There was a portion of Rob Bell’s quote in my post yesterday that may have rubbed a few people the wrong way. He made a comment that some Christians “need to be saved.” Some may have taken this to mean that Bell was calling into question the salvation of his critics. I mentioned that without the proper context it would be understandable for his words to be interpreted this way. However, I don’t believe that to be his intent.
In 2006 Bell did a six-week series of teaching that he titled “Jesus Wants to Save Christians.” Throughout this series he argued that God was trying to save Christians from various things that were keeping them from being the “light of the world” that God desires us to be. It wasn’t so much about “salvation” in terms of Heaven and Hell, born-again, etc. – the types of things you or I typically think of when we hear talk of being “saved.”
This is what I believe Bell was getting at with his comment. As I said in my previous comment, I wouldn’t be surprised if his use of this phrase was intentional and calculated. Leaking phrasing from his next book? New tour?
This is the first message in that series. It isn’t quite the all-encompassing introduction I was hoping it would be, but it does paint a pretty good picture of what direction he took the series. You can order the complete series on the Mars Hill site.
Rob Bell – Jesus Wants to Save Christians (Part 1 of 6)
Shane Bertou 
Your front page has turned into “Teen Beat” for Rob Bell fans! (wink, etc.)
Ugh, you’re right. I wasn’t going to dedicate a new post to it, I was just going to add it in the comments to the last one. But then I realized that unless I made it a new post, I couldn’t use that super cool Flash audio player thingy.
I hereby implement a Bell ban until they all clear the main page.
Just picked up “Everything is Spiritual” and it rocks!!
Dude, I’m definitely going to have to borrow that from you. One of my goals with Ardent this year is to rent out a club for a night and do a viewing of that DVD.
It’s hard because “save(d)” has come to be known in our modern church context solely in the way you describe-strictly in terms of heaven and hell or eternal salvation. The trouble is the word “to be saved” in Greek (sozo) gets translated all sorts of ways and used in all sorts of contexts. I just read one this morning in Acts 14:9 and it got translated in the ESV ( a very literal translation) as “make him well.” It also translated similarly (as “made well” but there are other uses too) in Matt 9, Luke 8, 17, 18 and myriad other places.
i laughed for a good minute after reading josh’s comment. it’s ok to have a mancrush, butrose 🙂
I definitely have a man crush on his brain. But it takes more than horn-rimmed classes and frosted highlights to make me purr.
Frosted Highlights are the bomb though.
But you gotta admit, his glasses are pretty rad, too.
I dunno. He’s looking eerily Ebert-esque in the photo above.
Check out the “Jesus Wants to Save Christians | Rob Bell & Don Golden” Facebook Group for updates & news on this book in the coming months:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12053387658
The Off The Map Podcast just posted a preview/podcast too from Rob’s new book. It’s from a talk Rob gave a few months ago in Seattle. It goes over a lot of what Scot wrote above, but also hits on a few other things. Check it out.
I heard Rob give this talk on his book back in April, and I was very surprised to hear an evangelical like Rob talk about “Empire”.
Itunes link
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=286366987
Direct RSS
mahoneyt.libsyn.com/rss
teen beat!
remember the scott bayo issue?
Uhm…. Stem?