Good afternoon everyone. I’d like to begin by admitting that I am a substitute speaker. My wife, Kay, was invited to be here but when our first grandchild was born a few days ago she couldn't leave our daughter. So you're getting a substitute today!
Courtesy of Rick Warren

To be honest, most of what I’d planned to say has already been said this morning! I intended to talk about the fact that the church’s integrity and relevance is really being tested by the issue of AIDS right now, but Rich Stearns already talked about that. I also intended to mention my belief that the church at large is not going to respond to this issue until it becomes personal, but John Crosby already mentioned that. Then I was going to talk about how it will take all of us partnering together to get the job done, but Gary Hagen said that! Then Bishop Banda spoke about how AIDS really is the open door for missions for the next 20 years and how the local church must be the primary delivery system for care, which of course, I deeply believe in. Then I was going to talk about how we each have to take our part of the wall and build it, which I call the “Nehemiah principal” in The Purpose Driven Church book but Dwayne Litfen said that. Then I was going to point out that one of the secrets of Uganda’s success with AIDS is how they involve pastors, but Ted Green of Harvard beat me to it. Finally, to top it all off, the Ambassador of Zambia stood up and said, “You know, it all boils down to three keys: 1) We must support the rural pastors in the villages. 2) We must create economic empowerment because that's going to help prevent AIDS, and 3) We must to educate the children. Those were all ideas I was planning to talk about! Now, since all these fine people stole everything I intended to say, I now understand what Jesus meant in John 10:8 where he said, "All who have gone before me are robbers and thieves!" [Laughter]

Actually this entire morning has just been one great confirmation that we are all on the right track together. God is doing something! Can you see this? Can you sense it? God is bringing together people from many different backgrounds and He intends to do something very great! So, after hearing all these speakers, I said "Okay, Lord, since they’ve already said what I believe, what do you want me to say?" And God said, "Just tell them how you had to repent." And I said, "Okay. Because its true. I’ve had to repent."

Two years ago AIDS was not even on my agenda. It was not even a blip on my radar. I'm a pretty focused person. I’ve invested my entire life in two things: building a model of a healthy local church, and training other pastors to do the same. That's all I do. I don't usually speak at conferences like this. Instead I've invested all my time in training over 300,000 pastors from 114 countries. I don't know a lot of things but I do know how to equip and mobilize pastors. So…. AIDS was not on my agenda at all until I had my burning bush. That burning bush was my wife.

A couple of years ago my wife picked up a Time magazine that said, "12 million orphaned in Africa because of AIDS." We now know that number has risen to 14 million. And it grabbed Kay’s heart, a suburban, white, Bible teacher in southern California, and shook her world and turned it upside down. Now, over the years I've learned that when God speaks to my wife I'd better listen! God has often spoken to me through my wife. She is brilliant, but sometimes it's God who is actually doing the speaking through her. God shook her world and since I was in the circumference of her world and He shook mine too. In my personal devotions, God said to me, "You MUST care about this issue! You must care about it because I care about it."

In the past year I’ve been thinking a lot about what I call “the stewardship of influence.” Because of the church that I pastor and because of some books I've written, God has graciously given me a measure of influence influence. Every Monday morning, nearly 90,000 pastors get my weekly newsletter. So I think a lot about what God wants me to do with that kind of influence. I don't believe God gives you influence for your own ego or fame or your own benefit. I believe He expects us to use whatever influence He gives us for the benefit of others.

One passage of Scripture that has meant a lot to me is Psalm 72. It is a prayer of Solomon. When he wrote it, Solomon was the most influential man of his day. He was not only the king, he was the wealthiest man alive, and the Bible tells us that, he was also the wisest man who ever lived. In his prayer Solomon says, (I am paraphrasing here) “God you have blessed me with both affluence and influence, and I ask you to increase that even more. But not for my benefit. Here's why I want you to bless me with greater influence: So that I can save the children of the needy, rescue those who are hurt from oppression and violence, deliver the needy who cry out, take pity on the weak, and help the afflicted who have no one to help them. I will save the needy from death for precious is their blood in your sight. Yes I will defend the afflicted among the people." Friends, if anyone could called afflicted in our world today- it is those who are dying of AIDS!

Now, what Psalm 72 says to me is this: The purpose of influence is to speak up for people who have no influence! That’s the point of the prayer. You were invited to this conference because you have a certain sphere of influence. God has given you influence in some area: it may be the political structure, the church structure, para-church structure, or maybe a health organizational structure. I don't know, but you wouldn't be here if you weren't an influencer. So today, I stand before you to tell you that God intends for you to use your influence to help those who have no influence at all: the needy, the oppressed, the prisoner, the orphan, the widow. All the people included in the five major groups that the Old Testament commands us to care about. We must care! It’s not optional. And we must do more than care. We must do something about the AIDS pandemic!

So, for the last year, my wife Kay and I have been listening and learning, listening and learning – to discover what we could do. Kay has been to Africa twice in the last two months, in three different countries and I just got back from Johannesburg where I taught a pastor's conference that was simulcast to 400 sites across the continent. They invited me to teach, but I went to listen and learn. I believe that a great commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will grow a great church and a great Christian. We must do both. We must balance the Great Commandment (love God with all your heart, and love your neighbors yourself) with the Great Commission, (go make disciples, baptize them, and teach them to do everything I've told you) This is the context and foundation on which we must attack the AIDS pandemic.

