I read once that when it comes to issues of faith some folks are ‘pioneers’ and others are ‘settlers’. Some will venture out into new territory theologically and practically, while others are better equipped to protect what is established and to work within what is known.
Rob Bell seems to be a pioneer and one who finds life in places where others where find fear. So for this he gets crucified.
He wrote a book about Hell. He questioned traditional teachings and while he didn’t appear to come down on any one view conclusively he allowed for the possibility of something other than eternal conscious damnation and perhaps what was more disturbing he encouraged people to think about the issue.
Naughty.
He stopped leading his megachurch without a concrete plan of ‘what next’ and he now doesn’t ‘attend’ church in the regular manner. Plenty of us have been there and know that this does not mean we have ‘ditched church’. We have just changed expressions.
But because he was such a high profile figure his choice to move away from the conventional has repercussions and he should be punished.
Then he came out in favour of same sex marriage and gay relationships… But we all knew he was going to do that because he had jumped onto the slippery slope and this was where it leads.
It was strike three for Bell, and rather than respect his theological judgement on this, while choosing to hold different views, this became a point of agreement for those hoping for his downfall. (And it seems plenty were hoping for it.) There was now definitely a common enemy to rally against.
And now we hear he is doing business with Ophrah…
He has his own show – on TV – talking about God. Oh dear. Its come to this. If he hadn’t lost his way before, then now he has completely sold out. He’s hopped in bed with the goddess of relativity and has lost his bearings completely.
Or… maybe as a pioneer he is strong enough to enter territory where the settlers feel at sea? Maybe he is able to move into uncharted territory without a map but with a north point to hold him? We value missionaries who go to unreached people groups, so why not a culturally capable and theologically astute missionary who has gone into territory very few Christians would ever get invited into.
From discussions with missionaries to unreached people groups in other cultures I know they use methods to communicate the gospel that they do not disclose when they come home because your average evangelical wouldn’t understand and it wouldn’t be worth the hassle because then we would marginalise them as well. So maybe Rob Bell is just bold enough to do his thing in full view. Maybe he has nothing to hide?… Maybe we can’t understand what we see, so its easier to kick him out of the tribe than to trust that God might work in a different way thru this gifted individual.
Perhaps its just plain jealousy?
As I listen to Bell speak I don’t hear him ditching Jesus, but nor do I hear him towing the party line. He often speaks in metaphors and images so he doesn’t please the gatekeepers who would prefer he use more familiar and definable language. In his language there is room for people to imagine and to think, and possibly think wrong things. But given that many do not want to think on these issues or listen to the voices of most preachers perhaps he is tilling the ground to speak of Jesus in a compelling way – as he can do – at a later point.
Then again maybe he is just a heretic and we should stone him to death for daring to be famous, successful, engaging and then to change tack – to walk away from the tangible expressions of a faith that is clearly working and to undermine the credibility of his own creation. Because that is hard to explain…
I understand that some people who were fans of Bell in his original more familiar incarnation may feel a little ripped off now. He was once the person who could say so well what many of us struggled to communicate. He had a way with words and media and theology that was uncanny… and now he is no longer saying the things we would like him to.
Maybe we can get off this guy’s back and trust that God can work in him and through him in ways that many of us would not be capable of.
Perhaps… just perhaps Bell has lost his way and drifted unconsciously into territory that is clearly incorrect and blatantly in opposition to the call of Christ. But perhaps rather than a good ole evangelical lynching, maybe this is the time to get alongside him and help him find his way back.
We do love a lynching though don’t we?…
I remember reading one of his early books which was on the reading list of the relevant-seeker-sensitive mega church I was attending at the time.
I recall thinking that I do not understand why this book was so popular (it could not hold a light up to Phillip Yancey and other authors), then I got to the chapter where the sacred cow of all mega churches was underscored …
Yes the main teaching was that all is OK and you can be cool and relevant, and irregualer in Church attendance but just remember to bring the tithe when you finally front up at Church. Remember that lesson very well, and then understood why the book was so well prompted in the contemporary church scene.
So may be its not a crucification, its just that people can see plain and clear that his teachings do not pass the litmus test of Truth (basic christian).
I haven’t read much of his Stuff but you have intrigued me Hammo…. I think I have just added a book or two to my reading list!
@ Lionfish…. Always good to prod our “truths” or Christian 101
Interesting post as always Andrew.
