I didn’t come to connect with churches, but it turns out I am staying only a couple of miles away from Saddleback Church, one of America’s most influential mega-churches. So I thought I’d go and check them out. Rick Warren (from “Purpose Driven Life”) pastors this church which see’s about 20,000 attending services each week.

I got a meeting with Pastor Abraham Mevleneerg from International Missions (I think they put me onto him because I was from overseas – as they had no-one on staff focusing on apologetics). The meeting wasn’t very fruitful – I found he had a rather blinkered, oversimplified and misunderstood perception of what apologetics was, and thus wasn’t able to appreciate my vision.

Despite having “more than 200 ministries, eight worship venues, a variety of counselling and support programs, bible studies and seminars, local and global outreach programs, and a broad network of small groups” there was a glaring lack of any apologetics/worldview/scholarly activities – which was a real shame for such an influential church.

I attended their Thursday night college-age service called Crave which I personally found very satisfying (some really great Spirit-filled worship and fantastically well-equipped facilities! I don’t think they realise how lucky they are).

I spent some time talking to random 18-25 year olds and found (as I was expecting) a strong desire for the intellectual pursuit of God. I was writing down website links and names of people and ministries and handing them out as they were asking where they could learn more. It’s a real shame the leadership there haven’t recognised and fed this passion – I guess such things take time.