AUTHOR RICK WARREN, THE PURPOSE-DRIVEN® LIFE, HITS 100 WEEKS ON THE NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLER LIST: WARREN NAMED TIME MAGAZINE  “PEOPLE WHO MATTERED 2004”

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Dec. 20, 2004 – Rick Warren, author of The Purpose-Driven® Life, is doubly honored this week with his book hitting 100 weeks on The New York Times Best-Seller list for Hardcover Advice books, and has been named one of TIME Magazine’s 15 “People Who Mattered 2004.”

Warren’s book, The Purpose-Driven® Life, this week has sold 20.5 million copies in America alone in a little over two years, and according to TIME Magazine, “Warren led by example, giving away 90% of his royalties, campaigning against hunger and expanding a drug-recovery program for prison inmates.”

 “The Purpose-Driven movement has been quietly growing globally for over 15 years,” Warren said, “and there is an underground conversation going on. If you asked all the purpose driven churches in America to raise their hand, that number would shock everyone because our network of congregations has flown under the media radar until the success of The Purpose Driven® Life and The Passion.”

Averaging a record 833,000 sold each month, Publisher's Weekly noted The Purpose-Driven® Life is “the bestselling hardback in American history.”  According to the publisher, Zondervan, the Spanish version, Una Vida Con Proposito, is also the bestselling book in America in Spanish, with more than one million books sold.  The Purpose-Driven® Life is already translated into 28 other languages with 56 languages licensed, and has also generated more than 4.75 million units sold of gift products, including the The Purpose-Driven® Life Journal.

“Rick’s inspiring message continues to change lives across the world and we are very grateful that TIME has recognized the impact he is having through this book around the world,” says Bruce Ryskamp, President and CEO, Zondervan.

Since its publication, The Purpose-Driven® Life has been a mainstay on numerous bestseller lists including USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and The New York Times.  It has been named Book of the Year twice, in both 2003 and 2004, by the Christian Bookseller’s Association. New Man magazine readers voted it “Book of the Decade.”  Warren is well-known as a spiritual and social entrepreneur. Peter Drucker called him “the inventor of perpetual revival” and Forbes magazine has written, “If Warren’s church was a business it would be compared with Dell, Google or Starbucks.”

Often referred to as one of “America’s most influential ministers” (TIME Magazine), Warren is the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., one of America’s largest and best-known churches. He started Pastors.com, a global Internet community, and his teachings in church health launched the Purpose-Driven movement in 1985. Warren has trained more than 300,000 pastors worldwide and the Purpose-Driven church model is employed in 122 countries.  His previous book, The Purpose-Driven Church, won the Gold Medallion Award and was named one of the 100 Christian Books That Changed the 20th Century.  He is the publisher of Rick Warren’s Ministry Toolbox, a weekly newsletter for ministers that has 136,000 subscribers.

About Zondervan

Zondervan is the leading Christian communications company in the world. Zondervan produces Bibles, books, new media products, gift products from its Inspirio group, and children’s products from its Zonderkidz group. Zondervan, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, holds exclusive North American publishing rights to the New International Version of the Bible, the bestselling Bible translation. Zondervan sells its products through Christian retailers, general market bookstores, mass merchandisers, specialty retailers and the Internet.