Rob Bell and a New American Christianity

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Robert Holmes " Rob " Bell Jr. Under his leadership Mars Hill was one of the fastest-growing churches in America. He has since become a freelance writer and speaker appearing on various talk shows and national speaking tours on topics related to spirituality and leadership. He also hosts a popular podcast called,'The Robcast.

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Bell is the son of U. After graduating from high school, Bell attended Wheaton College in Illinois. Repainting the Christian Faith. Wheaton College was also where Bell met his wife, Kristen. Bell received his bachelor's degree in from Wheaton and taught water skiing in the summers at the college's Honey Rock Camp, making about thirty dollars a week.

During this time, he offered to teach a Christian message to the camp counselors after no pastor could be found. He taught a message about rest and was later approached by several people, each of them telling him that he should pursue teaching as a career. Bell moved to Pasadena, California to pursue this calling for teaching and received a M.

According to Bell, he never received good grades in preaching class because he always tried innovative ways to communicate his ideas. During his time at Fuller he was a youth intern at Lake Avenue Church.

He did, however, occasionally attend Christian Assembly in Eagle Rock, California , which led to him and his wife asking questions in the direction of how a new style of church would appear. When asked what style of music they played, Bell would respond with "Northern Gospel! Even after Big Fil stopped performing, Bell continued with two more projects by the name of Uno Dos Tres Communications volume 1 and 2 , both of which had a similar musical sound to Big Fil.

Bell and his wife moved from California to Grand Rapids to be close to family and on invitation to study under pastor Ed Dobson. He handled many of the preaching duties for the Saturday Night service at Calvary Church. Bell announced that he would be branching out on his own to start a new kind of community and he would call it "Mars Hill" after the Greek site where the apostle Paul told a group, "For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

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Within a year the church was given a shopping mall in Grandville, Michigan , and purchased the surrounding land. In July the 3, "grey chair" facility opened its doors. As of , an estimated 11, people attended the two "gatherings" on Sundays at 9 and 11 AM. In order to maintain balance in his life, Bell maintained his Fridays as a personal sabbath, where he did not allow contact by electronic means, and had all pastoral duties transferred to other Mars Hill pastors.

In the January issue of the magazine TheChurchReport. In June , Bell was named by Time Magazine as one of the " Time ", the magazine's annual list of the most influential people in the world. Bell stepped down from the church he founded on September 22, in order to pursue other areas to reach a broader audience.

In his debut book, Bell explores a new understanding of the Christian faith. Bell's Everything is Spiritual national speaking tour launched on June 30, , in Chicago , drawing sold-out crowds in cities across North America. The proceeds from ticket sales were used to support WaterAid , an international non-profit organization dedicated to helping people escape the poverty and disease caused by living without safe water and sanitation. Bell's second book, titled Sex God: In February and March Bell hosted a "Sex God" tour on six university campuses to promote his book.

The tour functioned more as a time for engaging questions and conversation. Questions ranged from Old Testament codes to homosexuality to what should Christians do with the word "evangelical". Bell launched another speaking tour on November 5, , in Chicago. The subject matter was a narrative defense of justification through faith and not works sacrifice. Proceeds from this tour were used to support the Turame Microfinance program supporting the poor in Burundi, a mission supported by Bell's church. Bell's project, Drops Like Stars, explores the links between creativity and suffering.

Drops Like Stars was an international tour and a book, initially handwritten by Bell, with photographs.

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The title of the project comes from a young child's view of raindrops on a window at night. Rather than focusing on the conundrum of why an all-powerful God would allow suffering, Bell instead looks at the creativity, empathy, new connections, and growth that can spring from suffering. When asked in an interview how he had become interested in suffering, Bell replied that as a pastor he had been given a front row seat in the most poignant moments of people's lives.

At the same time he was doing lectures on creativity and realized, "There was a connection between these two halves of my life — all these connections between suffering and art-making. ABC television announced production of a new television drama, Stronger , co-written by Bell and Carlton Cuse , the executive producer of the television series, Lost. Bell and Cuse have moved on to another project described as a "faith-inflected talk show" presented by Bell.

Two tapings of the proposed show were filmed in September in a warehouse in Los Angeles' art district in order to put together a reel for network executives. His first and second guest each night were Cathleen Falsani and James "Jame-o" Primbram, an eco-warrior. In his writings, Bell says "I affirm the truth anywhere in any religious system, in any worldview.

If it's true, it belongs to God.

Rob Bell and a New American Christianity - James K. Wellman, Jr. - Google Книги

Bell says, "This is not just the same old message with new methods. We're rediscovering Christianity as an Eastern religion, as a way of life. Legal metaphors for faith don't deliver a way of life. We grew up in churches where people knew the nine verses why we don't speak in tongues, but had never experienced the overwhelming presence of God. He often comes across as a loner, though he is working now with a group of fifty adepts.

Rob Bell's New American Christianity? — Martin E. Marty

Many lines show his appeal to the "spiritual-but-not-religious" cohort, the "go-it-alone" spiritual entrepreneurs. So we follow him into newness. They have since become old-new and in some cases are more old than new.

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We chronicled valuable experiments and creative achievements which had positive effects. The "emergent church keeps emerging," yet many of its "newnesses" are seen as settling in and settling back along with "conventional" religious observances of old. One dismisses a Rob Bell at peril, because he generates so many ideas, takes so many risks, and issues valid criticisms.

But what will come of all this? The profiles we are quoting tell us that he has changed pace, appearance, and interests. He now goes surfing off the California coast, and is as devoted to the fifty-member mini-church as he was to the mega-church.

The old styles against which he rebelled certainly deserve examination, critique, and in many cases, abandonment. But Christianity and its religious counterparts were not developed with just the present generation in mind, kinetic as it is in style and digital in its favored literary constructions.

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