Rob Bell "Love Wins" - Heaven

So, I admit it, I was distracted by "The Hunger Games" for a few days and just got back to "Love Wins" and Rob's chapter on heaven. His chapter on heaven is progressive but certainly not heretical (it is also long). Rob Bell states that "Jesus affirmed heaven as a real place, space, and dimension of God’s creation, where God’s will and only God’s will is done. On earth, lots of wills are done…and so heaven and earth at present are not one. Jesus taught that someday, heaven and earth would be one. The day when God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven" (42-43). This is a Revelation 21 picture of the New Jerusalem coming down and being on the earth made new. Nothing new or heretical here – pretty traditional actually.
Rob does challenge some of the prevailing myths about heaven. He says there will not be any mansions (at least in the way we on earth view mansions) or streets of gold or star-studded golden crowns that we wear forever (43-44). He suggests that these man-made images of heaven are sort of like Beverly Hills without the smog – very static – and prone to getting old. The heaven that Rob is suggesting Jesus is talking about is dynamic and changing and beyond our comprehension. I’m o.k. with all of that. I’d like God to be able to blow my mind. If God’s heaven is just what I imagine, even at my best, then it is a pretty searing indictment of what God is capable of at his best or probably of how I limit God and place him in such a human box.
Rob says heaven isn't limited to the dimensions we currently experience and therefore it is beyond our pathetic attempts to control. Rob also suggests that beyond our attempts to control what heaven is like, we also attempt to control who gets in, or what the criteria for getting in will be. He suggests that we never really stop to think about what is really important: How intimately the life we live on this earth is connected with the life we will live in the "age to come" as Rob refers to eternity. Rather than endless dabates about "who" or "how" we need to focus on what is really important - how to live our lives down here in such a way that we are prepared to experience the next reality - the age to come.
Rob writes "when Jesus tells the rich man that if he sells everything and gives to the poor he will have rewards, Jesus is promising that man that receiving the peace of God now, finding gratitude for what he does have, and sharing it with those who need it will create in him all the more capacity for joy in the world to come" (44). Wow.
Rob continues "it often appears that those who talk the most about going to heaven when you die talk the least about bringing heaven to earth right now. At the same time, it often appears that those who talk the most about relieving suffering now talk the least about heaven when we die" (45).
Rob is pretty insistent on making the point that heaven is not some place far away, a place disconnected from anything we know or experience now, but rather that heaven on earth (both now and in the future) is the point of Jesus' life and teaching.
As if to make this point even stronger, Rob writes "it is very common to hear talk about heaven framed in terms of who “gets in” or how to “get in.” What we find Jesus teaching, over and over and over again, is that he’s interested in our hearts being transformed, so that we can actually handle heaven. To paint heaven as bliss, peace, and endless joy is nice, but it raises the question: how many of us could handle it as we are today" (50)? This makes me want to have my heart transformed so that I can handle heaven. This is about far more than just going to heaven. This is about understanding heaven. How can we want to go somewhere we can't understand? Now, to be fair, traditional teaching, and the Bible too, do suggest that "no eye has seen and no ear has heard the glory that God has prepared for us." Yet, Rob seems to think that this refers to the fact that we don't experience everything God has for us to experience NOW. That if we simply lived the way God wants us to live now, we would be able to see and hear and understand (at least in part) the glory that God has planned for us in the age to come.
It also makes me realize why so many people think heaven will be boring…because they can't wrap their heads around a concept of heaven that isn't harps and clouds and endless choirs - which does sound really boring.
This is as great quote from Rob. "Eternal life is less about a kind of time that starts when we die, and more about a quality and vitality of life lived now in connection to God. Eternal life doesn’t start when we die: it starts now. It’s not about a life that begins at death; it’s about experiencing the kind of life now that can endure and survive even death" (59). I think this is the kind of stuff that makes conservatives and traditionalists (and republicans) cringe because it sounds like some sort of new-age hippy love fest where we love the planet so much we end up making it a communist utopia and then (in their thinking) we don’t need a traditional type of heaven. I don't think this is what Rob is implying at all. I think Rob is simply trying to open our minds to a bigger (and better) understanding of all the limitless possibilities that heaven can entail. This isn't a traditional heaven - it's a bigger one.
This is how Rob ends this chapter. "How would I summarize all that Jesus teaches about heaven? There’s a heaven now, somewhere else. There’s a heaven here, sometime else. And then there’s Jesus’ invitation to heaven here and now, in this moment, in this place" (62).
Not at all heretical – certainly nothing to be afraid of or to make people go on talk shows and denounce Rob as a heretic (ala Franklin Graham). At the end of this chapter, Rob simply challenges traditional views of heaven with a viewpoint that is both Biblical and progressive - exactly what Jesus was in his day - Biblical and progressive.
Tomorrow I start Rob's chapter on hell. In the mean time, I'm going to spend some time meditating on a heaven that defies all my earthly expectations, and yet, at the same time, embraces and expands on them and turns them into a perfect reality that can begin today. Experiencing a taste of heaven on earth today sounds good to me.

