Subscribe Member Benefits Give a Gift. Subscribers receive full access to the archives. Rob Bell Former Mars Hill Bible Church Michigan pastor Rob Bell sparked crowds of imitators with his brief Nooma videos from to and published several popular books, famous for their broad margins and his elliptical writing style. Featured Articles Book Review. The controversial pastor raises crucial questions, but offers answers that may sabotage his goals. Mark Galli March 14, Rob Bell on why he talks about the Good News the way he does.
Interview by Mark Galli April 22, Cover Story. The 'emerging church' movement has generated a lot of excitement but only a handful of congregations. Is it the wave of the future or a passing fancy? Andy Crouch November 1, The answers I was given were insufficient because I still felt like I was dying inside.
Rob Bell was not scared of those questions. He doesn't provide black and white answers. Going to hear a pastor preach on a Sunday afternoon is considered an act of piety.
But when that pastor is Bell and he's speaking in the heart of the Bible Belt, it's subversive. Bell, who made the cover of Time magazine, is an outlaw in the evangelical world. He was cast out of that kingdom in after he questioned the existence of hell in his New York Times best-selling book, "Love Wins.
Learn why Bell was condemned by evangelical leaders. Bell is still in the business of making audacious moves. You voted for a leader who has "zero moral compass. Bell, who was once a megachurch pastor, says many evangelicals voted that way because they were motivated by "fear and power. The story of Exodus is remembering you were once wandering slaves, so whatever you do be kind to the widow, the orphan, the immigrant among you. So when a nation of immigrants starts putting up travel bans, you have officially lost the plot.
It's one thing for Bell to deliver such pronouncements from his home in Southern California, where he lives with his wife and three kids. What happens, though, when he offers them from a stage in the Bible Belt, deep in the heart of Trump Country? While most churches struggle to attract people, Rob Bell had fans lining up two hours before his show in Atlanta.
The type of progressive message Bell preaches doesn't normally pack the church pews. But his Atlanta venue was a funky theater in the city's Little Five Points district, an artsy intown area where people are more apt to openly smoke marijuana than cite scriptures in public.
Two hours before showtime, a crowd had already lined up to hear Bell speak. The theater would eventually sell out. What was Bell doing to attract such crowds?
A tough question from the crowd. The people who assembled two hours before the show at the Variety Playhouse didn't look like church folks. There were big biker types with ZZ Top beards, young women with tattoos, college-age students in sandals and shorts. Bell doesn't look a typical pastor either. Tall and lean, he was wearing navy blue capri pants and tan leather sneakers without socks when he came out before the show to meet some of his fans.
He looked like a middle aged surfer and, in fact, he likes to surf when he's back home. The laid-back Southern California vibe he gives off, though, dissipates when he talks about his faith. He's a rapid-fire speaker who can go from delivering comic one-liners one minute to in-depth discourses on first century Jewish hospitality customs the next.
But there is another side to Bell's ministry that was on display, one that endears him to so many fans. He was awaiting the birth of his child but a doctor recently told him and his wife that their baby probably wouldn't survive. Is he wrong for being angry with God? An uneasy silence descended on the small preshow group, which had been laughing at some of Bell's comic asides.
But Bell didn't offer any preacher platitudes. He told the man he had some tough times ahead. Critics accused Bell of being a heretic, a political liberal, and a Universalist, among other labels. Bell told The New Yorker that the publication of his book resulted in a 3,person decrease in membership at Mars Hill Bible Church, which he founded in Wife of the megachurch pastor, Kristen Bell, remembers staying home from service for some weeks because she could not stand the criticism her husband was receiving for his book.
The Evangelical Alliance issued a review of the controversial book, saying that although Bell displays "brilliant communication skills" in Love Wins , he also communicates only part of the truth regarding hell, which can be "disturbing to those who believe in the other half of the truth.
Others, however, argued that those accusing Love Wins of being a book about simply heaven and hell were missing the bigger picture and message conveyed by Bell.
And if that happens to stir up a few things, that's something I accept," Bell said at the time of his book's release, as previously reported by The Christian Post. Ultimately, Bell and his wife chose to leave their West Michigan church and seek a new way of life in California, where Bell and Carlton Cuse, producer of the hit TV series "Lost", are teaming up to work on a "faith-inflected talk show.
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