Dialogue with Rob Bell

Yeah, but I’m also so inspired by the many awesome things happening all over the place. I was just with, last night a group of church leaders in the Philadelphia area who are planting churches in their urban neighborhoods and it’s just the most fresh, life-giving kind of thing and they just set out to make things better, and they’re working on a water filtration project in the Sudan, and so all sorts of organizations in their neighborhoods have said to them, we love what you’re doing in the Sudan there, would you like to be a part of our thing over here? It’s just opening up all sorts of doors and discussion, and dialogue and people journeying with each other, and hearing each others perspective and I just think that’s great. It’s great. I think it’s what Jesus had in mind.

It’s all over. Everywhere I go there are these just brilliant, new expressions of the historic Christian stream that’s been around for thousands of years, that are just so fresh, and innovative, and life giving, and it’s great. So I’m very encouraged. To me what’s more interesting is the next right thing to do and the things that are kind of exploding now that you think, oh, that’s beautiful, that’s going to be around for a while, and that’s great.

So you’re optimistic?

Oh yeah. Sure. Sure. Very.

Good. Referring back to the power of the church that, in my opinion, has been missing most of my lifetime - Walter Martin - you know Walter Martin?

I’ve heard that name.

There’s something Walter Martin said that kind of hit me; that I identified with. He said, “There are those in our pews and behind our pulpits, in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, but upon whom the Holy Spirit has not come with power.”

Do you see the power - the real power of Christ working generally in the churches - or is it what you just said; that there are groups here, there are groups there, that are growing, that are gaining momentum, where the power is evident.

Well I see it - yeah - I see awesome displays of redemption and healing power. There was a girl last night that we ran into who just sobbed with joy as she talked about her story of cutting herself and self abuse, and how she’s been getting help, and she’s healing, and she feels like there’s a new day for her. She just sent my brother an email today and it’s just awesome. I mean her life is just absolutely, totally transformed. And I see that all the time. I run into people all the time who are just - like there life is night and day. That’s the world I live in. I wouldn’t find it interesting to live in some other world. So for me it’s an endless series of stories of people saying, “Man, let me tell you what happened to me recently,” or “Let me tell you what happened to my brother,” and that’s what it’s supposed to be like. Anything else would be strange. I don’t know what you’d call it.

But yeah, I meet lots and lots of people like you who say they have lived with a profound restlessness and a deep sense of deep dissatisfaction that it’s not supposed to be like this. There’s supposed to be a movement; a working; a flow; an energy; an electricity that you haven’t seen; that you know is how it’s supposed to be, and that’s just tragic - tragic and shocking.

I know you hate labels. I hate labels. I know you’ve been identified with the Emergent Church, and I have no idea what that means. And I know you’ve said you disagree, that’s not who you are and you don’t want to be labeled, and I can understand that. What is the Emergent Church, specifically?

Well, I had it explained to me that Emergent is a discussion. A conversation among people who are saying that every generation needs to wrestle with what it means to be the people of Jesus in the world we find ourselves in. Every generation has to look around and ask what it means now, and of course that’s absolutely necessary, and brilliant and compelling.

So if by Emergent, people mean a conversation, wrestling with what Jesus is up to now, and how we organize ourselves around what Jesus is up to here and now, that’s great. But I think when people say that they’re trying to create a whole new set of, “Are you in or out?” and that’s not helpful.