A Man For This Time

Last week I had the pleasure of sitting down for a few hours, over a wonderful lunch of chicken salad and fresh fruit, with Rob Bell, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids, MI.

It is fascinating to me that this master communicator has 7-10K people that sit for an hour to hear him talk, and another 20-50K that listen in via his podcast each week (I am among them), as well as buy his books and short films. He is too cool for school, with book titles like “Velvet Elvis” and “SexGod” and a series of 17 (so far) short-films that border on life-changing called NOOMA.

What is fantastical to me, though, is that thousands of people will also buy live event tickets to see him “on tour.”

During his recent tour, “Everything Is Spiritual”, he traveled about the country in various venues and concert halls with a giant white board and talked about the things he has learned, absorbed, crystallized, in a way that was mind blowing. It is refreshing to hear such a logical and dispassionate walk through what it seems we are hard-wired to understand deep in our souls but is filtered and full of static due to the interference of human life in this broken world.

Check out this clip: http://shop.everythingisspiritual.com/

About “Everything is Spiritual” Rob says this- “In the Hebrew Scriptures there is no word for ‘spiritual.’ And Jesus never used the phrase ‘spiritual life.’ Because for Jesus and his tradition, all of life is spiritual. So what does that mean?”

The DVD is available soon at this website. I highly encourage you to check it out.

I already have a ticket for the next “show”- his new tour is called “The God’s Arent Angry Tour” and the closest it comes to Nashville is Atlanta. I know some people have a problem with Rob's teachings, and I don't agree with everything he says, but I will be there with an open mind and eager heart anyway. There is incremental life when he is around.