I believe it is not an accident that you are here today." Pastor Rick Warren, looking his usual relaxed self in an untucked sport shirt, spiked hair, and signature goatee, surveyed his audience: some 300 Christian ministers and their wives clustered in the cavernous auditorium of his Saddleback Church.

It was a small crowd compared with the more than 20,000 worshipers who flock to the Orange County, Calif., campus each weekend to hear the bestselling author of The Purpose-Driven Life. But this was a select group, here to learn about Warren's latest, most ambitious project: a worldwide campaign to battle the "global giants" of poverty, disease, ignorance, egocentric leadership, and spiritual emptiness. Warren calls it "the P.E.A.C.E. Plan" --an acronym based on five strategies drawn from the teachings of Christ. "God intended for you to be here," Warren said, "because he wanted you to be at the center of ground zero, to be part of the mobilizing team that changes the world in the 21st century."

It is an unabashedly grandiose undertaking--and it is vintage Warren. In his 25 years in the ministry, no one has ever accused Rick Warren of thinking small. Nor has any modern pastor matched him as a motivator and mobilizer of workers. Peter Drucker, the management guru, has described Saddleback's organizational model as "the most significant sociological [phenomenon] of the second half of the [20th] century."

In 1980, fresh out of seminary, Warren announced to a handful of worshipers that the church they were starting from scratch would one day number 20,000. Today, what began in Warren's tiny living room has 82,000 on its rolls, a realization of Warren's vision for "a church for people who hate church."

Service. Warren is a big man who laughs easily and often. He's also a hugger, embracing even the most casual of acquaintances--journalists included. He considers the role of leader to be foremost that of a servant--a view shaped by his understanding of the Bible. "The greatest leaders," he says, "are those who serve others." A good leader, he says, "exists for the people, not the other way around."

Warren's leadership style is decidedly low key. He delegates creative and managerial duties, reserving for himself the role of "chief disturbing agent" --providing Saddleback's vision, values, and voice. Micromanaging is not a temptation. "You have to have people around you who are smarter than you in certain areas, and you just let them go. That comes with having a good sense of your own strengths and your weaknesses."

Aides describe Warren as a "voracious learner" who has been known to read a book a day on everything from history and biography to business. "To me, leading is learning," Warren says, "and the moment you stop learning you stop leading and your organization stops growing." He says he has learned from both positive and negative influences as diverse as Mohandas Gandhi and George Patton. His most important role models, he says, have been Billy Graham ("a model of great integrity"), Drucker ("a personal mentor on managing rapidly growing organizations"), and his late father, a Baptist minister.