Rob Bell "Love Wins" Chapter 1

Thanks Rob, for asking questions that make me think. The questions he asks in the first chapter, although they revolve around the idea of who goes to heaven and who goes to hell, go deeper, into the nature of God, the idea of predestination, and the fundamentals of salvation. Ultimately, although Rob never asks this question, I think Rob is questioning the need for traditional concepts of missions and ultimately, the need for the church at all, at least in terms of the church's role in salvation.
Is there any "hope" for those who die without a personal relationship with Jesus? Rob suggests that the idea of a "personal relationship with Jesus" isn't Biblical, that this idea is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible (10). My question to Rob is this: maybe the actual terminology isn't in the Bible, but what about "come unto me all you who labour and I'll give you rest," isn't that a personal relationship? What about "deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me," isn't that a personal relationship? Throughout the New Testament, Jesus (and the other authors) talk about people being in some sort of intimate relationship with Jesus. Apparently some sort of intimate (personal) relationship with Jesus figures into a person's spiritual journey. But Rob is right, the Bible doesn't actually say that salvation is based on a personal relationship with Jesus. So what is salvation based upon? How does a person "get out of hell" and "get into heaven?"
Rob asks "what if the missionary has a flat tire" (9)? If I don't get the chance to tell someone about Jesus because of a flat tire, and they die, do they go to hell? Am I responsible for someone elses salvation? If so, where does God/Jesus fit into this equation? Would God send someone to hell just because I got a flat tire? Great question. Disturbing question.
Is salvation based on saying the sinner's prayer? What about the guy who said it once but no longer believe it or certainly doesn't live a life in accordance with Jesus' ideals? What about a guy like Ghandi who lived his whole life to bring about peace and reconcilliation but never said the sinner's prayer? Is Ghandi in hell and the other guy, who no longer believes,in heaven (6)? I'd like to believe that I'll see Ghandi in heaven. But if I am going to see Ghandi in heaven then something in my evangelical understanding of how salvation and grace work needs to change. Or, maybe I just need to get used to the fact that I won't see Ghandi in heaven. That concept just doesn't sit well with me...
Do we just need to believe in Jesus to be saved? The Bible says demons believe in Jesus. So is salvation more than just belief (18)? Maybe heaven and hell are about something more than, or different from, simply believing in Jesus. What that might be, at least to my mind, I can't imagine. But I am open to a larger understanding of God and grace. I realize God is a lot smarter and a lot bigger than me or Rob Bell.
Rob's final idea in this chapter makes me want to read more. He writes "This book isn’t just a book of questions. It is a book of responses to these questions" (19).
Notice he doesn’t say answers…just responses…I like that. This book is making me think. It is making me ask questions I haven't ever asked publically before. I know I have wrestled privately with some of these questions and I'm glad Rob had the courage to put them on paper and get them out there. I don't have answers yet, and perhaps after reading this entire book, I still won't. Apparently, Rob may not give me any answers. He may just be stimulating a discussion. In the meantime, I'll keep reading.

