Rick Warren Posts, And People Like

Rick Warren, the pastor at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, made a couple of early morning posts onto Facebook and Twitter accounts thanking those who kept him and his family in their thoughts.

Shortly after 6 a.m. on Sunday, about three hours before he would normally be backstage preparing to preach at his contemporary megachurch, Warren posted on Twitter:

Kay and I are overwhelmed by your love, prayers, and kind words. You are all encouraging our #brokenhearts.

Matthew Warren, youngest son of Rick and Kay Warren, was found dead Friday afternoon of a self-inflicted shotgun wound in his Mission Viejo home. The coroner estimated that his fatal injury occurred about 10 a.m.

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The Twitter post was at 6:06 a.m., and by 7 a.m., it had been retweeted 630 times.

In the 50 minutes following his Facebook post at 6:08 a.m., 3,606 had "liked" his comment.

They were the first openly public social media interaction by the man who wrote The Purpose-Driven Life, the best-selling hardback of all time, since learning of his son's death.

Warren did post Saturday on Twitter in a more generic manner after it was known his son had died; it was obviously personal for those who knew what the pastor and his wife were going through:

We pray”THY WILL be done on earth AS IT IS IN HEAVEN” since in heaven God’s will is done #always. On earth,it’s done rarely

Services at the church on Sunday are at 9 and 11:15 a.m., and 6 p.m. Warren did not preach on Saturday night, bowing out to a case of "double pneumonia," according to his brother-in-law, Tom Holladay, who spoke instead to those gathered. The message for that, which Warren chose earlier in the week before learning of his family's tragedy, was titled "How to Survive the Worst Day of Your Life."

TELL US IN THE COMMENTS: What message would you like to share with the Warrens and the Saddleback Church community?