"The Rev. Rick Warren gave a rousing Gospel message today to a historic gathering of conservative Anglicans in Bedford, Texas.
“We stand with you in solidarity as God does something new in your midst,” said Warren, a Southern Baptist, to a standing room crowd of more than 800 people in an air-conditioned tent near St. Vincent’s Cathedral.
The Anglican Church in North America invited Warren – author of the mega-bestseller The Purpose-Driven Life, pastor of massive Saddleback Church in Orange County, Calif., and invocation-giver at Barack Obama's inauguration - to be one of the headline speakers for its first provincial assembly, which continues through Thursday.
The group formed last year as a conservative alternative to the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada.
Warren, who has offered support to clergy and congregations leaving the Episcopal Church, kept his focus on biblical imperatives to ministry and evangelism. But he did refer to lawsuits filed by the Episcopal Church against departing congregations, seeking to retain church buildings and other assets.
“You may lose the steeple, but you won’t lose the people,” he said. “The church has never been a building.”
Warren said that God had not called the new group to be “reactionary,” but instead to evangelize and help new Christians to spiritual maturity."
Source: Sam Hodges, Dallas Morning News
