I found this book both uplifting and comforting.

My Bible Study group of six close friends went off our tried and true path for study and chose to study this book for the past three months. It prompted much discussion and introspective thinking about our faith and our role and responsibility as Christians.

There are many interesting thoughts to take from this study. For example, he suggests that the goal of worship is to bring glory to God rather than to please ourselves and so anything if done with exuberance, love and dedication could be seen as worship. - even cleaning house, ironing, raising children, employment, kindnesses done for others, etc. But he does also emphasize the benefits of collective worship as a member of a church community.

He also emphasizes the benefits of small group study for encouragement and discussion. My small group has been studying together for over five years now. We have formed a bond that goes beyond mere friendship. While I did not necessarily agree with everything in this book, it certainly provided much food for thought and was well based in Scripture.

The church my fiancée and I go to is doing a financial class based on Rick Warren's "A Purpose Driven Life". Contrasting to what may be popular belief, Rick Warren is not liberal, he is in between liberalism and conservatism. He is a theologian who works to help others, not to make his works seem like the Bible. That is absolute nonsense. Someone very close to me has also read this book and recommended it to me, and I have to say, I am not disappointed. His devotionals are also beneficial. He is no deceitful individual, and has trustworthy applications.

Now, the financial part of his lessons give the individual some wisdom on how one believes God would have them spend their money. It is quite enlightening and something that we all need to consider and act on. His lessons are important and I would highly recommend him to any and everyone interested in learning about how, for one, they believe what God wants them to do with their money, and advice and wisdom on what God wants us to do with our lives.

I suppose this book can be genuinely helpful to some people (Scott Peterson, Brian Nichols, Fidel Castro, for example have all apparently benefited from this book), but it was uninteresting to me from the get-go. I went into it with an open mind, and hoped to gain some spiritual insight from it. However, when the book immediately recommended The Purpose-Driving Journal, The Purpose-Driven Calendar, Daily Inspiration for the Purpose-Driven Life, not to mention The Purpose Driven Life DVD Study Guide and The Purpose-Driven Life - Commuter Edition, I began to sense that despite the authors' good intentions the book has become a commercial monster of (dare I say) Biblical proportions, and I couldn't bear to be a part of it. Maybe someday I will calm down and be able to finish it. But I'll have to remember to get myself a leather-bound $15.00 Purpose-Driven Life Deluxe Journal beforehand!!

Actually, to be blunt and honest, this book was a lot better than I was expecting. Recommended.

Rick Warren's book is excellent, but I always have just a bit of a hard time with a man of the clothe telling us we all need to do more for the missions, fellowships, and ministry. I beleive that everyone will have a purpose in life if they put everything they have into following God-. We all can't be missionarys, and don't worry about bills and a job. We all can't be as lucky as the author and give God what he's asking for. If we could then we'd all be ministers, priests and pastors-there would be no reason for any other type of profession or way to make a living. Even though God should always be our first priority, that's not always the case. Because I can't drop everything and go help a third world country doesn't mean I'm not a Christian, and want to do for others. I'm the best person I can possible be without turning into a hardship case of my own. I want to stress-I do for others as much as humanly possible, and I don't want any reader of this book to think their best just isn't good enough. Keep a pure heart and strive to always do better without damaging your self in the process.

Just no. I hated this book so much that the moment I finished listening to it I felt that there is God somewhere who says to me "I am so sorry for that book, I had nothing to do with that preachy guy".
The book was so preachy, I didn't like the narrative that God has already decided what we are going to do and how we are going to conquer it. This is like Jehovah's witness type of shit. I won't call myself either an Atheist or full on believer, I'm in the middle. Maybe there is God, maybe not. I hope there is one, since that would be cool

I've heard a lot of things about this book especially from my mom who made this her most favorite. It intrigued me to know if what the people around me said was true. And now, thanks to a friend of my mom's, gave me a hardcover format of this book (which I'm very thankful for I think it deserves to be bought a copy).
I've read the preface and some introductory notes from the author recommending I shall read a chapter per day and join him in a journey of 40 days of finding purpose.
I already signed the covenant with my mom and will now start my voyage of 40 days. I'm really expecting a lot and I wish I'll be able to find out God's purpose for me. :)

I don't even know where to begin with this book... It has been suggested that the information provided within is "Christian" in its delivery... Though, I would suggest to you that everything in this world that refers to itself as Christian is not necessarily so...

