I'm Warren Smith and today you'll be listening in on part one of my two-part conversation

with pastor, writer, and ministry leader, Rick Warren.

In God's Garden of Grace, even broken trees bear fruit.

And we're all broken trees, Warren.

I'm a broken tree.

If God only used perfect people, nothing would get done.

For most people who have been around evangelicalism for a while, Rick Warren needs no introduction.

He and his wife K founded Saddleback Church in Orange County, California in 1980, and

it has become one of the largest and most influential churches in the nation.

Rick Warren's 2002 book, The Purpose Driven Life, has sold more than 50 million copies,

making it one of the best-selling books of all time.

And his work as a pastor and author are, in fact, just the beginning.

Rick Warren was instrumental in the development of PEPFAR, the US government's $15 billion

AIDS relief package that was credited with saving tens of millions of lives.

He was an advisor to George W. Bush, and he delivered the invocation at Brock Obamas

inauguration.

Time, Newsweek, and US News and World Report have all named him at various times to their

list of the most influential people in the world.

I've interviewed Rick Warren for listening in before, back in 2014, near the beginning

of this program's life.

It was one of the first public interviews he gave following the death of his son Matthew.

Today we do talk about that time in his life and about Matthew, but this conversation is

...