LOVE WINS: a thought towards method/venue appropriateness

I really enjoyed Love Wins. Did I agree with everything? No. Did it make me think? Yes. And that, I think, was Rob Bell's goal.

The aftermath of Rob Bell’s Love Wins has left a wake of blogs, articles, and books soon-to-be published. Most of these writings attack Bell’s theological views on heaven and hell.

Some of them rightly question him on his treatment of scripture (The most glaring transgression in my mind is the misapplication of OT reconciliation/restoration passages to say that ALL people/nations will be restored to right relationship with God. When the context of these passages most clearly fall in line with God’s eternal plan for the people of God- now those in Jesus [cf. Genesis 12:3; Galatians 3:14, 28-29]). Others rip him apart and attack a view that would probably seem foreign even to Bell.

I’m upset and saddened by those who fall into this second category- mostly because of their misrepresentation of Bell’s views. I’ll admit, nailing down Bell’s thoughts on heaven and hell is a little like nailing Jello to the wall. There are few places in the book where you can get a concrete glimpse into where he lands. However, a fair treatment of Bell must be upheld regardless (And if you haven’t read his book, you can’t talk). Here is the litmus test: if Rob Bell were to read what you said he believes, would he agree? Sadly, with many of these articles I don't think he would.

So what am I adding to this discussion? In this blog, I will steer clear of conjecture and thoughts on Bell’s theological convictions on heaven and hell and speak towards his method and platform. While so much is being written about Rob Bell, I'd rather talk about my last visit to the chiropractor.

My neck was really tweaked. I looked sideways at my chiropractor with a half smile. He turned me around and quickly yanked my neck well beyond what was natural and normal (Is this even safe?!). I was immediately back to balanced. In order to re-align your neck, a chiropractor will extend your neck far past the natural range in order to get you back to center. If the chiropractor simply rotated my neck to normal, it would have quickly returned to jacked up. The over-extension forced my neck to rest normal once again.

This experience sheds light on what I believe Rob Bell is attempting to do with our thinking on heaven and hell. In his intentional line of questioning, he’s taking us well beyond what we’re comfortable with in order to bring us back to what he believes to be a more balanced position.

There are two ways to change someone's thinking. One, you can plead and tell them where they ought to be and hope they change their thinking more towards your view. Or two, you can get them thinking so far beyond their current position that they move closer to the view you actually want them to hold than they would have with method one.

If ever you want $40,000 (I don’t know when this would apply), you’re more likely to get the full $40K if you ask for $80,000. In the stretching and questioning of Love Wins, Bell is more likely to get drastic results in changed thinking on heaven and hell. However, this leads to a very important question…

Is it right for Bell to use this method in his bestseller?

While I respect Rob Bell, appreciate his heart, admire what he’s trying to do, and am grateful for some/many of his observations in his book (Especially his thoughts against an unhealthy divorce of heaven in the earthly realm and more towards a marriage/recognition of heaven in the earthly realm [read The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis or Jesus in the gospels.. ie- Matthew 6:10])- I believe his careless chiropractic method is reckless in his chosen medium.

Maybe his book is completely appropriate and effective for those in his church, the people he knows, and for his culture; but the same values don’t transfer when printed for mass media. The things Bell brings up would be great for a classroom setting or for shepherding someone through issues when you can walk with a person week in and week out as they wrestle through the questions. But when he tosses a grenade out to the general public without follow-up or instructions and says, “Here, fiddle around with it… you’ll figure it out” -it crosses over to the realm of carelessness.

And that’s what he’s done. Bell has introduced many ideas to be wrestled through without a guardian. Who will shepherd those going through his New York Times bestseller? Frankly, it shocks me that the chosen platform for this method comes from a man that plays the role of pastor. Isn’t careful shepherding and follow up the very thing that scripture calls church leadership to do (Titus 1:9)? What sorts of views and heresy will the masses form about Christianity with the platform Bell used?

Fortunately, neither the gates of Hell nor even Rob Bell can crush Jesus’ church (Matthew 16:18). But it doesn’t mean that a teacher like Rob Bell can be as careless as he wants (James 3:1).

What's in your brain?

A couple of months ago I ran across an LA Times article with a classic title:

"Man discovers a knife blade lodged in his head. It happens."

