Tag Archive - Rob Bell

When You Refuse To Take Care of Yourself, You Are Refusing To Take Care of Those Around You

October 9, 2009 in Marriage-Family, Ministry-Theology, Technology-Social Media with 3 Comments




This caught my eye:

  • Is there any way you’ve neglected to take care of yourself because of the allusion that you have to keep going all the time.
  • You need to be fulfilled with energy and vitality so you can love what you do more than you did before.
  • Have you been observing a Sabbath?
  • Which day of the week can we NOT get a hold of you because your cell phone is turned off?
  • Which day of the week do you not respond to emails?
  • Which day of the week are your busy doing NOTHING?
  • Which day of the week are you feeding your own soul so you can then turn and feed others.
  • Until we take care of ourselves, we can’t properly care for others.
  • Oftentimes our drive to work and to produce is driven by an unhealthy motive.
  • REPENT. Change your thinking.
  • Start with yourselves.
  • Does your spouse get your very best or does your spouse get what’s left over after you’ve given your best to your church, to what you are building?

(A Sampling of Tim Schraeder’s notes from Rob Bell’s talk at Catalyst)

And then again the same thing here:

Is there any way in your ministry, that you have neglected to take care of yourself? You need to love your neighbor as yourself. You need to take care of yourself so that you can be energized. Which day do you take care of yourself, so that you can give during the other six days of the week?

Does your spouse get your very best, or does your spouse get what is left over from the church? Do your kids get your very best, or do they get the scraps? Our children pick up on what really matters to us without us saying a word.

If it is not going well at home, it will not go well at church. Jesus invites us into a peaceful, calm place in the center of his love. (A Sampling of Kent Shaffer’s Notes from Rob Bell’s Talk at Catalyst

Why it caught my eye–The themes:
1. The inability for self-care
2. And how your inability for self-care affects your family

The reality:
You must learn how to take care of your self (aka self-care). You must learn how to say no to certain things. Even what seems like good things. You must create margins of space in your life where you can breathe and be FULLY present to others.

Because if you don’t….

It’s not just you that suffers, but it will be your family that suffers as well. Spouse, children, relatives. It will be your ministry, or church or organization that suffers as well.

Let’s start with IDENTITY:
Rob Bell is right when he stated: “Oftentimes our drive to work and to produce is driven by an unhealthy motive.” So have you taken the time to stop and reflect on your life…what motivates you to do the things that you do…both healthy and unhealthy? Have you created space in your life to do that? I believe that we do the things we do out based out of a core understanding/misunderstanding of who we are…our identity. And when our identity is misplaced, then we can spin our wheels trying to do more and more to please others or to try to prove our worth. Maybe a parent wasn’t present in our lives growing up so we spend the rest of our lives trying to prove that we are worthy…that we are lovable. Maybe we have failed in some areas of our life, made some mistakes, so we think if we just try harder, and push more, then we will be successful…people will like us.

Who knows what it is for you in your life? I don’t know where you have placed your identity, or where you get your worth from. But we must look at these things, because if we aren’t careful, they can then be the root of our inability to take care of ourselves. And when we can’t, or refuse to take care of ourselves, then we can’t take care of those that God has placed in our lives.

And the really frustrating thing is that I often do such a bad job of self-care…

So what are we to do?

Check out the next few posts as we explore some practical steps towards self-care.

Depression: Getting Honest With Our Journey

July 20, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Technology-Social Media, Therapy-Psychology with 2 Comments

Untitled
[image by Church Online]

This week I have had the opportunity to share some thoughts around depression with LifeChurch.tv. You can watch the 4:34 minute video, An Anchor in the Journey-Exodus 17:1 as I talk about the importance of seeing our lives as a journey, and the experiences we will come up across during the journey…such as depression.

Whether you are struggling with depression yourself, or just know someone who is, I hope that you can resonate with the video and the post below.

