Saddleback Church

TRAVEL BY NIC…….The Perpetual Tourist!

 

Saddleback Church – 1 Saddleback Pkwy, Lake Forest, CA

So what better place to spend Easter then at Saddleback Church?!  Saddleback Church is world famous as the Purpose Driven Church.  Rick Warren is the Senior Pastor and author of the Purpose Driven Life.  Right away you will be in awe of the beautiful campus.  Everywhere you look, you’ll find regal palms, little streams, green grassy knolls, grottos and beautiful flowers everywhere.  But beyond the visual beauty you get a sense of love and caring from the people.

Saddleback Church in listed as one of the top 5 largest churches in the USA, but I didn’t really feel that.  The Worship Center seats around 3000, but you will find several comfortable outdoor patio areas to watch the service.  They also have several venues going on while the live service was going on.  By “venues”, it just means different types of music.  They have one venue that plays rock & roll Christian music, another that sings hymns, and finally a praise venue that has a choir and offer gospel choruses.  So the music is live and the message that is going on in the Worship Center is cued up to play in the different venues.

 

Saddleback also has 12 local campuses!  Some of those are even way bigger then my home church in Kansas!  Three of their local campus’s had over 3000 people on Easter.  It is also exciting to see that Saddleback will be launching international church locations!

This is an active church.  I would challenge anyone to not find something going on every night of the week.  As of today they offer 2 Saturday night services, 2 Sunday morning services and 1 Sunday night service that caters to the 20 something.  Besides having a plethora of different bible studies to choose from, they have Zumba classes, fitness classes, art studio, creative dance, and the list goes on & on.  The church has thousands of volunteers that keep the church moving & shaking.  They have volunteers that operate their video cameras during the service, production teams, greeters, tram drivers, traffic volunteers, ushers, teachers, medical people, again I am in awe at how the people of this church have a servants heart.

Your children will LOVE attending classes here.  They have a nursery building and a Children’s building for kids in grades 1^st – 6^th.  Each floor has a bright fun common area where the kids gather together and do FUN kid worshiping, and then they divide out into class rooms.  The security is handled very well.  You are issued a “swipe ”card that is to be used every time you check your child in and out.  The Refinery is THE place for the pre-teen & teens.  To keep the teens busy……skate park, basket ball, pool tables, games, café, burger place…..you name it….whatever a teen enjoys can be found at the Refinery.  AGAIN, for you nay-sayers, that’s all attractive to the teens, but I’ve seen a lot of lives changed in that building.  They are building future leaders of faith every day.  The Refinery is also a community building of sorts.  It has cafes, burgers and eventually a pizza parlor.  Adults share the building for all kinds of events, the football viewing comes to mind!  Sports fans gather together to watch football in the auditorium which has state of the art screens!

Have you ever heard of Celebrate Recovery?  That recovery program was started by John Baker from Saddleback Church.  It is a HUGE programs that helps people with their hurts, hang up, and additions.  Besides supporting a local Celebrate Recovery that occurs every Friday, this program also offers 1 day conferences all over the USA and a Summit that lasts for 3 days on the Lake Forest campus.  People from all over the world emerge on this church for the CR Summit.  The testimony of changed lives will touch your heart strings guaranteed! 

They have a building on the campus the represents their “local” Peace plan.    That building houses a food pantry, and medical a medical clinic.  I love that they also provide counseling to people in need.

So if you’re looking for a church to visit that preaches the word of God from the bible I encourage you to visit this beautiful church.  I think you’ll run into several beautiful souls there!