When Pastor Andy Wood watched Saddleback Church founder Rick Warren announce in a video he would step back as senior pastor, he said he caught himself thinking, “I wonder who will be the crazy person who gets to follow Pastor Rick Warren?”
That was the summer of 2021 and Wood, the founder of Echo Church in San Jose, would find out a year later that he and his wife, Stacie, were being considered for the role after they were invited by Warren to speak at Saddleback Church.
The Woods, both 42, have been at Saddleback for a year and said they have felt welcomed and embraced as they step into the roles held by Warren and his wife, Kay, who for 43 years led the church – taking it from a congregation of dozens in a Laguna Hills classroom to a mega-church with 40,000 weekly worshippers globally. The church has 15 Southern California locations and six international campuses. This weekend, the church celebrates with block parties at its Southern California campuses. The events on Saturday and Sunday are open to the public.
“One of the things that has been so awesome is the love this first year, the way Saddleback has welcomed our family, our three kids,” Wood said this week in his first interview after stepping in as lead pastor. “There’s a challenge in any transition. The thing that has been surprising to me is the way we’ve been so welcomed by the church family.”
“People say that Saddleback is the ‘smallest, big church in the world,’ so you might think a church this big, it could feel overwhelming, but because people are so personable, it’s made the church feel small, like a family that loves and cares for us and so many other people,” he added.
Getting the job
“When I came here, I didn’t think it was a candidacy for the role,” Wood said of giving a guest sermon. “Pastor Rick, who had been a hero of mine in the faith, invited me to come and I asked Stacie to come because I always like to be together when I’m doing stuff like…
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