Apparently, some guy in China lived several years with a knife blade unknowingly lodged in his skull. I'm sure the final diagnosis made sense of his frequent headaches and occasional bleeding from the mouth and ears.

The story starts with the line, "If you have stabbing pains in the head, maybe it's because you were stabbed in the head."

We'll file this one under unusual and AWESOME.

Click here to read the FULL STORY.

Double Twilight ALL THE WAY!!

I was sitting at a sports bar in the Sacramento airport when Christina Aguilera botched the lyrics to the National Anthem.

In all fairness, the Star Spangled Banner is probably one of the hardest songs to sing. Just picking the right key to finish the song without embarrasment is enough of a task, let alone singing in "a capella" nakedness in front of millions of people (169.2 million according to Nielsen Television Ratings).

It wasn't until the 4th line that the singing pop star tripped over her words. Superbowl XLV was just starting to crown as the Announcer spoke,
"And now, to honor America: 5 time grammy award winner, Christina Aguilera..."

Aguilera began strong,
"O say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight
what so proudly we watched at the twilight's last gleaming?"

Miss Aguilera forgot the line about the ramparts gallantly streaming and instead sang of proudly watching the twilight's last gleaming... again.

I laughed out loud and quickly realized no one around me was laughing. You'd think California's State Capitol would be a good place to find people that know our Nation's anthem.. apparently not. Someone did, however, manage to shoot me a death-stare for laughing during the anthem.

I should have given Christina more credit for continuing on and belting out the notes she did in the latter part of the song. She clearly showed character and was seemingly "saucing it up" to make up for her earlier mistake.

Instead, I immediately changed my facebook status: "national anthem lyrics re-written.. thank you christina aguilera"

Forgiveable? Yes. Lord knows I've felt like the horse's patoot many times before. But if it were me, I'd like to think those lyrics would be etched in my brain before singing. There are lots of things you can't control: wind.. rain.. storms.. pigeon's crapping on you (just ask Kings of Leon), but memorizing lyrics is something you can.

I bet those lyrics are burned in her brain now... but hindsight is, well, you know.

Check out her performance below:

January 28, 1986

"There's a teacher just like me on that Space Shuttle!"

We sat in awe on the floor of our 1st grade classroom watching the space shuttle launch. I tried to wrap my little 6 year old brain around the fact that a teacher just like ours was heading towards the stars.

Our teacher assured us this was a privilege. She had managed to obtain one of the few school televisions to be rolled into our classroom for the viewing.

Christa McAuliffe, a high school social studies teacher from New Hampshire, had won the "First Teacher in Space" competition. She was to be the first of several every day American citizens NASA would strategically take into space.




Nothing would prepare us for what we were about to see. 73 seconds into flight, the shuttle exploded before our eyes. The 7 crew members of STS-51-L would never be seen again.


Our teacher couldn't answer the questions we asked of her...
"What happened?"
"Is she okay?"
We didn't know how to translate tears and silence.

President Reagan appeared on National Television later that day to speak to me,

"And I want to say something to the school children of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's take-off. I know it's hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance at expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the faint-hearted, it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future and we'll continue to follow."
-Ronald Reagan

The entirety of his speech can be viewed below:



Today marks the 25th anniversary of the Challenger disaster. Oddly enough, I now live in the same town I did 25 years ago & I keep having flash backs to that January school day. I'm still processing what happened. My heart goes out to all of the family and friends of the crew.

the DIGITAL Story of the Nativity

The Nativity Story set to Modern Technology... enjoy:

the RUNNING journals

"Hey look! There's a man running!"

I've reached the age where it's awkward to run by an elementary school during recess.

I could hear their little 1st grade inner-monologues playing, "Stranger!" "Stranger danger!!"

And I can't blame them... I'm thinking the same thing thanks to Detective John Kimble.

And I'm not exactly sure how to solve this problem, so for now I think I'll just contemplate a new jogging route.

subway violin

The following is an article I recently read that piqued my interest...

Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approximately. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:

The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes:

A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:

A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes:

The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:

He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.



This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities.

The questions raised:

*In a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?

*Do we stop to appreciate it?

*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made…

How many other things are we missing?


see the REFERENCED ARTICLE here