This is a review of the Poets, Prophets and Preachers conference I attended last week. It was a preaching conference hosted by Rob Bell.
I have been somewhat careful about telling people I was going to hear Rob Bell, because I grow weary of answering all of the rumors and accusations that surround him. I don't agree with everything he says. The same could be said of any author, speaker, or teacher, though.
Most of the more passionate attacks seem to be from people who have not actually read his books, or seem to completely misunderstand them.
But like I said, I'm tired of this debate. So, I have been listening and reading him in relative silence for a couple of years. When I would quote him, I'd say "I heard a preacher say..." Cowardly, I guess.
Things changed a little when a fellow attender was fired by his church for just being at this conference. Now I feel like saying nothing may be allowing ignorance to handicap the church. I'm not going to commit myself to daily fighting this battle. But I will let you know what I see, good and bad and let you form opinions of your own.
This is already getting lengthy, so I'll break it up into a couple parts.
What enticed me to go:
1. I really want to get better at the craft of preaching
2. If you paid for one registration, it was good for two people, which encouraged us to experience it in community, where you could digest the ideas together. I got to do this with an old acquaintance from college. This was much better than going to a conference without anyone else. I've done that before: not fun.
3. Since we split the registration price, the cost was only $125 for 2 and a half days. Compare that to other conferences and you will see what a value that is.
4. It was in Grand Rapids, a pretty quick drive from here. Compare to Chicago, Atlanta, and San Diego where other appealing conferences were.
5. Rob Bell is an amazing communicator. I was hoping I could learn some of his preparation and delivery techniques. (I was not disappointed, by the way).
I think in the next post, I will give you my impression of the two other speakers, Peter Rollins and Shane Hipps. Then, in a third post, I'll give you my impression of Rob's five talks.
Posts
3 comments:
Ok, I have actually read Rob Bell and heard him. I have to tell you that on one hand he makes me think about things differently. But I do think he is way off on some things. I think you do need to be careful what you take in from him. I'm just saying- he is out there. I think there a lot of good preachers that you can learn from. Just my thoughts.
Carrie Wiley
Valued and cherished thoughts, Carrie. But out where? Way off on what things? I've heard him say things I didn't buy into, but no more than most.
I have no problem with citing problems with his teaching (I'll do just that in my next post), but I do see some problems in lobbing out vague criticisms.
Keep the dialogue alive.
He says that we dont just have faith in God, but that God has faith in us... that Peter did not lose faith in Jesus when he sank in the water, he lost faith in himself.
He also teaches that every living being has the breath of God in him... he actively speaks against the idea of original sin.
He also believes that each person is a carrier of deity...that we must be brought back to a place of recognizing that we carry the spirit of God (not that we are void of it and must receive it).
In his most recent book he also says that it is simple ignorance to think that anyone would not end up in heaven, especially given the choice both here and in the afterlife... that we will all eventually end up there.
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