What we've learned about reaching Young Adults (Part 3)

That is probably a pretty fair take on Bell. Having seen quite a few of his Nooma series of dvds, they can be really thought-provoking and challenging for young people who have already been Christians for a long time or are steeped in the worldly values that have infiltrated the church in the West.

But although his social justice challenges and anti-'religiousness' are brilliant, I don't know about his views about Jesus and from other things he's written he has a tendency to allow the secular academic establishment to define the parameters of his thinking on Genesis and the origins of everything from humanity to Christianity.

I think he can be best appreciated by Christians with a solid foundation who can allow parts of their thinking to be challenged without shaking or confusing their whole Christian worldview. I think Bell risks inconsistency and undermining the authority of the bible in his ministry by relying too heavily on secular scholarship to interpret the historical framework in which the events of Scripture occur.

He's interesting though and well worth checking out.

Rob, what you have described concerning Bell, (ie. his reliance on secular scholarship), is one of the roots of Liberal theology. Don't get me wrong I don't know nearly enough about Rob Bell's theology to call him liberal, all I am saying is that Liberal theology came about in part because the Christian thinkers of the 19th century found their theological and philosophical roots in the prevailing secular culture of the day. They placed secular thinking ie. modernism and secular science ie. evolutionary theory before the Scriptures and consequently headed down the Liberal road.

We have to be very careful how we attempt to understand God, if our starting point is anything but the Scriptures we will end up in trouble. In a culture that is driven by technological change and scientific advancement it would be easy for us to think that because something is new it is therefore better. Historical theology, (ie. surveying what various people have thought about God through history), is important but not to the detriment of Biblical theology. It is far too easy to get caught up in various people's ideas about God and what the latest thinkers are saying, both secular and theological, but at the end of the day our primary goal is to know God, (full relational knowledge not just head knowledge), so we can make Him known, and our God has revealed Himself through Scripture.

This is the one part of this series that i question. It's not that i don't think we can learn from these people, but simply that the cost may be more than the benefit. The potential costs i've thought of so far are:

• being drawn into a 'personality cult' (the Mike Guglielmucci scandal should give us all pause in this respect)
• not thinking through the issues thoroughly for ourselves and carefully evaluating whether the techniques and programs these people offer us fit our particular situation and culture (especially important when we are using American material)
• spending our time at the computer instead of with people, or with our ears stuck in the headphones of our MP3 player instead of open to what is going on around us
• and most of all, not having any new ideas of our own

The potential benefits:

• tried & tested ideas
• innovation beyond what we might come up with ourselves

Any other thoughts?

Hi Paul

I tend to agree with your concerns.

This series is just about me sharing what we have found helpful. Given that we have planted 2 churches in 4 yrs, I don't think that this has distrated us from the real game of making disciples.

I do believe though that there are many people commenting on blogs, or even writing their own blogs, or becoming academics who have done nothing but think, and share their opinions.

I also agree that there are people who have just tried to copy others. I can assure you that we have taken what we have from others, and left the stuff that is not helpful in our context.

All this stuff obviously takes wisdom and discernment.

Mark