Saddleback Church

Saddleback Church
Saddleback Valley Community Church

The driveway to Saddleback Church's regional campus in Rancho Capistrano.
Location Lake Forest, California
Country United States
Denomination Southern Baptist Convention
Website www.saddleback.com
History
Founder(s) Rick Warren, Kay Warren
Architecture
Style Contemporary/Modern
Administration
Division California Southern Baptist Convention
Clergy
Senior pastor(s) Rick Warren

Saddleback Church is an evangelical Christian megachurch located in Lake Forest, California, situated in southern Orange County, affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. The church was founded in 1980 by Pastor Rick Warren. Weekly church attendance averages over 20,000 people, currently making it the seventh-largest church in the United States (this ranking includes multi-site churches).[1]

Saddleback Church currently has 9 regional campuses (not including the Lake Forest campus): San Clemente, Irvine South, Irvine North, Corona, Huntington Beach, San Juan Capistrano, Anaheim (The Grove), Laguna Woods, Los Angeles and 4 international campuses: South Manila, Philippines, Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, Argentina and Berlin, Germany. Several more campuses are planned in the next few years. In addition, Saddleback is "virtually" attended online by those around the country and the world who watch and listen to worship services on demand.[2]

Notable staff include Rick Warren, Kay Warren and Rick Muchow. Saddleback is known for their signature ministries such as Celebrate Recovery, AIDS/HIV Ministry, Daniel Plan Ministry and PEACE Ministry.

History

Saddleback's first public service was held on Palm Sunday, March 30, 1980 with 40 people in attendance at the Laguna Hills High School Theater. Just one week later, on Easter Sunday, 240 were in attendance. Warren's church growth methods led to rapid growth and the church has used nearly eighty different facilities in its 30-year history, including the Laguna Hills HS Theater and Trabuco Hills High School Gymnasium.

Saddleback did not build its first permanent building until it had 10,000 weekly attenders. When the current Lake Forest campus was purchased in the early 1990s, a 2,300-seat plastic tent was used for worship services for several years, with four services each weekend. In 1995, the current Worship Center was completed with a seating capacity of 3,500. The Children's Ministry Center (housing the "Saddleback Kids" ministry) and staff office building were completed over the next few years. In 2008, former Pastor of Life Development, Doug Fields, saw his dream of over 15 years come to fruition with the completion of the Refinery, Saddleback's first permanent student ministry facility. Costing $20 million, the state-of-the-art facility is considered the premier student ministry facility in the world. The Refinery houses Saddleback's middle school ministry (Wildside), high school ministry (HSM), college ministry (Crave), and young adults ministry, (Fuel). Since moving into the Refinery, all the student ministries have seen tremendous growth, with more than 2,500 young people attending services in the facility each week. The Refinery was built using the resources and voluntary giving raised through the "Extending the Vision" campaign.[3][4]

The Purpose Driven Church (PDC) curriculum[5] and Celebrate Recovery program[6] were founded at Saddleback Church.

Lake Forest Campus

Saddleback Church's main campus located in Lake Forest, California has multiple facilities to meet every church attendee's needs.

The church's main services are held in the Worship Center on the upper portion of the campus. For high school and middle school students, the Refinery is located on lower campus. Elementary and preschool age students have a Children's Ministry building also on lower campus.

The Lake Forest campus also hosts a bookstore, amphitheater, fitness course, multi-use tents and portables, as well as two office buildings.

The Lake Forest campus hosts services at 4:00 and 6:00 pm on Saturdays and 9:00, 11:00, 1:00 and 6:00 on Sundays.

Global Summit on AIDS and the Church

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 Sen. Obama a series of questions; he then asked Sen. McCain very similar ones subsequently. Held inside Saddleback's Worship Center, the event is notable as the first time the two Presidential candidates met during the campaign. 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.[7][8]

See also

References and notes

  1. ↑ "Mega Church Statistics". Statistic Brain. 2012-02-23. Retrieved 2012-06-22.
  2. ↑ "Saddleback Church Online". Online Campus. Saddleback Church. Retrieved 2015-03-11.
  3. ↑ "The Refinery". Saddleback family. Retrieved 2010-09-29.
  4. ↑ ETV (PDF) (newsletter) (1), Saddleback family.
  5. ↑ "What is Purpose Driven?". Purpose Driven. Retrieved 2007-09-01.
  6. ↑ Warren, Pastor Richard ‘Rick’. "Message". Celebrate Recovery Website. Archived from the original on 2007-12-02. Retrieved 2007-12-18.
  7. ↑ Barboza, Tony (July 21, 2008). "John McCain, Barack Obama will appear together at Orange County church". The Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2008-07-22. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
  8. ↑ "Saddleback Civil Forum". Retrieved 2010-09-29.

External links

Coordinates: 33°39′48″N 117°38′51″W / 33.663291°N 117.6473844°W / 33.663291; -117.6473844

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