Rob Bell: An Introduction to "Love Wins"

I've like Rob Bell ever since I heard him teach "Covered in the Dust of the Rabbi." I didn't like his book "Velvet Elvis" and when he came to teach at our sister Church in Las Vegas, I wasn't impressed. Maybe he was sick or something. I love his Nooma videos. They inspire me. "Baggage" took my breath away for reasons only a few of you who know me could understand if you watched that particular Nooma video. My point is this. I'm not trying to blog about Rob's neweset book because I'm a groupie or because I'm a critic. I'm not Annie Graham Lotz or John Piper or a member of Rob's (former) church. I'm just trying to understand all the anger this book has stirred up amoung Christians.
The introduction to the book is really compelling. Rob suggests that the story of Jesus, or the story that Jesus came to tell, has been hijacked over the centuries by hundreds of other stories that Jesus had no interest in telling. One of these messages is the story of "hell" because it subverts the "contagious spread of Jesus' message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world desperately needs to hear" (viii). I couldn't agree more, yet what about Jesus' messages of judgment and mercy? Without the story of punishment (no matter how you define it or why it happens), there doesn't seem to be any need for forgiveness or mercy or grace.
I grew up in an organization that held "Annihilationist" views. There was no hell, only eternal death, meaning you burnt up and that was it. So, I've always struggled with the traditional Christian concept of hell for my own reasons. Yet, I don't doubt that there is a consequence for rejecting Jesus' death on the cross as the only way to find acceptance with God and thus, entry into heaven. Rob, it seems, may be suggesting that there is no consequence for rejection and no reward for acceptance because everyone gets in. I don't know that for sure yet, but it seems like he could head in that direction.
The best part of Rob's intro is his final line. "If this book, then, does nothing more than introduce you to the ancient, ongoing discussion surrounding the resurrected Jesus in all its vibrant, diverse, messy, multivoiced complexity – well, I’d be thrilled" (xi). I couldn't agree more. We all need to examine and re-examine what we believe. We all need to be open to learning new things or at least having a discussion about new things. So, welcome to the discussion.

Creative Planning Team

Creativity is tricky. Who can say when and where creativity will strike? If it strikes once, will it strike again and will the same catalyst create a second creative outburst? The muse is a terrible and beautiful master. I write songs, blogs, short stories, academic articles, i am currently working on my first novel, and I know the value of the muse; of that creative burst that begins you on the journey of creativity. I also know the long arduous process of taking an idea from inspiration to completion, when the muse has left you and you are left to craft all that creativity into something you can present to the world.
In my world creativity is often, usually, a solitary endevour. Many of my friends co-write songs, and I have experienced co-writing on several occasions with my former band mates in my Las Vegas based band "Hooked", but in general, my creativity happens in a solitary manner.
I have learned over the years however, that in one area of my life I need creative input from many different sources. The area where I need the most collective creative input is in my full time work, where I am a Worship and Arts Pastor. Expecting all of the creativity for an entire church service, week after week, month after month, to come from one person is creative suicide.
Creative Planning Teams, creative collaborative groups of diverse people working together to plan weekends, series, and special events, need to be the foundation of what I do on a weekly basis.
Since moving to Kamloops in October of 2011 and becoming the Worship and Arts Pastor at Kamloops Alliance, I have not had a Creative Planning Team.
Now, finally, I have a team in place and we are preparing for our first meeting next week. I can't wait. I haven't been this excited in a while, and it is due to the fact that I will soon begin working collaboratively with other creative people.
If you are a creative person, find those people in your life who you can create with, and do it. I can't wait to see where our church goes from here.

twitter

So I signed up for twitter today. i think i might have signed up once before, but so long ago i can't remember my twitter account or name or anything about it. incidently i am @TDunfield. So, now I blog (occasionally), check Facebook (religiously), email (hourly), have an Android that I am tethered to, text constantly, and spend time connected to the web and connecting with others over the web on a daily basis. I'm sort of observant about who I am friends with on Facebook and currently I have only a modest group of 400 followers. I know many people who add anyone and everyone who requests them and have thousands of followers. I am not that guy. Now I find out that twitter is open source and anyone can follow me. I can't decide who follows me and who doesn't.
This makes me think about God, church and religion in general. Is God like Twitter or Facebook? What about the Church? Are the two mutually exclusive?