I remember where I was at the exact moment I read the words below by Rob Bell in his book Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith. I was sitting on our couch in Pasadena, CA and as I read each word the resonance grew deeper and deeper within me until I finally felt like I was hit by a ton of breaks…but at least understood. At least there was some pastor out there I thought, this one in Michigan, who put words to my feelings and thoughts in ways that I was not able to at the time. Bell says,

Once again I am going to give you some numbers, and I hesitate to do so, but it is part of the story and it helps to explain the rest. Two years into it, there were around 10,000 people coming to the three gatherings on Sundays.

In the middle of all this growth and chaos was me, superpastor. I was doing weddings and funerals and giving spiritual direction and going to meetings and teaching and dealing with crises and visiting people in prison and at the hospital–the pace and the workload were unreal.

I can’t begin to describe what it was like because it was happening so fast. One minute you have these ideas about how it could be and the next minute you are leading this exploding church/event/monster. All of a sudden there are all of these people who know who you are and want something from you and think you’re a big deal, and you are the same person you’ve always been. Everything has changed and yet it hasn’t. It’s hard to explain, but I found myself asking, “Where is the training manual?”

Continue Reading…

Depression, Burnout & Ministry: Deciding to Get Honest About Our Journeys…

January 22, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Therapy-Psychology with 37 Comments

42-17222040I remember where I was at the exact moment I read the words below by Rob Bell in his book Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith. I was sitting on our couch in Pasadena, CA and as I read each word the resonance grew deeper and deeper within me until I finally felt like I was hit by a ton of breaks…but at least understood.  At least there was some pastor out there I thought, this one in Michigan, who put words to my feelings and thoughts in ways that I was not able to at the time. Bell says,

Once again I am going to give you some numbers, and I hesitate to do so, but it is part of the story and it helps to explain the rest. Two years into it, there were around 10,000 people coming to the three gatherings on Sundays.

In the middle of all this growth and chaos was me, superpastor. I was doing weddings and funerals and giving spiritual direction and going to meetings and teaching and dealing with crises and visiting people in prison and at the hospital–the pace and the workload were unreal.

I can’t begin to describe what it was like because it was happening so fast. One minute you have these ideas about how it could be and the next minute you are leading this exploding church/event/monster. All of a sudden there are all of these people who know who you are and want something from you and think you’re a big deal, and you are the same person you’ve always been. Everything has changed and yet it hasn’t. It’s hard to explain, but I found myself asking, “Where is the training manual?”

Continue Reading…

Saving Christians…

October 31, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 2 Comments

Interesting article in Relevant Magazine with Rob Bell on Saving Christians.

Here is an excerpt:

In the intro of your new book, Jesus Wants To Save Christians, you describe the specific theology you are trying to articulate as a New Exodus perspective. How is this approach to reading the Bible different from a systematic or biblical theology?

Systematic theology dissects the story, cutting the body of the text into separate pieces for the purposes of study. Biblical theology puts the pieces back together into a living narrative. Both do so from a particular perspective influenced by the reader’s history, culture, politics and economic status. The New Exodus is one perspective, taken from the side of the weak and marginal and the God who cares about them. We’re interested in the big story because that’s what the Bible is—a story that unfolds across history. Who are the major characters, what’s the plot, how do we take part in it? Perhaps this is why Jesus can be hard to understand. It’s hard to understand the later parts if you haven’t been brought up to speed on where the story has been so far.

The literal and metaphorical idea of Exodus is a key part of the story God is telling—why don’t we hear more about the connection of Exodus in our churches today?

The Exodus is about the oppressed-slaves-being rescued. Less than two hundred years ago in our country, people in churches owned slaves. Exodus would have been an awkward story to tell in those settings, because after all, the Pharoah character is the bad guy. Needy people talk about Exodus. Jesus said it. It’s hard to enter the kingdom of heaven when you’re content with the kingdom you already have. If we aren’t talking about Exodus it’s because we aren’t looking for one. That’s when we know we need the needs of others. Their Exodus can become our own.

In your book you say, “To preserve prosperity at the expense of the powerless is to miss the heart of God.” In what ways do you believe the church in America has “preserved prosperity” at others’ expense?

