Christian evangelical pastor Rick Warren has had quite a year. And it’s about to get a little crazier.

The author of best-selling book The Purpose Driven Life and the controversial man who prayed at the presidential inauguration is now launching a magazine.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Reader’s Digest is launching Purpose Driven Connection, a quarterly magazine to be bundled  with social media including a Facebook-type Christian site and DVD guides for prayer group leaders.

If Ministry Today’s predictions are correct, then Warren is on the right track. The ministry mag recently issued an article warning pastors that personality-driven ministry is out – and new connections like social media are in:

“When it comes to churches and ministries, simply upgrading your graphics, music and lighting and dumping the tacky onstage furniture isn’t a strategy. That’s just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. You need a fundamental “rethink” of what story your station, church or ministry is trying to tell, what that means to your audience, how to connect with that audience and why it’s absolutely urgent they respond right now…Understanding that connection is a critical step in finding your audience and reaching the next generation.”

Copyright 2009, Religion Transcends.

Filed under: Christianity, Protestantism