‘Purpose-Driven’ Success

We’ve already written about the astounding success of the Reverend Rick Warren’s “The Purpose-Driven Life” – as well as the way in which the mainstream press has generally overlooked the book – but with the celebration of a recent milestone, the point bears repeating.Earlier this week, Zondervan and HarperCollins threw a party at the Rainbow Room to celebrate sales of more than 20 million copies of the book in North America. (The figure includes 1 million Spanish-language copies.) That’s roughly equivalent to having three “The DaVinci Codes” on your list.It’s such a big milestone that even News Corp.’s CEO, Rupert Murdoch, was there (and Rev. Warren referred him casually as “Rupert”). As Mr. Murdoch told the group, “When one of our authors sells a million books, we think he’s a genius.” He added, to much laughter, “When a book sells 20 million copies, we think we’re geniuses.”The most gracious Rev. Warren was quick to credit the team members at Zondervan as the true geniuses. They were the ones who pushed him to write the book, as the second part of a two book contract. Rev. Warren says his first book, “The Purpose-Driven Church,” which sold a mere 1 million copies, was the book he really wanted to write. “A Purpose-Driven Life” is the book that Zondervan wanted from him.A whole team of geniuses has been at work trying to figure out how to take the book’s astonishing success and push it further still. It turns out the subtitle of this best-seller is “What on Earth Am I Here For?,” though the type is so small I had never noticed it before. Rev. Warren’s message to the crowd was that the book “is a message not for religious people; it’s a message for our culture.” As he put it, “I want to help people find significance.” Members of his publishing team were repeating the point that they see the book as not just for churchgoing Christians but for people of all faiths interested in big questions like “the meaning of life.”In fact, Rev. Warren’s team is working on new presentations of his work, including something they refer to as “Purpose-Driven Lite,” that put the big questions front and center. Genius indeed, particularly because if you start reading the book, it makes pretty clear the idea that “You were put here to prepare for eternity” – and the first thing God wants to know is, “Did you accept what Jesus did for you and did you learn to love and trust him?”

‘Purpose-Driven’ Success

‘Purpose-Driven’ Success

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