About 3,000 churches participated in the most recent campaign, and Witt reckons that by the end of 2004, some 20,000 will have done so. Any number of consumer-product companies must envy his results - 15 million books sold! - but they would have an extremely difficult time duplicating his method.Ī big chunk of sales are driven by church campaigns called ''40 Days of Purpose,'' which revolve around the book. He has, in fact, described his approach as a ''stealth strategy,'' built not on a big personality and a hard sell, but through a meticulously constructed network. Saddleback is a megachurch, with an average attendance of 18,000 every weekend, but Warren does not preach on television and is by no means a celebrity. ''It does cause us to scratch our heads and ask, 'So why are so many people buying this?' '' ''It's a very countercultural message,'' he says. Even Lance Witt, Saddleback's spokespastor, seems puzzled that the book is a popular phenomenon. In the end, you are instructed to ''abandon your agenda and accept God's agenda,'' which boils down to spreading the word about Christ.

It starts with a blunt dismissal of ''pop psychology, success-motivation'' and the entire self-help industry. ''The Purpose-Driven Life'' is divided into 40 chapters, meant to be read one per day. It is also available in traditional bookstores and even Costco, and has been on the New York Times Advice best-seller list for more than 60 weeks at the end of March, it was in the top spot. 1 seller at religious bookstores tracked by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. The book, published by a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and written by Rick Warren, founder of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., is the No. Who wants to hear that? Millions of people, apparently. One central message of the book ''The Purpose-Driven Life'' is this: ''It's not about you.''

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