It all seems rather unremarkable to me. First, without knowing the budget or the income/expenses report, it's hard to imagine how one poor Sunday would scuttle the church. Second, however, in my experience it is not unusual for people to bring in end of the year offerings in order to catch up with their commitments and get their tax deductions in order. An offering that is proportionately large at the end of the year is nothing new ... and I rather suspect that it is just that everything at Saddleback is so supersized that this offering looks so large.
Actually if most offerings were $100 or less, I do not see a whole lot of extra generosity there. If I were to be a little cynical, I could say that most people just chipped in a little but did not feel the urgency implied in the letter.
I also join with those who object to the media terming this "Rick Warren receiving ...". Not Warren, his church. The two are not identical. Too much of the world thinks that pastors have full discretion over the money given to their churches; in my experience, most do not have any at all! It seemed to me when I was a pastor that I had to get permission to buy a pencil or a postage stamp!
