{"id":3974,"date":"2011-10-14T07:18:26","date_gmt":"2011-10-14T12:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/?p=3974"},"modified":"2015-03-13T16:56:06","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T21:56:06","slug":"why-mainline-christians-dont-care-about-rob-bell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2011\/10\/14\/why-mainline-christians-dont-care-about-rob-bell\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Mainline Christians Don’t Care about Rob Bell"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In case you\u2019ve been living under a rock, Rob Bell is leaving Mars Hill Bible Church, which he founded, in Grandville, Michigan. He\u2019s moving his family to California and developing a television show for ABC. \u00a0Knowing Rob as I do (I don\u2019t<\/a>), I\u2019m guessing he\u2019s also working on a movie script, a tour, and probably a time machine. \u00a0He\u2019s a person of unique aptitudes. \u00a0Thinking that he would stay indefinitely in a parish church situation is akin to thinking that Steve Jobs should have been the manager of an Apple Store.<\/p>\n

Zach, a mutual friend of Rob and me (see, I\u2019m only one degree of separation from Rob Bell!), has written a provocative post<\/a> in the face of criticism that Bell\u2019s departure has received from conservative Christian leaders like Mark Driscoll and Rick Warren. \u00a0Zach writes,<\/p>\n

In a nutshell, more conservative folks seem to be more skeptical when a successful, well-known pastor decided to leave their churches behind.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then he continues,<\/p>\n

Nowhere have I seen any prominent liberal voice object to Bell moving on. (If so please point me to it)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, I\u2019ve got an answer for Zach:<\/p>\n

Prominent liberal Christians aren\u2019t objecting to Bell\u2019s departure from parish ministry because they\u2019ve never heard of Rob Bell<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On occasion, I speak to groups of mainline clergy (believe it or not, I don\u2019t get evangelical invitations anymore). \u00a0As is my wont, I drop Christian cultural references here and there when I speak. \u00a0And it\u2019s become clear to me that most mainline clergy have never heard of Rob Bell. \u00a0They don\u2019t know what the emerging church movement is. \u00a0They don\u2019t read Jesus Creed. \u00a0In short, they are not familiar with anything evangelical<\/strong>, with the possible exception of pastors who appear on CNN, like Joel Osteen and Rick Warren.<\/p>\n

Of course, some mainliners have heard of Rob, and maybe even read his book(s)<\/a>. \u00a0But, as a whole, mainliners read the Christian Century<\/em>, and they read their own denominational magazines, newsletters, and websites. \u00a0They don\u2019t read Christianity Today<\/em>, where news of Bell\u2019s departure was, ahem, big news.<\/p>\n

I am prepared for lots of mainliners to jump all over me in the comment section, protesting that they know who Rob is, and they follow CT on Twitter. \u00a0Well, you\u2019re not who I\u2019m talking about! \u00a0If you\u2019re reading blogs and on Twitter, you\u2019re not the standard mainline pastor. \u00a0Sorry.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t believe me, take a poll at your next denominational meeting: raise your hand if you can tell me the name of the church Rob Bell founded. \u00a0I bet you\u2019ll get about 25%.<\/p>\n

In response to Zach,\u00a0I would venture to say that if mainliners did know who Rob Bell is, they, too, would be unhappy about his departure<\/strong>. \u00a0Even more than evangelicals, mainliners are committed to parish ministry \u2014 sometimes blindly so. \u00a0I imagine that if someone they knew \u2014 like Adam Hamilton<\/a> at Church of the Resurrection (UMC) in Kansas City \u2014 left his parish for Hollywood, there would be similar hand-wringing on the Christian Left.<\/p>\n

The real tragedy about all of this is how large the rift has become between conservative and progressive Protestantism<\/strong>. \u00a0Not that long ago, mainliners were looking to evangelicals like Bill Hybels for advice on planting and growing churches, and evangelicals were looking to mainliners for\u2026um, well, nothing. \u00a0But, as our country\u2019s politics have become more polemicized, the two primary versions of American Protestantism have retrenched.<\/p>\n

Alas.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In case you\u2019ve been living under a rock, Rob Bell is leaving Mars Hill Bible Church, which he founded, in Grandville, Michigan. He\u2019s moving his family to California and developing a television show for ABC. \u00a0Knowing Rob as I do (I don\u2019t), I\u2019m guessing he\u2019s also working on a movie script, a tour, and probably […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2819,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[817,123,177,331,338,548,550,662],"class_list":["post-3974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christianity-in-america","tag-christian-century","tag-christianity-today","tag-denominations","tag-jesus-creed","tag-joel-osteen","tag-rick-warren","tag-rob-bell","tag-umc"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Mainline Christians Don't Care about Rob Bell<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In case you've been living under a rock, Rob Bell is leaving Mars Hill Bible Church, which he founded, in Grandville, Michigan. 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