Pastor Rick Warren, author of the best-selling book, The Purpose Driven Life, and his wife, Kay, spoke about their grief after the loss of their son, Matthew, and their unfailing hope in God during the Saddleback Church founders’ first time back at the pulpit since their son’s suicide nearly four months ago. …read more
Source: The Christian Post
Alan and Phil Robertson of A&E’s “Duck Dynasty” preached at Saddleback Church on Sunday as part of the megachurch’s “Follow Me” series. The Robertsons spoke about the success of their business, their personal lives and how God restored them from their past. …read more
Source: The Christian Post
Pastor Rick Warren is scheduled to preach at Saddleback Church in Southern California next weekend, marking his return to the pulpit about three months after he lost his 27-year-old son. …read more
Source: The Christian Post
Authorities say autopsy results show that the son of popular megachurch pastor Rick Warren died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said Monday that 27-year-old Matthew Warren died at about 10 a.m. on Friday.
Amormino says the ruling was also based on evidence found at the scene.
To whom the weapon belonged to is still unclear. The Warrens said in an email on Saturday that their son struggled with deep depression and suicidal thoughts.
The elder Warren founded Saddleback Church in 1980, and watched it grow to 20,000 members and several campuses. In 2002, he published the multimillion-selling book “The Purpose Driven Life.”
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
Members of Rick Warren‘s Southern California church began Sunday services with a prayer for the popular evangelical pastor, as he and his family coped with the apparent suicide of his 27-year-old son.
Tom Holladay, teaching pastor at Saddleback Church in Orange County, opened the 9 a.m. worship service by saying the congregation would face the tragedy together, “as a church family.”
Holladay led a prayer for Warren and his wife, Kay, and their two other children.
The lead pastor was not in attendance Sunday, the day after the church announced that Matthew Warren took his own life at his Mission Viejo home.
The church said the younger Warren struggled with mental illness, deep depression and suicidal thoughts throughout his life.
He was the youngest Rick Warren‘s three children.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP‘s earlier story is below.
Popular evangelical Pastor Rick Warren asked members of his Southern California church for prayers as he and his family coped with the apparent suicide of his 27-year-old son.
The church said on Saturday that Matthew Warren took his own life at his Mission Viejo home.
Matthew Warren struggled with mental illness, deep depression and suicidal thoughts throughout his life, Saddleback Valley Community Church said in a statement, after his body was found Friday night.
“Despite the best health care available, this was an illness that was never fully controlled and the emotional pain resulted in his decision to take his life,” the church said.
Allison O’Neal, a supervising deputy coroner for Orange County, declined to release the cause and manner of death pending an autopsy of the young man.
Rick Warren, the author of the multimillion-selling book “The Purpose Driven Life,” said in an email to church staff that he and his wife had enjoyed a fun Friday evening with their son. But their son then returned home to take his life in “a momentary wave of despair.”
Over the years, Matthew Warren had been treated …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
By The Huffington Post News Editors
In an emotional letter to his church members, megachurch pastor Rick Warren of Lake Forest, Calif.-based Saddleback Church told them that his youngest son has committed suicide.
“At 27 years of age, Matthew was an incredibly kind, gentle and compassionate young man whose sweet spirit was encouragement and comfort to many,” Warren, the popular author of The Purpose Driven Life, said in the letter. “Unfortunately, he also suffered from mental illness resulting in deep depression and suicidal thoughts.”
Matthew, the youngest of three children of Warren and his wife Kay, killed himself Friday, the evangelical pastor said in the letter which described his son “an incredibly kind, gentle and compassionate young man whose sweet spirit was encouragement and comfort to many.”
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post