11/29/2023 0 Comments Pastor rick warren sons suicideWhy can’t I just die and end this pain?” but he kept going for another decade. I’ll never forget how, many years ago, after another approach had failed to give relief, Matthew said ” Dad, I know I’m going to heaven. Kay and I often marveled at his courage to keep moving in spite of relentless pain. Today, after a fun evening together with Kay and me, in a momentary wave of despair at his home, he took his life. In spite of America’s best doctors, meds, counselors, and prayers for healing, the torture of mental illness never subsided. He’d then make a bee-line to that person to engage and encourage them.īut only those closest knew that he struggled from birth with mental illness, dark holes of depression, and even suicidal thoughts. He had a brilliant intellect and a gift for sensing who was most in pain or most uncomfortable in a room. You who watched Matthew grow up knew he was an incredibly kind, gentle, and compassionate man. Our youngest son, Matthew, age 27, and a lifelong member of Saddleback, died today. No words can express the anguished grief we feel right now. Kay and I’ve been privileged to hold your hands as you faced a crisis or loss, stand with you at gravesides, and prayed for you when ill. Over the past 33 years we’ve been together through every kind of crisis. My Take: Let’s stop keeping mental illness a secret Warren, who founded Saddleback with his wife 33 years ago, gave the invocation at President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration and penned “The Purpose-Driven Life,” a Christian self-help guide that became a mainstream best-seller. Friday.Īs a pioneer of the megachurch movement, Rick Warren looked to translate traditional evangelical messages to a wider audience. The autopsy completed Monday put the time of death at around 10 a.m. He was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Mission Viejo, California, late Friday afternoon, the Orange County Coroner said. “After a fun evening together with Kay and me, in a momentary wave of despair at his home, he took his life,” Pastor Warren wrote in an e-mail to his staff Saturday. Matthew, the youngest of Warren’s children, worked at the Saddleback Resources Warehouse, which distributes books and DVDs and was “an important part of the church but played a quiet role,” Krumm said. “So even before Rick knew what they would be facing at the end of the week, he was thinking this is what we need to hear. “It’s a message on what to do on the worst day of your life,” Holladay said in Saturday’s sermon. “Bad days make good ones better,” Warren’s invitation to Saturday’s service said on the church’s Facebook page Warren asked Holladay to take over when he became ill with pneumonia after a busy Easter weekend schedule, before his son’s sudden death, spokeswoman Anne Krumm said. Worship services continued as scheduled Saturday and Sunday with Warren’s brother-in-law Tom Holladay – an assistant pastor for the Orange County, California, congregation – filling in for Warren. My Take: How churches can respond to mental illness Just the pain, the excruciating pain, was just too much.” “And there were the days where he just didn’t want to be around people. “There are the days where he was just this bubbly, outgoing, effervescent, reaching out to people,” Constantz said. Despite the best health care available, this was an illness that was never fully controlled, and the emotional pain resulted in his decision to take his life.”įriend Mike Constantz told CNN he had a “playful spirit.” “Unfortunately, he also suffered from mental illness resulting in deep depression and suicidal thoughts. “Matthew was an incredibly kind, gentle and compassionate young man whose sweet spirit was encouragement and comfort to many,” a statement from the church said. Matthew Warren, 27, committed suicide “in a momentary wave of despair” at the end of a lifetime struggle “with mental illness, dark holes of depression and even suicidal thoughts,” the pastor wrote to the staff of his Southern California megachurch. The weekend’s sermon at Saddleback Church was “Surviving Tough Times,” a theme Pastor Rick Warren planned before his youngest son killed himself with a gun Friday.
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