The Purpose Driven Life was a really excellent book, and it made a big impact on me.
Basically over a period of 40 days, Rick Warren shows his readers that each of them was a purposefully created part of the body of Christ. Each one deliberately designed and created by God, for a very specific part in that body. A very specific ministry role in the church.

Unfortunately, suddenly at chapter 36, something went astray. After quite eloquently proving his point over the first 35 chapters, he suddenly said that we are each purpose built for a very specific church ministry, but then that we also each have the same mission to reach the world with the gospel. Each of us should go overseas as missionaries. At least for a short term trip, to wake us up to what we should be doing to reach the lost. And each of us has to tell everyone we know about how they have been saved by Yeshua - or accept our guilt if they die unsaved.

Sadly I’ve seen this quite a few times over the years. Evangelists so often seem to think that we should all be evangelists.
He even mis-applies some very specific verses. Often said by God to specific people, like Ezekiel for example - he quotes them as if they are spoken to everyone who reads the Bible now.
There is a famous pair of mis-applied verses, Matthew wrote that “Judas hanged himself”, Luke wrote that Yeshua said, “Go and do likewise”.
Of course it just doesn’t work that way. The Bible doesn’t, and neither does any other book. Of course it’s not logical or correct if you read those two verses to assume that God is telling you to go and hang yourself. It’s absurd.
No more than God commanding Ezekiel to do something is also commanding you to do it.
Otherwise all Christians would have to have an Ark woodwork project going in their back yard at home. Because God told Noah to do that, so we have to do it too.

And somehow, even after building his strong case that each of us is unique, and should each serve a unique ministry in the church with our unique gifts and abilities, Rick Warren suddenly says, that we all have the same call to mission. That each of us is responsible to do everything we can to reach the world, every person in every country, with the good news about salvation through Yeshua.

It’s just not true.
We don’t all have that mission.
The church has that mission. But not each of us. How could one person possibly do it.
But just as we each should do whatever bit of church ministry we have been created and gifted for, we should each do our individual part in helping the church fulfil its corporate mission to reach the world.
It is perfectly conceivable that some Christians might never tell anyone else the good news of salvation through Yeshua. Their role in the church might not involve speaking to outsiders at all.
This doesn’t make them bad Christians. In fact, possibly quite the opposite.

We need to find our individual niche in the church ministry to believers, and our individual niche in the church’s mission to the lost around the globe.

And then in chapter 39, he does the same thing by saying that every one of us must disciple others.
But if that’s not your gift, then leave that for someone who is.
By all means we can all join a small group and contribute our part. But you might never be the leader. And that’s OK.
You have not failed as a Christian if you never taught anyone else. (Unless that is your gift, and you never used it).

I still think “Purpose Driven Life” is a fantastic book. And I really recommend that you read it.
I’m just saying that the idea that you are uniquely created and gifted as a Christian doesn’t just apply to ministry within the church, it also applies to your role in the church’s mission to the lost, and to the education of the next generation.

Read the book.
Find your role.
Do it.

And stop doing other things. But that’s a topic for another article another day.