Leaders & Money

Money and the Church are two things that society regards as a very dangerous combination. When someone comes along who demonstrates otherwise, it's noteworthy.

Recently Rick Warren was interviewed by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. I thought what he shared about how he handles his own personal finances was outstanding. It's important for us to get this area right in our lives. Here's what Rick had to say in the interview.

WARREN: I actually retired when the book came out. Most of you know that I tithe 90 percent. When you write the best-selling book in English history, second to the Bible - The Purpose Driven Life is the most translated book in the world except for the Bible. It's in over a hundred languages. Friends, it's tens of millions of dollars. The income is tens of millions of dollars.

It actually scared me and I thought, wait a minute: I'm a pastor; I'm pretty simple. If I've got a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, I don't need anything else - good T-shirt. And when you write a book and the first sentence of the book is, "It's not about you," then you figure the money is not for you. So I knew that all this money coming in was not to be used by me. So Kay and I made five decisions - this was seven years ago - what to do with these tens of millions of dollars. One -

CROMARTIE: Get rid of the Hawaiian shirts.

WARREN: Yeah. One, we said we're not going to spend it on ourselves. We're not going to change our lifestyle one bit. I still live in the same house I've lived in for 17 years. I drive a 10-year-old Ford truck. I bought my watch at Wal-Mart. I don't own a boat, I don't own a plane, I don't own a vacation home. I didn't want to be a televangelist. That's why I've never gone on television. Of the largest churches in America, I think I'm the only one not on TV because I don't like that lifestyle.

The second thing is seven years ago I stopped taking a salary from Saddleback Church, so I effectively retired.

Third is I added up all that the church had paid me in 25 years and I gave it all back. I knew I was being put under the spotlight, and I never wanted anybody to think that I do what I do for money. I don't. I do it because I love Jesus Christ. That's why I do it. And I love people. It's why I do what I do.

It's really funny because the very next week I was interviewed - it was either Time or Newsweek sent somebody over for an article, and the first question was, what's your salary? I thought, this is going to be good. Here is some fat cat megachurch pastor ripping off the flock. I just looked at her and I said, well, actually, I've served my church for free for 25 years. Got her. Oh, that felt good. Now I had to repent of my pride later but it felt good for about five minutes. (Laughter.)

Then we set up three foundations, our three charities. One is Acts of Mercy, which works with people infected and affected by AIDS. One is called Equipping Leaders, which - as I travel around the world, like these trips I'm doing, I pay for it all myself. I haven't taken an honorarium in 10 years. I pay for it all myself, and I take my team with me and I pay for them. And then the P.E.A.C.E. Plan. Then the last thing we did is we became reverse tithers.

CROMARTIE: What's the third foundation?

WARREN: The P.E.A.C.E. Plan. It's not a foundation; it's a 501(c)(3) charity, the P.E.A.C.E. Plan. And lots of churches are involved in that.

But the fifth thing I did is I became a reverse tither. When Kay and I got married 35 years ago, we started giving 10 percent of our income away. The Bible calls that tithing, charity. At the end of our first year, we raised our tithe to 11 percent. At the end of our second year, we raised our tithe to 12 percent. At the end of our third year of marriage, we raised our tithe to 13 percent.

Now the Bible doesn't teach us - in fact, we didn't tell anybody about it for 30 years because we weren't doing it to impress anybody. We did it because every time I give, it breaks the grip of materialism in my life. Every time I give, I become more generous. Every time I give, my heart grows bigger. Every time I give, I become more like Jesus Christ, who is my model.

Over the years, every time we would have a tough financial year, we would raise our giving maybe a quarter of a percent. When I'd get a raise, I would raise it 4 or 5 percent. And now, after 35 years of marriage, Kay and I give away 90 percent of our income and live on 10. I take no salary; I just live on the royalties of the best-selling book of all time, but I live on 10 percent - 10 percent of it - and I give away 90.

That has been so much fun, and I've played this game with God for 35 years. God says, you give to me and I'll give to you and we'll see who wins, and I've lost every year. I'm not talking about material gain. I don't even believe in the, quote, "prosperity" gospel. It's a heresy. It's a heresy. Don't ever put an adjective in front of "gospel." There is no social gospel. There is no prosperity gospel. There is no political gospel. There is just the Gospel, and so don't pervert it. But that has been so much fun.