LAKE FOREST – As members of Saddleback Church settled into their seats Sunday to hear the weekly sermon from Pastor Rick Warren, one thing was missing: Rick Warren.
Fellow pastors had convinced the founder and leader of the mega-church in Lake Forest to take the day off. They filled in for him by preaching about an ongoing campaign, "40 Days of Love."
For Warren, one of the most influential ministers in the nation, the forced break was nothing to celebrate. It came at the end of a harrowing week in which he and his family were whipsawed by a health crisis.