Clear as a Bell

5/16/2011

What a troublesome guy Rob Bell is. I understand there has been some strong concern that we have been using his Nooma videos on Wednesday nights for discussions, and I think it’s worth addressing. In the first place, I’m sincerely glad that people are concerned about using Rob Bell. All Christians should take the sound teaching of the church seriously, and when we have someone we’re discussing showing up in the news for breaching orthodox Christian teaching, that deserves serious attention. Of course as pastor, I have a particular responsibility for the content of teaching in the church, and if I let that get out of hand, it is my fault first (Titus 1:9, understanding the pastor as an elder). So here is a little bit of the thinking that went into using the Rob Bell videos.

I was looking for something to follow the Andy Griffith series we were doing, and I wanted to find a video that was engaging to unbelievers and presented issues in a fresh way. I discovered we already had twenty-two of the Nooma videos, several of which I had seen in college, and they seemed just the thing. Admittedly I knew Rob Bell could be iffy at times several years ago. As I went back and reviewed them, I found there are some videos that are great, and some that are just weird. I prayed and contemplated long and hard about starting this series. I previewed about a dozen of them before making my decision, and there were so many that I wanted to share and discuss with our church (Rain, Sunday, Noise, Kickball, Lump). In the end, I decided to make use of the excellent messages and discussion materials poignantly delivered in a selection of these videos and leave the other videos out.

Then Rob Bell started showing up in the news. When we started the series, it was well received, and I could probably count on one hand the number of people in our church who had heard of Rob Bell, even if you don’t count the thumb as a finger. But suddenly he was on CNN and MSNBC and even the cover of Time for a new book he’s written. What this book claims is not entirely clear from reports I have heard and read (I haven’t gotten hold of the book myself yet), but that’s not too surprising from a man who seems to feel about a clear theological stance the way our one-year-old feels about having his face wiped after eating spaghetti. Whatever his claim, it takes a shot at the exclusivity of the power of the gospel to save. I don’t see why that should get you on CNN, since liberalism has been around for centuries, but it did raise the question about our Nooma videos. I must admit, when I heard he was getting all this press, I was pleased to know that people in our church would know to be cautious of Rob Bell. I was filtering the content allowed on Wednesday nights, but if someone then went and grabbed one of his books (even before the most recent one), they might not know what they’re getting into. Now, however, everyone knew the evangelical world had wrapped Rob Bell in caution tape, if not chucked him out altogether, and I was glad we all had the heads-up.

Here’s where my brain stopped working. You might call this inexperience or just oversight, but I didn’t stop to think, as some have, that doing the Nooma videos on Wednesday nights might convey the message, First Christian Church endorses that Rob Bell character and all his heresy. [Shudder.] No, we don’t endorse Rob Bell or his new book, either collectively or individually. I haven’t read the book yet, nor has anyone I’ve talked to about it, so I really can’t say whether he’s launched clean off the edge of Christian faith or is still being wishy-washy along the edges, but either way I wouldn’t let him stand behind our pulpit. The advantage of videos is that I can screen them ahead of time, and then we discuss them afterward. That said, should I have cut our video series short when he hit the news, not because of their content but because of whom they’re associated with? Maybe I’ll know better once I have his book in my hands. But we have one Nooma video left to watch, and we’re going to go ahead with it. If you want my take ahead of time, I’ll just say he does a great job of setting up the gospel in this one—but then fails to clearly explain it. That’s why our last discussion question is an opportunity for each group to explain the gospel. Hopefully we can strike a note more clear than this Bell. (Ugh, what a pun.)