“Purpose Driven Life” author and celebrity Pastor Rick Warren was briefly hospitalized with an eye-injury suffered in a home gardening accident in southern California, a Saddle Back church official said Thursday.

While tending to two firestick plants in his yard Monday, milky resin from the plant got into Warren’s eyes when he wiped his brow, church spokesman Larry Ross said. “He experienced excruciating pain — on a scale of one to 10 it was a 12,” Ross said.

On Thursday Warren thanked his followers on Twitter for their prayers. “May God use this pain for His Glory,” Warren tweeted. He tweeted that protective contacts had been placed on his corneas as bandages to help them heal. “I am NOT blind,” he tweeted.

The clergy chosen by President-elect Barack Obama to pray at his inauguration fill separate symbolic roles: One is a nod to the civil rights activists who made Obama’s election possible. The other is an overture to conservative Christians who rankles some Obama supporters.

The Rev. Rick Warren, who will give the invocation, is the most influential pastor in the United States, and a choice that has already caused problems for Obama.

The Rev. Joseph Lowery, 87, is considered the dean of the civil rights movement. For the benediction at the Jan. 20 swearing-in, he says he will pray that the “spirit of fellowship and oneness” at the inauguration endures throughout Obama’s presidency.

Rick Warren, a megachurch pastor and philanthropist who is courted by political leaders worldwide, says he thinks Christianity needs a “second Reformation” that would steer the church away from divisive politics and be “about deeds, not creeds.”

Rick Warren’s “outside in” approach to church growth is now causing rumblings. This past fall, The Wall Street Journal published an article titled “‘Purpose driven’ methods divide: Some evangelicals object to ‘Madison Avenue’ marketing of churches that follow author’s advice.” In North Wilkesboro, N.C., one church exemplifies this schism.

Rick Warren’s Christmas broadcast may be a recognition of who he increasingly is: the country boy-turned-political kingmaker, the Southern Baptist pastor who hopes to lead an ecumenical reformation of the Christian church, the master communicator whose gnostic style has stripped Christianity of its mystery but also of its difficulty, attracting in the process a new generation of worshippers.

When Rick Warren, one of the nation’s most popular evangelical pastors, faced down right-wing pressure and invited Sen. Barack Obama to speak at a gathering at his Saddleback Valley Community Church about the AIDS crisis, he sent a signal: A significant group of theologically conservative Christians no longer wants to be treated as a cog in the Republican political machine.

Sen. Barack Obama told a packed congregation Friday at Saddleback Church that there was no room for political conflict between religious groups and the government in the fight to prevent AIDS.

Famed pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren Wednesday defended his invitation to Democratic Sen. Barack Obama to speak at his church from objections by other evangelicals to the senator‘s support of abortion rights.

The PR man behind Rick Warren.

A trip to Syria that U.S. megachurch pastor Rick Warren says was inspired by a backyard chat with a Muslim neighbor has triggered criticism and questions that highlight the potential risks when preaching meets international politics.

A young, enthusiastic Rick Warren decides to build his megachurch in O.C.

IUKA, Miss. -- In April, 150 members of Iuka Baptist Church voted to kick Charles Jones off the deacons' board. The punishment followed weeks of complaints by Mr. Jones and his friends that the pastor was following the teachings of the Rev. Rick Warren, the best-selling author and church-growth guru. After the vote, about 40 other members quit the church to support Mr. Jones.

A Baptist childhood and changing times helped shape Rick Warren's emerging religious style.

LAKE FOREST, Calif. - An Orange County pastor who wrote the best-selling book "The Purpose Driven Life" has delayed a planned visit to North Korea amid heightened tension with the U.S. over the country's recent missile launches.

LAKE FOREST, Calif. - An Orange County pastor who wrote the best-selling book "The Purpose Driven Life" plans to travel to North Korea later this month amid heightened tension with the U.S. over the authoritarian country's recent missile launches.