WHEN he posted an online appeal to help plug a deficit in church funds, pastor Rick Warren knew that he could count on his congregation to dig deep. What he may not have expected was the $2.4 million (£1.4m) they donated in less than 48 hours.
So great was the deluge that at one point Mr Warren had to draft in security guards to empty the collection boxes every 30 minutes as his trusty parishioners stampeded to the Saddleback Church in California bearing cheques and cash to help fund proje
cts for the poor and the needy.
The response is testament to Saddleback's position as one of America's most powerful mega-churches, and Mr Warren's reputation as an evangelical superstar with an ability to influence and inspire on a global scale.
"This is pretty amazing. I don't think any church has gotten a cash offering like that off a letter," he said of the appeal, which he launched in a note posted on his website on 30 December, and which had exceeded its $900,000 target nearly three times over by New Year's Day.
Terming it "The Miracle", he added: "We're starting the new decade with a surplus. It came from thousands of ordinary people – this was not one big fat cat."
The money will help to fund programmes such as the church's food pantry for the poor, counselling services for those in crisis, assistance for the homeless and support groups for the needy including people with Alzheimer's and Aids.
Once named by Time magazine as one of the world's 100 most influential people and by Newsweek on a list of "15 People Who Make America Great", Mr Warren, a 54-year-old father of three, has spoken at the United Nations, the World Economic Forum and the African Union, and gave the invocation at president Barack Obama's inauguration last year.
Sales of his self-help book The Purpose Driven Life were originally targeted at 250,000 when it was published in 2002.
Eight years on, it has sold more than 25 million copies, making it the biggest-selling hardback in US history, and been translated into 44 languages.
He and his wife Kay, who founded the church in their living room in 1979 and have watched it grow to a 22,000-strong domestic congregation with a following in 162 countries, tithe 90 per cent of their multimillion dollar income to church charities that fight poverty, disease, illiteracy and which have helped to train 400,000 ministers worldwide.
"If I wanted to after the book came out, I could have bought an island and retire and have people serve me little drinks with umbrellas the rest of my life," he told the 2008 National Conference on Preaching.
"But when you write a book and the first sentence of the book is, 'It's not about you', then you kind of figure the money is not for you and the fame is not for you."
Yet fame is exactly what he has achieved through his headline-grabbing accomplishments and sometimes controversial philosophies; he is unpopular in the gay community, for example, for his opposition to same-sex marriage.
However, he is noted for forging a more moderate social agenda than some of the firebrand evangelists who have gone before him.
Despite his huge following, even Mr Warren and his church have felt the pressure of the recession.
"With 10 per cent of our church family out of work due to the recession, our expenses in caring for our community in 2009 rose dramatically while our income stagnated," he wrote in his online letter last Wednesday.
He also noted that while the church had remained close to budget for most of the year "the bottom dropped out" over Christmas and that urgent action was required.
Describing the last-minute avalanche of giving as "history-making" yesterday, he told followers: "It speaks volumes about you, the depth of commitment in this fellowship, and where God is taking us in 2010."
