Turn and burn

There is some controversy going on about Rob Bell's last tour (or really, I guess about anything he says). I don't really want to dig too much deeper into this particular Bell-saga because this stuff drives just ends up driving me crazy and doesn't really do any good, but here is the gist...

One camp is arguing that all Bell talks about is love, and he doesn't tell the whole story about needing to repent and finding your salvation in Christ. It's more effective (and thus, loving) to tell them they are going to hell and then telling them about fire insurance, pointing to the 10 commandments and our necessary obedience.

The other camp is saying that Bell totally knows we need Christ as our savior, but the street corner scare tactics aren't really getting anywhere and we are better off sharing the gospel through love, as pointed out by Jesus's answer to what is most important: loving God and loving others.

Just wondering what you think of this back and forth between "sides" of Christianity. It reminds me of the tag-line on Wallis's book "...the right gets it wrong and the left doesn't get it." I want to see both sides to every story and not be so black & white in my thinking, but I find it hard when one or the other seems so obviously right. What a pickle!

He's littler in real life

It's too bad I'm not a fan of Michigan, because I think Mars Hill would be an amazing church to attend. Even with the enormous numbers. I've read Rob Bell's books, seen a few Nooma videos, and also went to The God's Aren't Angry tour last month. I love his approach to communicating God's love. This is a pretty good article about him in Time Magazine.

Read his books. Tell me what you think. If you have a chance to hear him speak I strongly recommend you do so. I love that the proceeds of that tour (although I will say I don't know what percent of the ticket price qualifies as "proceed") goes to microfinance projects. That is simply beautiful.