Relevant magazine recently published an article about Rob Bell in their most recent issue. It was an interview with him and they asked him some pretty thought provoking questions. I have always liked Rob Bell, but I felt like in the past few years he has wandered from the mission of preaching the gospel. I’m not necessarily sure that it true anymore. I think that his understanding of the gospel has changed. I still think that he is leaving out a fairly significant issue – the fact that Jesus called us to make disciples and that he was constantly calling people to follow him. But, what I liked about the interview that I read in Relevant was that Rob Bell is extremely consistent. He believes that a large part of being a follower of Christ is realizing the interconnectedness of humanity. There are many ripple effects for this view – being an environmentalist, caring about social justice type issues, being involved in what’s going on in Africa…
I agree with Bell that we should be involved in these issues, but we can’t leave out the fact that Jesus called us to make disciples. Last time I checked that was the great commission. Otherwise will end up propagating the powerless social-gospel all over again. I like Bell because he is such an innovative thinker – but let’s always measure what everyone says against scripture. I don’t think that Bell is unscriptural at all, but I just don’t think he is teaching the whole counsel of the word.
