Beloved and I really love the Nooma video series by Rob Bell, founder of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan. Velvet Elvis had been recommended to me by several people, so when I was given a gift card to amazon.com I figured it was time to pick this one up.It's a great book, but not the life-changing experience that some people had described to me. Basically, if you're familiar with the Nooma videos, you'll find little that's new here. It's good, but it's not new.
One thing I really admire about Rob Bell is his assault on the self-satisfaction much of the church has regarding our own holiness and the condescension we display toward those who are inactive or unchurched. When I listen to him I'm reminded that the church, not my own sinfulness, was the reason I dropped out for a few years. I was tired of the hypocrisy, the focus on public morality to the exclusion of all things spiritual and the utter lack of self-knowledge I saw in the church when I was a teenager and growing into an adult. Rob Bell sees much of the same, and he was brave enough to ask why we had to be captive to those things which had alienated us for so long. When no one gave him a satisfactory answer, he started a church that asked all the "Why" questions, and that church has been growing and moving spiritually ever since.
When I was in my first year of seminary, I wrote a paper on mission in which I identified two traits the church must embody if it seeks to embrace my generation and those younger than myself: authenticity and efficacy. That is, the church must be authentic in its devotion to God (rather than devoted to the continuation of the church - idolatry) and the faithful must give evidence of how their faith effects change in their lives. Rob Bell embodies these traits in the Nooma series and in his book Velvet Elvis, and I'm a better pastor and a stronger Christian as a result.
I ppreciate your post, as I find Bell's book an interesting read, with many perspectives I share. There is one primary aspect of the thoughts expressed that bothers me, however. It has to do with what the Bible is about.
ReplyDeleteRob says, “…this is why the Bible loses its power for so many communities. They fall into the trap of thinking that the Bible is just about things that happened a long time ago. / But the Bible is about today. / These stories are our stories. They are alive and active and teaching us about our lives in our world, today.” These words express a very dangerous perspective on salvation, our right standing before God. Let me clarify.
Jesus was clear in saying that the entire Bible was about Him (Luke 24:25-26). The intent is for us to know certain past facts and their bearing on us today. There is a reason for this. Our salvation; our right standing before God, fellowship with God, and everything else that goes with it; was earned for us in the past.
Martin Luther was right when he said that our salvation was extra nos, outside of us. Earned by Christ. Accomplished 2,000 years ago on a hill outside Jerusalem. We add nothing to this work. We through our faith are credited with what Christ did, and He is credited with our sin to suffer for (2 Cor. 5:21). If the Bible is not primarily about what happened in the past, then it is not about what Christ did for us in the past. If the Bible is about our here and now, it is not about those things which earn our salvation.
I will continue to read your blogg. I'm glad you read new books.
J. K.