velvet elvis
I'm working my way through velvet elvis and Rob talks in one spot about just doing raw church.
On a side note, before I get to my point, Rob seems to contradict himself some to me. But life is sometimes like that.
No matter what church I was in, I would try to make the service have that raw "I want to be there" feel. That doesn't have so much to do with music style. It is just that raw feeling of "We are here to encounter God." I think that puts a lot of pressure on the pastor. He has to come to church Sunday morning (or whenever) and be absolutely ready himself. He needs to be sure he is talking more about what we can do rather than what we shouldn't be doing. As the people encounter God, hopefully they will want more of that and ask that it be "rawer" and ask that we make the appropriate changes or at least not be so angry that we made the appropriate changes.
This is more effective than programming or marketing for success. I agree. But I still want a sign up that says "We're over here." He started with word of mouth from a mothering church, which he doesn't seem to mention, and the flame took off. He makes it sound like a 1000 people showed up for little to no reason. But it did take off.
The way he opens the book talking about the Bible -- I like and I don't like. It is his examples that I'm not sure about. He says that in Revelation, the 24 elders singing to the throne is straight from Roman Emperor Domitian and the games he presented. That is possible, but strangely, since I'm currently preaching through Revelation, not one of the three commentaries I read mentioned it.
I really want to visit Rob's church. He talks about people longing to go and encounter and express, but it also sounds like there is one or two songs, a ten minute video Rob has made, then Rob talks for an hour. It doesn't sound very interactive. I feel like I'm missing something, which I probably am.
posted by Brian at 10:33 AM
1 Comments:
I tend to agree that Rob Bell (you other Rob's can't write a book for awhile, okay) either contradicts himself... or he speaks a lot off the top of his head, and probably leaves out a lot of contextual stuff that could clarify some things. Or, he just speaks off the top of his head and isn't always right. I'm okay with any of the above -- as long as I know that. Plus it helps to read him if you've heard/seen him speak. Cadence.
I also agree with the "raw feeling" of our encounters/gatherings. But it is tough and does put more pressure on the pastor, because as much as people will tell you they like it "real" or raw, they also don't like mistakes and they want flow and a certain level of excellence.
I am reading 'The Emerging Church' by Dan Kimball still, and while there's not much that's new there, it's okay. But one things that bothers me with his deal on "how to do an emergent service" is... it sure would be a lot easier with a staff or resources from a larger framework.
All that said, I really think the small country church where I am is maybe "raw-er" than most. I am amazed by the teens who have come here and think our building is so beautiful and it is just so "cool" how we have all this "vintage" stuff. Some of the things I would have liked to get rid of are actually the things that many postmodern-sort-of-unchurched people are looking for to help them connect.
I must have missed the Rev. comment in V.E.(or don't remember it). I actually just did a series on Revelations a couple months ago (Revelations From Revelation). Good luck.
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