The Grove Is On Fire

Rob Bell At Westminster Central Hall, 18th April 2011

Friday, 22 April 2011

I had no intention of writing anything on this website about Rob Bell and the Love Wins furore, being that I've never read a Rob Bell book, no-one at my church really cares about his stuff, and my young people have never heard of him (Rob Bell? Wasn't he on X-Factor?). And then some friends of mine were down in London town to hear him speak, and what started out as a come down to the pub with us beforehand became a tag a long and hear him speak and then go to the pub afterwards. So I come into this knowing very little about Rob Bell directly. I've seen a Nooma. I've read the opening chapter of Velvet Elvis. I've seen the promo video for Love Wins and that dayglo one on the resurrection. I've not read Loves Wins nor anything else by him. What follows therefore should take that into account.

After two slightly awkward introductions from different people Rob Bell comes out on stage and speaks for about twenty-five minutes telling various stories, mostly stories centred around why he wrote Love Wins. You could listen to him speak for much longer than twenty-five minutes. He doesn't mention hell –or any of the controversy– in this segment. He does mention that love wins, a lot. This is Bell's gospel through and through, it's that in the end love wins. At one point he says that he wrote this book as an elementary teaching on Christianity for those people who had heard of God but wanted answers to all the questions. This is his response to that, it's his declaration of the good news. At one point he asks a series of questions and gives their response. What is the answer to my hurt? God loves you. What is the answer to my sin? God loves you. What is the answer to my long-suffering? God loves you. It sounds great, but it doesn't deal with the problem of sin and God's wrath. It's a frustrating gospel because it sounds good and so nearly is good, but it seems to exist alongside the cross, as opposed to through it. And it seems to end up glorifying a human understanding of love before it does the living God.

After this talk, there is a Q&A time (and can I say now, I hate unvetted Q&A times), Bell got pushed on what he actually believed on hell. He also got pushed to react to those people who've critiqued, or in some cases denounced him. To his credit, he could have easily scored points against his critics and gained a lot of sympathy from the audience, but he never rose to it. At times it felt like he was being baited to slag off the reformed church and he didn't even slightly. On hell though, if you want spoilers, this is what he seems to state that he believes. When pushed he said something like; do people reject God? Yes. Is there some sort of thing called hell after death for those that do? Yes. Does God stop pursuing people in hell? I don't know. He pointed to scriptures as to why he might and might not, but he said he did not know and implied that it was a mystery. This is understandable, as Rob Bell's theology is that love wins, and so for that to work out fully hell must be fully empty in the end. Hell is not only completely unpalatable if the core of your gospel is love wins, but it's impossible to accept as something that may be unpalatable now, but in the new creation and with the eyes of Christ will show God's glory and wisdom.

As a conservative reformed evangelical, I was much more impressed with Bell than I thought I'd be. Part of me wanting him to say something terrible so I could damn him, and thanks be to God that he did not let that happen. There was a moment towards the end where I stood on tenterhooks, as a man asked him what should he say to his friends when they present to him a god that seems to pissed-off and angry at him the whole time. I thought, if he doesn't answer this question by taking him to the cross where Christ died to take away God's anger then this man has nothing to say. And yet, brilliantly he did, he took him to Christ and even better he took him through Hebrews 12:18-24. His answer made my heart glad, because he answered well (though he did), but because of the goodness of the reality he showed.

And this is perhaps the thing. Rob Bell's basic gospel is that love wins, and this love seems to exist and move outside of the cross of Christ, but when he came to wrath and sin he had to bring it to the cross, because there is no answer to it other than Christ's death for us. If only all his theology was as rich and good as this!

How To Pay Your Youth Worker The Right Amount

Tuesday, 19 April 2011

I jokingly said on Twitter the other day,

Every month @youthworkmag put a fake job advert in the back of the magazine. Can you tell what it is this month?

As far as I'm aware that's a complete lie, but it sparked a discussion around what was reasonable to pay a youth worker as a salary, and that some churches seem to be advertising less than reasonable salaries. But what guidance is there to go on such a thing. Well, there are the JNC standards of employment (.pdf file), which if you take significant¹ government money you are bound to keep and they come with pay scales (.xls file). You could use them, but they're at the top end of things in terms of pay and some of the standards of employment are ridiculously favourable to the employee.

