Piper and Warren: Ego Endorsing Enterprise

John Piper's video on why he invited Rick Warren reveals an " I " problem.

What John Piper conveys is his confidence in his personal ability to qualify Warren's theology by asking theological questions. John Piper apparently believes that he is immune to deception because of his theological brilliance.

Smugness is revealed when John Piper laughs when he says "I’m gonna need help to know why I should feel bad about this decision."

It seems pride may be blinding John Piper's discernment.

"So I made a list"

"I think Rick Warren meant it when he began the Purpose Driven life with “It’s not about you."

"I could even tell you other things he said he’s not but that… that might offend uh… too many people."

"I… I’m uh… I’m uh… I need … I’m gonna need help to know why I should feel bad about this decision. (Laughs)"


"And uhm… I’m real eager that this glorious thing God is doing in the young, restless, reformed, whatever uh this this thing is called that God’s doing – awakening people’s love for the supremacy of God in all things – I’m real eager that that not become a… a brittle, narrow, ugly, excessively separatist movement and so I am not devoting my life to finding a lot of enemies to attack. I’ve got some and I like to do it by simply hammering on truth. I… I’m gonna hammer on truth."

"I don’t put Rick Warren in the group that I am gonna hold at arm’s distance."

"... I’m not gonna push somebody like that away when they’ve got so much to offer."

"So uh, I am not gonna draw the circle there and suppose you disagree with me on that."

"The way I have chosen to live my life for the sake of reformed theology...is to give all my energy to putting them in a positive, aggressively, uh, spreadable form...I think I have uh, got some work to do with my marriage, and my kids, and my soul, but I do not regret that approach to.. to Reformation advance."