Rick Warren tweeted this in response to Rob Bell leaving his church:
Speaking tours feed the ego=All applause&no responsibility.It’s an unreal world. A church gives accountability& validity
Someone then asked him, “Do u think well-known pastors who leave their churches have more or less impact?” His response:
Always less.No base 4credibility
I think there is some good truth to this. I am not opposed to itinerant ministries or anything of the sort, but there is no “institution” on earth promised God’s blessings other than the church and the accountability factor cannot truly be replicated anywhere else.
What say you?
“All applause&no responsibility.” Yep. That’s it.
Dave, I don’t have a problem with guys doing this if they’re still members of a local church, and are held accountable by that local body.
Um, shouldn’t he have said something about Bell’s heretical doctrine? I mean, why would something like Bell need to be in a church anyway.
I don’t think his point was simply about Rob Bell, but about the importance of staying in a ministry position to remain credible.
A call from theoligcal credibility from Rick Warren. Now THAT is funny.
Yes, because pastoring a church means you produce more orthodox sermons and books.
Oh wait, nevermind.
I find Warren moving at times, though he seems conventionally liberal, too.
I’ve been utterly uninterested in Bell since he wrote Love Wins Out. It seems he’s taken the same trajectory as Origen, whose position on universalism was struck down early on. And that was for a good reason. The Bible teaches a future and eternal separation of the righteous and the wicked.
There are many ways to work and many ways to minister. One does not have to be a pastor to be carrying out effective, responsible, accountable ministry.
Granted, I don’t expect respectability, accountability, or faithfulness from Bell, but the problems with Bell are not the same thing as issues with this type of ministry.
I guess if people will flood into huge buildings to hear Osteen, then they’ll do the same to hear Bell’s heresy, too.
I know one ole boy that wont be going to hear either one of them…
David
…something about giving people what their itching ears want to hear.
But I think Bell genuinely believes it. He stretches the Bible like a rubberband until it snaps. All will be saved, eventually. All religions will work as channels in that process. And so on.
I wonder if the itinerant “revivalists” are anything remotely approaching the evangelists seen in the Bible. They didn’t seem to run from established church to established church preaching, and they didn’t seem to be ex-local church pastors who couldn’t handle the shepherd half of their calling. Nor do I see local church pastors merely preaching somewhere else for a week to supplement their income via a “love offering”.
I am not at all sure I’m in favor of “churchless pastors”, as it were.
Somehow I ruined the formatting on this post haha…
Anybody who believes that Warren is “accountable” to anyone at Saddleback, I have some beachfront property in Ark to sell you.
As someone who at one time followed Rob Bell when he first came onto the scene and really enjoyed his style of preaching and teaching compared to the “Three and an Alter” that I constantly hear even today, I have to say that the past two years have been incredibly tough for me to stomach. I love Rob Bell’s Nooma series because they set such a high standard for production quality and they are written in such a way to promote discussion in just about any setting. It kills me that there have been no legitimate attempts by pastors to… Read more »
Surprisingly, Bell said much that was true. But he’s since departed from the Christian storyline. He’s rewritten the ending. I don’t know if this says anything about his spritual state. I do know it renders him unfit to teach and preach.
II Peter Chapter 2…pretty much all of it.
i’m just sayin’….
Joe, I don’t know whether he’s one of those, but it seems some Christians can’t accept the prospect of eternal damnation. They feel forced to end the story happily for all. C. S. Lewis, I think, treated it effectively. Acknowledging that damnation was true, he went on to explain what he thought its metaphors pointed to: an eternal experience of separation and anguish. Not a giant pig-roast.
Bell is completely unoriginal in his universalist proposal. Many Christians have found it difficult to accept the eternal damnation of souls. George MacDonald couldn’t. Neither could Madeleine L’Engle. The philosophic urge is toward synthesis, and we desire a comic outcome for all. But the Bible teaches a future and eternal separation of the righteous and wicked. Outside the gates are all those who choose not to enter. As C. S. Lewis stated, “the doors to hell are locked from the inside.” I don’t wish to imagine a world where all are forced to enter in. When one considers what really… Read more »
Bell’s Nooma series was a creative endeavor. I’m sorry it can’t be more beneficial for people. I think others should replicate it.
Francis Chan is doing a series called BASIC from the makers of NOOMA. It will be orthodox, if nothing else.
I’m not familiar with Chan. I certainly hope it works out.