Now one of the keys of effective leadership is that real leaders never stop learning. That’s why I honor you for being here today. It shows that you are a learner. The moment you stop learning you stop leading. The moment you think you've got it all figured out, you are dead in the water. So I came to this conference as a learner, not knowing much about AIDS, and even less about the solution to the pandemic. But I do know about pastors. And I do know that there is a sleeping giant, called the Church, that if awakened, could solve this problem. So at Saddleback, we are going to try a little experiment that I’d like for your to pray for. We’re not afraid to fail at our church. That’s how we figure out what works! So we’re going to try out ONE approach to dealing with the AIDS crisis, and once we figure out what works, we’ll create a template that can be used by thousands of other purpose-driven churches.

You see, I believe God gets the most glory when we take down the biggest giants in His name. That’s what little David did with Goliath. Since AIDS is the biggest giant on our planet right now, then there's got to be some Davids out there who can take it down for God’s glory. When the giant of AIDS falls, we want God to get the glory. That is what should motivate us all. In Isaiah 49, God says He wants His glory to be global. Our objective is the global glory of God.
As I’ve thought about this, it seems obvious that we all have different roles to play. There is an educational piece. There is a media piece. There is a government piece. There is a community development piece. There is a relief piece. My question has been, “What is the local church’s role? What is our responsibility?”

Well, I got to thinking about a passage that I relied on when Kay and I started Saddleback Church 23 years ago. In Luke 10, Jesus sent out the 70 to different villages with specific instructions. In one of those instructions, he says, “When you go into a new village, find the man of peace and start with him. Go into his home, and if he receives you, bless that person and stay with him." The point is obvious: everything starts with leadership! You've got to find a reliable man of peace or woman of peace in each village and start with them. Who is the man of peace? The person who is most receptive to you!

Once you've made contact with the man of peace, what do you do with them? Well, I don’t know all the answers, but after listening to all the experts here today, it seems pretty obvious to me that certain themes kept coming up over and over. Everyone kept saying “We’ve got to work with local churches and pastors to get the job done; we’ve got to empower people economically with micro-enterprises, so they can become self-sufficient; we’ve got to care for dying, the hopeless, and the helpless; and we’ve got to educate the children- the next generation- so we don’t lose them.

Well, let me give you a little acrostic that I came up with to remember these 5 inter-related keys to the AIDS pandemic. Since we are to work with “the man of peace” in each village, I came up with a P.E.A.C.E. plan that our members at Saddleback could get a hold of. I'll just tell you right up front: I don't know if it's going to work! It's an experiment, but that's how we operate at Saddleback Church. We’re not afraid to try new approaches. The truth is, we’ve done more things that didn't work than did, but the only way you learn what works is by trying something! I'd rather try something and fail than sit around in committee meetings for the next 10 years and do nothing! So, I’m going to take a risk, and share our plan with you. My hope is that our plan will stimulate your creativity and you'll come up with a plan for your part of solving the puzzle -- because it is going to take everybody doing something. Here’s our P.E.A.C.E. plan:

• Partner with a local church. As we’ve already heard many times today, the most natural distribution system is already in place in Africa, and everywhere else around the world! One speaker just talked about the 12,000 churches in Zambia.. Just imagine what could happen if they were mobilized! What about the areas where there might not be a church? In that case, P stands for “Plant a church.” Either way, I deeply believe the solution must begin with a local church. A thousand years from today, if Jesus Christ hasn't come back, probably none of our organizations will still be existence. But the church will continue to exist because Jesus has promised that it is going to last forever! So our plan starts with either partnering withor planting a local church.

• Equip the pastor. As several speakers have already pointed out, there is already an army on the field! They are called pastors, and in many villages they are the gatekeepers. They have the moral authority to speak about lifestyle and behavioral issues that no one else has. They also usually have a caring, tender heart, and from my experience, I’ve found that they are eager and teachable and willing to learn the skills needed if someone will just teach them.

• Add micro enterprise. Again, we’ve heard about this all day. One speaker talked about planting gardens, we heard about several different models of successful micro enterprises, and the Ambassador spoke so passionately about empowering people economically so they can get out of the poverty conditions that harm their health.

• Care for the hopeless and helpless. This is Christlike caring for the dying- those already infected and affected by AIDS. Actually, to make an exponential impact on this problem we must do more than care for the victims; we must care for the caregivers - that aunt who takes in 3 more kids when her sister and brother-in-law die of AIDS and the oldest child in the child-led home. We all know that there are multiple reasons for keeping extended families intact if at all possible. Institutional orphan care is the last choice.

• Educate the next generation. We've already lost one generation. We've got to educate the next, and that means starting at the youngest ages. In many areas, even if the schools are poorly equipped and the children don’t learn much, it would be a major victory just to get them off the streets and out of the way of sexual predators who believe the widespread myth that having sex with a virgin will cure their AIDS.