In a world confronting so many problems, Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Community Church identifies 5 that loom especially large. Truly GLOBAL in scale and GIANT in depth, these 5 Global Giants cannot be diminished or resolved by any single person, organization, government or business without adequate motivation, people, supplies or power.

The Giant of Spiritual Emptiness

Billions of people live every day without hope, meaning and purpose.Unwilling to reconcile with ones who have caused them pain, these empty lives are littered with broken relationships, bitterness and strife. They try to fill the void with drugs, greed and other meaningless substitutes that leave an even bigger hole.

The Giant of Self-Serving Leadership

Corrupt, greedy and even dishonest leadership mires billions of people in poverty, disease and illiteracy. Self-serving leadership uses followers to consolidate power for reelection, or worse, take power by force from those too weak and vulnerable to resist.

The Giant of Poverty

Half the world today – three billion people – scrape by on less than two dollars a day. A billion and a half people live on less than a dollar a day. A billion people in our world live in grinding, under-nourishing, dehumanizing poverty. Cultures oppress women and families, intentionally keeping them from educational opportunities that illuminate a way out of poverty.

The Giant of Disease

The statistics are startling, and very real. Approximately 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS. Every day, nearly 7,500 people are infected with HIV and 5,500 die from AIDS. Malaria kills over 1 million people annually. More than 500,000 women die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth each year. And among children under five, malnutrition is the cause of one third of their deaths.

The Giant of Illiteracy

Half of our world is functionally illiterate. Globally, 73 million primary school age children do not attend school on a regular basis. Currently, less than 55 percent of children in developing countries attend secondary school — a necessary step for the next generation to fulfill its potential and lead nations toward progress.

These giant problems seem simply too overwhelming, too formidable to confront.But they are not.

The PEACE Plan is a massive effort to mobilize Christians around the world to address the “five global giants” of spiritual emptiness, corrupt leadership, poverty, disease, and illiteracy by:

• Planting churches that promote reconciliation
• Equipping servant leaders
• Assisting the poor
• Caring for the sick
• Educating the next generation