For me personally, having loved Bells work, the method, the style and the deep reflection and challenge of scripture, his latest works are disappointing
in that he has strayed from the orthodox, for me, foundational truths of scripture. And this departure has come at the expense of something he has previously been wonderful at, exposition of the Bible. Our sacred text. It is not that he has come to different views, it is that he has ignored them. I love Francis Chans response to Bells work on Hell. No one can accuse Chan of being ungracious or irrelevant. But he carefully and with grace dismantles Bells arguments.
Bell has always majored on love and grace. The pulling down of law when it excluded grace. I would like to offer him the same courtesy as you suggest now.
However also I think it is fair enough to ask him tough questions. He has placed himself as a leader. That comes with responsibility and accountability. We should be prepared to give an answer for the hope that lies within us. I struggle most when he wont give a straght answer. Not there is nothing wrong with saying, ” I dont know”. I say that often, and it is the truth. But he has taken evasiveness to annoying levels.
Great post Hammo,
In our humanity, we need someone to hate.
I know a Pastor who made list of so-called heretics posted on one of “those” sites. As I read the list he was in the company of some prestigious Christian leaders. When I poked my friend about the company he kept on this list, He pointed them the gentleman who posted on the site actually attended his church regularly even tough he had called my friend a heretic.
Unfortunately Rob Bell has fallen out of favour with the “In-Crowd” but has held off some viscious attacks by some members of the inquisition.
I agree you about him being a possible pioneer and truly hope that he blazes a new path for us to consider.
If he has lost the plot then let’s show him some grace…
Re: “@ Lionfish…. Always good to prod our “truths” or Christian 101”
Hey this prodding has not stopped for the last 2000 years!.
Rob Bell is not new, not a pioneer and is certainly not novel in his thinking. Simply peddling the same populist heresies that have been around for years. Some of his theology is aligned with Bishop John Shelby Spong, Dr John Shepherd et al, and even the great SDA prophetess Ellen G White.
Better to prod any new thinking to determine whether if aligns with the orthodoxy of the sacred scriptures or whether it is engineered to appeal to itchy ears.
Nice work if you can get it!
http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2012/august/rob-bells-latest-venture-talk-and-surf-for-500.html?paging=off
Imagine if (like Rob Bell) Jesus had charged $500 per head to muse and surf. He could of even made a clip-off-the-coupon on the fishes-and-loaves and even more of the sale of souvenir robes, and pod-casts of the sermon-on-the mount!
These damned discarded former-mega-church pastors should to get real value-adding jobs and stop peddling dodgy doctrine on the christian-celebrity-speaking-circuit. They just cannot get the intravenous drip from their arms!
Oh God it gets worse!
http://www.oprah.com/app/rob-bell-joy-meaning.html
This guy now sells his e-Course under the auspices of Oprah (angel-masquerading-as-an-angel-of-light) “live-your-best-life-now” brand.
Let’s say that he converts just 0.5% of the daily viewership of $6.5M, – the sales revenue for this high margin product (priced at $39.95) would be $1.25M!
$Cha-$Ching …
Now let’s not crucify the poor sold out heretic!
He has just discovered a far more lucrative way to sell heresies to those with itchy -ears!
That should be 6.2M viewers not $6.2M (dollars).
And the content of this course he is peddling is:
Lesson 1 Unwrapping the Gift of Your Life
Lesson 2 Embracing Your Whole Self
Lesson 3 – Uncover the Story Behind Your Story
Lesson 4 – Overcoming FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)
Lesson 5 – It Is Better to Give AND Receive
Lesson 6 – Be More Alive Than Ever
Read more: http://www.oprah.com/app/rob-bell-joy-meaning.html#ixzz3Ls414Twf
For those who have ears … itchy ears!
The biggest concern I have is that everything we know about Rob Bell is based on what we discover online. And I wrote my post from that concern. The other posts I have read about ‘Rob Bell the heretic’ etc etc have left me infuriated.
I am assuming no one reading this is a personal friend or is able to connect with Rob on a human level. So the judgements are made from afar.
But crikey they are made harshly!
Rich you may have been burned by a megachurch but you have made assumptions about Bell that may speak more of your own experience than his. But then that’s me making an assumption on limited evidence too…
I react very strongly to condemnation of a man based on very limited evidence. I agree with Mark that he is evasive – perhaps deliberately so at times – and that may well contribute to the critique, but I also wonder if he is intentionally enigmatic so that people will continue to listen.
