Part of Raymond Arroyo's interview with Rick Warren on the EWTN show World Over
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Rick Warren: He said, I know who you are. I said, how do you know who I am? He said, You’re pastor Rick. I said, How do you know who I am? He said, I download your free sermon every week. I said, now you’re in a village with no water and no electricity. How are you downloading my sermon every week? They’re putting the internet in every post office in South Africa. They’re called PITS Public Information Terminals. He said, once a week I walk an hour and a half to the nearest post office. I download your free sermon. I walk an hour back and I teach it to my people. He said, you know, Rick, you’re the only training I’ve ever had. Ray, that was a turning point in my life. I said, I’ll give the rest of my life for people like that. And I’ve spent most of the last decade in little villages around the world you’ve never heard of, helping these barefoot evangelists, these priests, these pastors, these deacons, these ministers, these bishops who are serving faithfully when I have so much and they have so little. And out of that we’ve developed the PEACE Plan, P E A C E. And it’s based on Jesus saying when you go into a village find the man of peace. And PEACE stands for plant churches, equip believers, assist the poor, care for the sick, educate, the next generation. Now today I have sent 23,869 of my members overseas to 196 nations. So we’ve done the PEACE Plan in all 196 nations.
Raymond Arroyo: When I look at this, the sweep of it, when I hear stirrings from people on the ground in these countries about your work, they all say, you know, Rick Warren is truly non-denominational. He is focused on Chriust exclusively…
Rick Warren: If you love Jesus, we’re on the same team.
Raymond Arroyo: But that’s—but this is—this is an anomaly in many areas of Christianity. But what is the obstacle do you think, keeping Christians apart and away from that unity that Christ prayed for, that John Paul II was such XXX—all the recent popes.
Rick Warren: Every one of them.
Raymond Arroyo: What is keeping these communities apart and what do you think is bringing them together?
Rick Warren: Well, I think we need to go back to the words of St. Augustine. You know, in the essentials, you know, we have unity. In the non-essentials we have liberty. And in all things we show charity. And I think this is really true. Now I think as the world becomes increasingly—particularly the Western culture—more secular, more anti-Christian. When we’re seeing the religious liberties being threatened and things like that. It is really incumbent on all Christians, of every brand and stripe that we join together on things we share in common. And when I say, do you believe in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Yes. Do you believe Jesus Christ rose? Yes. Do you believe He died on the cross? Yes. Do you believe in hell and heaven? Yes. Do you believe the Bible is God’s Word? Yes. Then we are on the same team. We might not agree on all of the minors, but we are Christians! And, here’s the thing—people don’t realize how big the church really is. It’s the largest organization on planet earth. We don’t have anything to apologize for. There are 600 million Buddhists in the world. There are 800 million Hindus in the world. There are about 1.5 billion Muslims. But there are 2.3 billion Christians who would say I believe Jesus is who He claimed to be—the Son of God. That means 1 out of every 3 people on this planet. The church is bigger than China. The church is bigger than China and India put together. Nothing as big and we have more outlets. I could take you to 10 million villages around the world, the only thing in it is a church. That’s why, there is no global problem—poverty, disease, illiteracy, whatever—that can be solved without the church.