last tribe with the gospel and a church by the year 2020.”
Daily Hope will initially launch in both local and major markets across America with plans to expand rapidly. It will also be carried across the country on Sirius XM Satellite Radio’s Family Talk Channel.
Extending The PEACE PLAN
Warren explained that he has been leading Saddleback Church in incremental steps toward that objective for more than a decade. One preliminary goal was to send 20,000 members to each of the world’s 196 nations on earth by the year 2010 to make disciples, as commanded in Scripture. In the process they have also planted churches, equipped leaders, assisted the poor, cared for the sick and educated the next generation—something no other church has been able to accomplish.
This year, the church is establishing 12 Saddleback churches and “base camps,” in major cities in regions of the world, from which they can send out teams to unengaged people groups. These include London, Berlin, Moscow, Amman, Freetown, Johannesburg, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Tokyo, Manila, Hong Kong and Bangalore.
“I intend to go on the radio around the world and in those cities to be ‘the air force,'” Warren explained. “We want to use radio to share a message of hope in these 12 cities, but I believe in order to do that, we need to first have a similar radio presence in the United States that will reach our own hurting nation.”
Daily Hope Ministries provides hope in many forms, including a half-hour Bible teaching program, called Daily Hope with Rick Warren, in which Pastor Warren will share a meaningful, practical and applicable message from Scripture to encourage, equip and train people to fulfill God’s purposes for their lives.
Founded in 1980 by Rick and Kay Warren, Saddleback Church is located in Orange County, Calif. With an average weekly attendance of 22,000, it is one of the five largest churches in America. For more information visit Saddleback.com.