I think it’s wise to avoid generalities such as “the church” because whenever I hear people make sweeping generalizations about “the church” I always think “yes, but I know lots of churches where they are compassionate, where they are intellectually honest, etc…”Perhaps one obvious question a church can ask herself is “What percentage of our budget is spent on us and what is spent on others?

The Church has missed the heart of God by speaking out against abortion while keeping silent about war. Both are forms of violence used to preserve prosperity. Abortion is prenatal war against the powerless child. War is postnatal abortion that destroys innocent life. The kingdom is life for the fetus and life for the civilian. The church embodies this life in a world of expedient and preemptive killing.

Most Thorough Review Yet of “Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile”

October 17, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 6 Comments

Ben Witherington has really outdone himself this time, with one of the most thorough book reviews I have come across of Rob Bell and Dan Golden’s new book, Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile.

I’m a huge “fan” of Rob Bell’s teachings and writings, and have even had the privilege of hosting him at UCLA on his Sex God Tour a year and a half ago. So I have definitely been waiting for this book to arrive, especially since the topic is so important and I think many are fearful of tackling it. I look forward to reading the book, but for now enjoy a couple of quotes from Witherington’s review, and then read it in its entirety:

But let the buyer beware— anyone brave enough to take on and milk the All American sacred cows of greed and sex are bound to get to some other nice little non-controversial golden calves like ‘Christians and politics, or Christians and war’, or Christians and social justice, or Christians and the oppressed and the poor– right? Right.

and

The book begins with a retelling of the tragic tale of Cain and Abel which gives the authors the opportunity to suggest that this story is about all of us—somewhere East of Eden, trying to build a city and a civilization outside of Paradise and in a fallen world. Ain’t it the truth. But this book is especially about the indigenization of human falleness in America particularly, and how our behavior as an Empire, in some ways much like the Roman Empire, is a particular manifestation of what is deeply wrong with human society, something which is more like the behavior of Cain, than Abel.

One of the roots of the problem in America is pointed out at the very outset of the book is put in these terms—“A Christian should get very nervous when the flag and the cross start holding hands. This is not a romance we want to encourage”(p. 18). Indeed, if pushed far enough it becomes a form of idolatry, the ultimate fallen behavior. And of course Bell and Golden are right. When you are spending a trillion dollars in Iraq and untold billions here in America for Homeland In-Security, and invest 50 billion in one plane with helicopter features as a ‘better weapon of mass destruction’ and of course it still is not making us safe, indeed it makes us feel less secure in many cases not more, isn’t it time to ask—Is fear or faith dictating our dominant national behavior in such matters? What’s wrong with this picture from a Christian point of view? At least Bell and Golden are brave enough to ask the right questions about all of this, even though doubtless they are going to be slammed as unpatriotic, rather like Jews were by the Roman Empire when they refused to worship at the altars of the Emperor cult.

I love that last line, “At least Bell and Golden are brave enough to ask the right questions about all of this, even though doubtless they are going to be slammed as unpatriotic, rather like Jews were by the Roman Empire when they refused to worship at the altars of the Emperor cult.”

It is amazing to me that when we question American values and political party loyalties we are questioned as being unpatriotic or ungrateful…even if at the cost of sacrificing our values as Christians. My friend is right, “We are often more American than Christian.” Thank God for those who call that into question.

Check out their website Jesus Wants to Save Christians.

Punch in the stomach…

April 10, 2008 in Uncategorized with 14 Comments

This hits too close to home…yikes.

Jesus Wants to Save Christians
A Manifesto for the Church in Exile
by Rob Bell and Don Golden

There is a church not too far from us that recently added a $25 million addition to their building.

Our local newspaper ran a front-page story not too long ago about a study revealing that one in five people in our city lives in poverty.

This is a book about those two numbers.

