“I invited him because I want to find out what makes him tick!”

Updated 4-1: Today’s Desiring God blog contains links to the audio of a recent talk John Piper had with members of his church that dealt with the question of the Rick Warren inviation, and also a link to a YouTube video on the topic.

A number of people have asked about John Piper’s decision to invite Rick Warren. Here is a 12 minute clip from last night’s Ask Pastor John session where he addresses that question and explains why he thinks it will be good for Rick to come. (A slightly shorter version is available on YouTube).

Original Story:
During a Question and Answer period following a message in February to an Urban Ministry conference in Los Angeles hosted by Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church, and attended by mostly black pastors, a recording was made and was put on Piper’s Desiring God website in early March.

Apparently almost no one listened to the recording, for only in the past few days did the news break – at least in the blogs – that during the Q&A, in fielding questions about the Emergent Church (for which Piper indicated he had little use) – the name Rick Warren came up.

In response to the question, ‘What do you think about Rick Warren’, Piper answers, and what follows here is a paraphrase:

· I don’t think Rick is Emergent, at least not fully. Mark Driscoll has just visited Rick’s church and preached on the Cross and Rick was greatly moved by the sermon.

· I’m going to tell you something here tonight that will probably get criticism from some of my Reformed brothers – but I have invited Rick to speak at the Annual Conference this fall, and he has accepted.

· Reformed men are critical of Rick not so much because he speaks out against Reformed theology, but rather because he doesn’t wear his theology on his sleeve. I think he is closer to me (Piper) than he is to Arminians.

· We know Rick as a great pragmatist, but we don’t know much about his theology.

· I explained to Rick that the theme for the conference was “Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God” and that I want you to speak on the topic “Why Thinking Biblically Matters To You”

· Rick comes across as results oriented, but he would not be so successful if he did not have a Biblical foundation.

· I met Rick last year (2009) at Ralph Winters funeral. We spent 3 hours sitting together on the platform. I like Rick because he sings. He sings badly, and anyone who sings badly and loves to sing is someone I like.

· Rick told me that every year he reads all he can from one theologian. That year Rick said he was reading everything from Jonathan Edwards. I told him, Rick, there is nothing about you that would have made me believe that! But he really does read theology.

· Actually, at his core, I think he is deeply theological. Not emergent. I think he has a sound doctrine.

· So I invited him to speak. I want to find out what makes him tick!

To listen to the Q&A, go to the Desiring God blog at http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/

At the very bottom of the page (it is a long one), click the next button at the far right to page 5.

Scroll about halfway down the page to the March 4th entry entitled: Piper Audio from the West Coast

Within this entry find the link to ‘Q&A Session With Urban Pastors’. Click on listen and let the marker cross the site one full time (downloading the full file) and then move the marker to about the 75% complete mark. After a discussion on the Health and Wealth Gospel, he is asked about who he listens to and names some names. Then a question is asked, and Piper’s first word is “Wow! That’s a good question” This is where the discussion on Warren starts.

My thanks to regular reader Andy Barnes who gave me the tip on this story and pointed me to the audio.

[Editor’s note: Some of the original URLs (links) referenced in this article are no longer valid, so the links have been removed.]