Unfortunately certainty is often associated with fundamentalism in this day and age and if you want to connect with a doubting, skeptical culture then I’d say we need to be wise in how we communicate our certainties (and yes, of course I believe there are ‘certainties’).
I am yet to be convinced Bell has abandoned orthodoxy, but I haven’t read everything he has written or listened to everything he has said. Doctrines of hell and homosexuality are not litmus tests of orthodoxy. He also critiques creationism and the role of women in leadership, issues that were also deal breakers a number of years ago.
When he starts to toss out the essentials I think we have cause for concern. But if he doesn’t speak of these essentials in the language we would like him to then that is different again.
I’m grateful from the depths of my heart for those in evangelicalism who are willing to poke the edges of our understanding and explore new thinking because if it weren’t for those people my wife would still be sitting in the back row with her hat on, unable to utter two words in church for fear of being condemned.
Heya Hamo,
I don’t know Rob Bell personally – but neither do I know AJ Miller, Brian Houston, Pat Mesiti, Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Bishop Spong or Dr John Shepherd to know that I should stay clear of their influence.
I don’t need a pioneer to challenge the orthodoxy established over millenia, If we say that doctrines of hell and homosexuality are not established in the scope of what are deemed as essentials – then we may be drawing the boundary dangerously wrong.
Is Trinity an essential? It is not mentioned explicitly in the creeds or in the Bible?
There is enough in the Bible to create the basis for a solid theological doctrine. Hillsong with its own ‘generous orthodoxy’ allows non-trinitarians to speak at its conferences (TJ Jakes can certainly pull a crowd – and I guess that is what matters in that movement).
We don’t need Rob Bells, or Spongs, or Shepherd to challenge orthodoxy tin order to plasticize scripture to fit with our lives. Rather, there is a need more for Boenhoeffers to challenge how orthodox is applied in our lives.
Actually Rich – I doubt you and Bonhoeffer would see eye to eye!
can’t say I feel sympathetic, you choose the public form to peddle your wares, live by the sword, die by the sword.
It is interesting, and this is not a comment on your post at all. But I dont think I have seen similar sentiments for that other notable pastor from a different Mars Hill Church
Love this post!
I love Rob Bell – love listening to him speak, reading his books, and watching the way his mind works.
No, he is not a “pioneer” in one sense – In Love Wins he points out that he is saying nothing new, he is just repackaging it for a new audience. But the fact that he is doing that is kinda pioneering.
Yes, he can be evasive – but sometimes people ask us the wrong questions, so i get that. (He could do with better training in contentious media management…)
I love that he challenges what I think and how I see God – and reminds me that much of the way I understand God is based on my paradigm.
Im so excited that Oprah – for all her faults – is giving him a mainstream audience, in which to tell people about Jesus. I mean – what the? How can anyone with an evangelistic heart not see the good that he could do here?
I dont care that he doesnt toe the line and is imperfect.
I think he rocks. and I wonder how many more people would know jesus if more of us were just a little bit more like Rob Bell.
“How can anyone with an evangelistic heart not see the good that he could do here?”
It’s all very well to be excited, happy and hyper-positive in order to make it sound like it is a good thing – but what is the profiting and taking false teaching to the masses?
Should we also clap and cheer when the Church-of-Latter Day Saints advertise their lovely positive ads on TV – because they will reach so many people?
Just be aware that after Oprah denied Christ publicly on TV she lost millions of US viewers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bESXATmQy5s
Ever since, she has been recruiting compromised Christian ministers to help repair the Oprah brand.
Yet she will be placing these “Christian” teachers such as TD Jakes side by side with New Age Guru’s (eg. Deeprak Chopra) in her hyper-positive Life Master Class series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX8fLlIVtFs
We have to be alert to these things – as even the ‘elect’ can be deceived.
Gee how long doesy last comment have to stay with in moderation. Its enough to make me think that there is such a place as purgatory.
Hamo – The following comment was still caught in moderation – so I will try and repost:
Just be aware that after Oprah denied Christ publicly on TV she lost millions of US viewers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bESXATmQy5s
Ever since, she has been recruiting compromised Christian ministers to help repair the Oprah brand.
Yet she will be placing these “Christian” teachers such as TD Jakes side by side with New Age Guru’s (eg. Deeprak Chopra) in her hyper-positive Life Master Class series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX8fLlIVtFs
We have to be alert to these things – as even the ‘elect’ can be deceived.