It’s a book about faith and fear,

wealth and war,

poverty, power, safety, terror,

Bibles, bombs, and homeland insecurity,

It’s about empty empires and the truth that everybody’s a priest, it’s about oppression, occupation, and what happens when Christians support, animate and participate in the very things Jesus came to set people free from.

It’s about what it means to be a part of the church of Jesus in a world where some people fly planes into buildings while others pick up groceries in Hummers.

HT: Anne Jackson

Shane Claiborne, Four Models of the Emerging Church and the Ability to See With Fresh Eyes

January 16, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 11 Comments

Last night our college ministry partnered with our Middle School, High School and Young Adult Departments in hosting a night with Shane Claiborne called, “Have Less, Live More.” It was the culmination of six months of collaborative study and teaching on the Minor Prophets between our departments and we brought Shane out to embody some of the messages we see in the Minor Prophets regarding poverty, wealth, social justice, community, truth, love, et cetera. I thought Shane was amazing and we were quite spoiled by having him speak at our morning staff chapel, enjoying lunch with him and then seeing him speak last night. I have a lot of things going through my head and I’m trying to process all of them. But the one message that resonated with me was:

  • How can I be a different kind of (fill in the blank)? Doctor, lawyer, teacher, pastor, counselor, engineer, parent, et cetera.

As Shane shared stories of people who have chosen to be different kinds of doctors, lawyers and engineers I was thinking to myself how can I be a different kind of college pastor/a different kind of marriage and family therapist? It seems like a simple question, and it is. But the reality is, is that we are often so busy and too consumed with ourselves that we rarely take time to think differently. He told the story of a robotics engineer who instead of just pursuing that work to it’s own end and making lots of money, he has chosen to build robots to disassemble land mines in foreign countries that often take the lives of children. He talked about a Harvard lawyer who decided to move to the South and represent those on death row who are often without money or the right resources. He talked about a massage therapist who decided that instead of just having a practice where she charges $100 to give people with money massages, she goes into the inner city, washes the feet of the poor and gives them foot massages. That is being a different kind of (fill in the blank).

I also have been thinking a lot about Shane and where he fits into Evangelicalism, Christianity, et cetera, mainly because he attracts a wide variety of people from various denominations as well as various strains of Christianity, both Catholicism and Protestantism. His message has really resonated with me and my students this last year as well. So that’s why I was intrigued this week to read the post Four Models of Emerging Churches by Wess Daniels. Wess describes the four models (emerging churches and their thinkers/practitioners) as:

  • Deconstructionist Model (Peter Rollins, Tony Jones, Brian McLaren, etc)
  • Pre-modern/Augustinian Model (John Milbank, James K. Smith, etc)
  • Emerging Peace Church Model or/Open Anabaptism (Shane Claiborne, Rob Bell, etc)
  • Foundationalist Model (Mark Driscoll, Dan Kimball, Erwin McManus, etc)

If you know me, or read this blog, you know that I talk a lot about the emerging church, and that I’m very drawn to many, many aspects of it. But I was intrigued by Wess’ critique because I never thought myself as placed in the “Emerging Peace Church Model”, though the people Wess characterizes as a part of that model I am very drawn to. This last March we hosted Rob Bell on his Sex God Tour, last night was Shane Claiborne as you know and two years ago we hosted, a night with Donald Miller. Though Wess doesn’t characterize Don as falling into one of the models, I wonder where he does fit. I think he might fit into the “Emerging Peace Church Model” as well, and I don’t think it’s a surprise that Miller recently preached at Bell’s church.

So to bring it all back together I’m asking myself the questions:

  • Is there a connection between my attraction to the emergent church, and the ability to be a “different” kind of pastor/counselor/father/husband/friend, et cetera?
  • Is the emerging church the one strain of Christianity (at least right now) that allows for some rethinking, that allows others to see things with fresh eyes?
  • Does mainstream evangelicalism or mainline denominationalism prohibit or restrict those within it from seeing things anew because of the inability to break free from certain traditions, rules, polity, etc?

Just thinking out loud…..

If you are drawn to the emerging church, what do you think of the four models and where do you see yourself?