Alternatively you could ask what are the loving biblical principles we could apply as we seek to bring someone into our church family to help lead us minster to our young people. Paul writes "The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. For Scripture says, 'Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,' and 'The worker deserves his wages.' " (1 Timothy 5:17-18) If the principle is how can we pay our staff so we're not hindering them in the ministry they're doing, then do that. Here's a good rule of thumb then:

Is this pay or compensation enough to allow the worker to live in the area they are ministering to?

This will vary from area to area and vary from church to church and even vary from person to person. It's a rule of thumb too, it's not a command and any employment should always be thought of from an attitude of grace, love, and reliance on Christ.

¹ Technically if you take any government money you are considered under the scope of the JNC agreements. That includes "Persons employed as youth and community workers by voluntary organisations in receipt of a grant from local or central government or the Welsh Assembly Government." What scope means, and how you define grant is probably something you'd have to talk to your grant providing council about.

How Does the Gospel Apply When: I've Just Lost My Cool With A Young Person And Yelled At Them For Being A Moron (Which In Fairness They Were Being)

Tuesday, 12 April 2011

You've had a long day. You were up at 6.55am to get to school to deliver an assembly. You had badly scheduled meetings for the next six hours and had to fit in a trip to Tescos and so didn't really get a break. You then had an after school club. Now you have a young person being rude in your face because you forgot to bring pizza which you promised last week. In fairness though, this young person always criticises you for not bringing pizza. So anyway, you lose your cool and tell him that he should grow up and stop being such an idiot. You tell him if he wants pizza he can get it himself. At this point you realise you've probably crossed the line, but as you're annoyed, you tell him he's a moaning so and so, and he's always miserable, and he needs to stop blaming everyone else in his life and start taking responsibility for his actions. Then you tell him to get out of your face and you storm off in a huff.

You know that in about five minutes you'll feel bad about this. You do. Worse than losing your cool, worse than insulting this young person, you also pushed back the state of your witness to negative something or other. If this is what someone who loves Jesus is like, why would he care about Him?

Good news! That is what the gospel is after all. The first is this, your sin against this young person died on the cross with Jesus. It was nailed to it. So, you're forgiven. And you know how you were forgiven? While you were a sinner, Christ Jesus died for you. And so the second bit of good news is this, you're not testifying to your goodness to the young person, you're testifying to Christ's goodness. Instead of saying "look at me and how I'm living now, don't you want some of that" you're saying "look at how Jesus has forgiven even me, don't you want some of that". Third, because you know somewhat how bad sin is (you sent Jesus to the cross!) and you know what it is to be forgiven you now possess the ability to ask for forgiveness. So, go show a young person the gospel in true repentance and grace and in a merciful saviour.

How Does the Gospel Apply When: I'm Being Beaten Repeatedly At Table Tennis By A Young Person

Monday, 11 April 2011

I can't believe I need to say this to you (and me) but youth worker, your worth does not come from your ability to beat a young person at a competitive sport and the mild, guilty, endorphin rush that follows. Here is a fact: You will continually get worse at all sports other than pool and there will come a day when you start to suck at even that. If your worth is found there, then you will die angry, unfulfilled, and unhappy. Instead remember this, remember that you were worthless without Christ, and before Him you had been repeatedly told the lie that in success (even petty, pointless, table tennis against a 13-year-old success) you'd find happiness. Now you are of infinite worth and value because God has adopted you in Christ and given you the value and worth of Him. You won't get happiness from winning still, but you don't need to anymore. Remember that now you are freed from the tyranny of needing to win every game, you are free to enjoy playing and losing and playing and winning and playing and getting worse and worse not better and better. Now losing at table tennis (or pool, or even football) can be fun.

Shorts Day 2011

Saturday, 9 April 2011

Yesterday, the 8th of April 2011, I Mark Walley, wore shorts for the first time in the year. This makes it the earliest date I have ever worn shorts in a year beating the previous record by a whole five days. This continues the alarming trend of global warming / abuse of statistics that has been going on the last few years.