Simply because a book includes Bible verses does not mean that those verses have anything to do with what the Word of God is commanding of those who would follow Him... Marilyn Manson's song lyrics contain scripture, however, no one in their right mind would ever even suggest that his music has anything to do with "God's Plan."

Based upon the idea that 40 days is some sort of spiritually significant span of time in God's Daytimer, this book encourages it's readers to embark on a sort of 40-day study into what God's plan is for you...

What's dangerous about this book, in my opinion, is that it professes to hold some sort of secret about God and His desire for mankind, that perhaps He has not clearly revealed in His Word... The scripture that Rick Warren uses to make his points, and state his case that we should be a "purpose driven" people, seeking out a more "church driven" life, is simply mis-used as many of the books of Mr. Warren's contemporaries, such as Joel Osteen and T.D. Jakes. Both "megachurch" pastors publishing works that encourage their readers and followers to seek out their "divine purpose" so that they can "do more and be more" for Jesus...

We are to repent of our sins, and trust in Christ - love God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength - and love our neighbor as ourselves... And go into the whole world, and preach the gospel to all of creation... That is our purpose, plain and simple... If anyone calling themselves a follower of Christ wants to know what more is required of them as a believer, they merely need open the Word of God, not the next Prayer of Jabez.

I believe, this book was written to change the life of the reader, it gives answers to every questions you're asking to GOD, telling you your purpose and that is to live for GOD. It clarifies everything. This is really an amazing book. Life-changing! :)

Unfortunately for anyone who actually has need of reading a book like The Purpose Driven Life, the book is not for them. The ideas portrayed are too simplistic to be educational or helpful. It certainly won't tell you what your purpose in life is.

As with most people who have read this book, I was encouraged by someone in my church to give it a go. My depression was hitting me hard, and this was the only thing my fellow Christian thought would help. I read it and shared opinions on it weekly over the phone with my church buddy. I agreed with most of the concepts and thought it was mildly uplifting, but it was generally not useful in any way. As my copy is too light and slick to be a doorstop, I can really see only limited potential use for the book.

Sometimes Christians want to prove to other Christians how entirely profound their faith is and how dedicated they are to God. One of the more substantial and immediately self-gratifying ways to accomplish the goal of showing off is to read this book and throw it at someone else. The others that get pressured into the pissing contest are only trying to associate, socialize, and fit in. It's a safe enough book for most modern Christian churches to force-feed it to their small group studies.

There's nothing really in this book to set a person on edge, nothing to hate about this. But no point to it either. One word of advice: if you read this, don't buy all the gadgets and supplemental readings advertised in it. God won't think you're a cheap sinner.

I read this in 2007 because it happened to be on the shelf of a nonprofit where I was sitting overnight as a volunteer phone-answerer waiting for the phone to ring.

The author, Rick Warren, has used his power and influence to say things that are unhelpful to groups to which I belong, and I don't share his theology, and therefore, I was not disposed to like his book. I took notes when I read it in 2007, wrote up something, and posted a review here on Goodreads. It generated a comment thread in 2015 that was personal and wasn't really about Warren's book anyway.

The original review and comment thread are no longer here because:

In 2021, I n  rewrote my review and moved it to Mediumn upon learning that The Purpose-Driven Life has sold FIFTY. MILLION. COPIES. And the book does not even make sense to me! Warren earns money from his book, and I likewise have the prerogative to monetize my work, on a platform of my own choosing, even if it's a response to his book. When I took down my review, I noticed that I may have misinterpreted one passage in the book; now I believe it's wrong for a different reason than I originally gave, so in 2021 I adjusted my argument. Four years later, in 2025, nearly 3,000 people have viewed my review on Medium, 3% of whom came from this Goodreads post over the last four years. Because Medium has since changed how its paywall works, I've updated the Goodreads post to provide an unpaywalled link.

The "lesson learned" from the 2015 comment exchange I turned into a separate Medium rant: n  Why Someone Complained About The Review You Posted to Goodreadsn. My review was too short? My review was too long? Whatever.

There's yet another lesson I'm always heartened to relearn (maybe this, too, will become another essay): that it's OK to change and delete stuff online. The beauty of the internet, as a Wise Old Person once told me back when AOL was still sending out CDs and we capitalized Internet, is that the information can change. If we have "lessons learned," we can share the better version of our knowledge and not leave our internet corner looking like a screenshot from 2007 or 2015. That's my 2 cents on what it could mean to live a purpose-driven life.