The Blessing Rick Warren Received at His Father's Passing

Mark Ellis : Dec 13, 2017
God Reports

"One more for Jesus ... reach one more for Jesus. Save one more for Jesus!" -Jimmy Warren

(Lake Forest, CA)—[God Reports] Rick Warren's father, Jimmy, was a Baptist minister, church planter and missionary for more than 50 years. He mostly led smaller, rural churches, but he was also a skilled carpenter. One of his favorite mission activities was to construct churches overseas. (Photo: via God Reports)

"In his lifetime, he built over 150 church buildings all around the world, on every continent," Warren noted, at the recent "Finishing the Task" conference held at Saddleback Church December 5-7.

Warren went on to relate the touching story of his father's passing—a story he shared in The Purpose Driven Life—but at the conference he revealed significantly more details than were contained in the bestselling book.

Pastor Jimmy often was involved with disaster relief. "When Saddam pushed the Kurds into northern Iraq and they were all going to die because they had no water, my dad took 19 people in and built eight water wells that kept them alive," Warren recounted. When floods destroyed Guatemala following a significant earthquake, Warren's father assisted in rebuilding efforts.

After Warren's father learned he was dying of cancer, he came to Rick and said, "Son, I think I have one more church in me."

"Great, dad," Rick replied. "If you want to die with your boots on, go right ahead." He knew his father had never been the type to sit at home and watch TV. "Where's the last church you want to build?

"Siberia."

Rick now treasures his last photograph of his father – building a church in the forbidding climate of Siberia. "He's up on the roof, in the snow, in the winter, and he's nailing down the roof. That's how I remember my dad." (Photo: Jimmy Warren/via God Reports)

As the cancer reached its final stages, the family brought Pastor Jimmy to live at Rick's sister's house and they called for hospice care. "In the last week, he was hallucinating a lot," Rick recounts. "He was dreaming aloud. I sat by his bed and listened to my dad talk in his dreams. You can learn a lot about someone by listening to their dreams."

"As I sat next to him I never heard him talk about being a war hero in WWII ... I never heard him talk about the books he loved or the movies he'd seen. I never heard him talk about fishing, which he dearly loved"...

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