torsdag, januari 17, 2008

Rob Bell om kyrka och församling

I senaste nummret av Relevant Magazine återfinns en intervju med kyrkoledaren Rob Bell. I en av passagerna återfinns detta läsvärda stycke:

"What a lot of people call church in America has very little to do with the church Jesus had in mind. I think you begin by acknowledging that [America's idea of church] is an absolute total failure.

The whole system that says these few people, because of what they said, did, believe, etc., are going to Heaven and everybody else is going to Hell, is deeply flawed and must die. The system that says big growth and numbers are the goal must also die.

The central metaphor Jesus uses is the Eucharist. His body is broken and His blood is poured out to the healing of the world. God is looking for a body of people who will break themselves open and pour themselves out for the healing of the world.

I think the problem is that when people say "church," many mean religious goods and services where you come and there's a nice inspiring talk, good coffee in the back, snappy music and everything is fine. Jesus speaks of His people who are will to suffer and die so that the world can be healed-that's an entirely different proposition.

For us at [Mars Hill], if you can resolve a sermon in the course of the church service, then the sermon has failed. If you can reslove what's being talked about just by listening to it, then something's seriously wrong. The only way to resolve the church service you just experienced, and specifically the sermon, is that you're going to have to go and wrestle with it and then live it out.

Our interest is not in providing goods and services that will leave you with a well packaged religious experience. We understand the Gospel to be how are you going to break yourself open and pour yourself out for the healing of the world. I know what we believe and what we're trying to do, but the degree to which we're successful-I have no idea. Someone else can talk about that. I always get a bit suspicious of religious leaders who talk about how big their [ministry] is or their crowd ratios."

3 kommentarer:

Anonym sa...

"The whole system that says these few people, because of what they said, did, believe, etc., are going to Heaven and everybody else is going to Hell, is deeply flawed and must die. The sytsem that says big growth and numbers are the goal must also die."

Fair enough.. Det är inte vad vi tror som räddar oss, utan vad Jesus har gjort för oss. Det är mycket i det här som känns helt rätt. Men betyder ovanstående att det inte är nödvändigt att själv bejaka försoningen längre? att Gud räddar alla, vare sig de vill eller ej? Och implicerar det isf att det är ganska likgiltigt huruvida folk bekänner Jesus som herre? Isf är jag nog inte med längre.

Josef Bengtson sa...

Till teologins dilemma hör ju detta att om man inte säger allting på samma gång så anklagas man lätt för heresi :)

Jag tror inte att Bell skulle förneka betydelsen av personlig omvändelse eller vikten av att som du skriver "själv bejaka försoningen".
Men som jag uppfattar stycket adresserar han ju något han kallar "America's idea of church", som tycks stå främmande inför vad som skulle kunna kallas "frälsningen som process" (att arbeta med fruktan och bävan på sin frälsning) :)

Vi kommer ju ur en enhanda betoning av ortdoxin på ortopraxins bekostnad. Självklart måste tro och handling gå hand i hand!!

Anonym sa...

Olov: Ett lästips: Elvis som hötorgskonst – att måla om den kristna tron av Rob Bell.

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Ett holistiskt evangelium för hela skapelsen. Boken dröjer sig kvar. Det bästa jag läste 2007: En befrielse.