comparing Rick Warren to Bill Clinton

I’m delighted to see Rick Warren getting the spotlight and handling it adeptly, recently being featured in Newsweek as 1 of 15 who make America great [ht: jollyblogger, who blogs at a brisk and verbose pace, and now deconstructs Pastor Rick].

My brush with greatness has happened 3 times: 1st in the greeting line when I visited Saddleback in 1999 when he gave me a pat on the back; 2nd at a leaders conference I ran in 2001, and Rick took time during his vacation to hang out with us several times; 3rd at another conference and he gave me a hug. [update: Rick Warren is now blogging!]

Not only is Rick taking the speaking invite to North Korea (postponed), he’s also taken an invite to (controversially) speak at a Jewish Synagogue last month. I didn’t find a lot of buzz about this speaking gig, but I did find this remark by Rob Eshman in his color commentary about Rick’s Synagogue visit:

… I thought of the only other person I’d met with Warren’s eloquence, charisma, and passion — but Bill Clinton carries a certain amount of baggage that Warren doesn’t.

Bill Clinton didn’t make the aforementioned 15 great Americans list, though he sure is trying to do some good things with another Bill, perhaps as an atonement.