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Every time the Word of God has been taken into a new technology, there is renewal, revival, or a reformation. Now we've got the Internet. I can talk to somebody in Sri Lanka as easily as I can talk to you. PEACE is also a network in which local churches can now work with each other instead of being in denominational silos. It allows collaboration in global missions that we could never have done before.

Scholars and critics of the PEACE Plan say it has the same limitations as short-term missions in not significantly improving the lives of needy people or bringing lasting change in the lives of ministry volunteers.

We expect criticism. Any time you are starting a new way, the existing organization is going to oppose it. We talk about six renewals: personal, relational, cultural, structural, missional, and institutional. Institutions are never the source of innovation. The purpose of institutions is to preserve the innovation of the previous generation. Now there's nothing wrong with that. The purpose of an institution is to preserve continuity and not to create new things. Look at a tree: all of the growth happens on the newest branches. I see things like seminaries and institutions as the trunk. But the new fruit is going to be out there on the new branches.

Are you talking about more synergy and creative tension between innovators and institutions?

That's exactly what I'm talking about. The institutions' role is to provide stability, continuity, and historical memory. Christianity is not rootless. The PEACE Plan is not really new. It's going back to the first century. So rather than spending time attacking the PEACE Plan or saying, "Well, it's not going to work," how about lending your expertise? Or, "Here's the lesson of history that you might want to remember, and by the way, here were some of the mistakes that came along in previous efforts."

The role of NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] has been vital. But it's a drop in the bucket compared to what we could be doing if we had mobilized the entire church. The parachurch needs to support the church. Unfortunately, for many years, it has been the opposite. The church supported the NGO, provided money, provided members, provided creativity. The NGO got credit.

Get down to the bottom line. Who gets the credit? Who gets strengthened? Who's the hero? Not Saddleback Church, not the PEACE Plan. We want the local church in a village to be the hero. The more I honor the church, the more God blesses me.

Copyright © 2008 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Christianity Today covered the presidential forum on our politics blog and wrote about the PEACE plan earlier this year.

More coverage of the PEACE plan is in our special section on Rick Warren and Rwanda.

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October 2008, Vol. 52, No. 10