Rob Bell interviewed...

God created us to be co-creators and to further shalom, to carry shalom forward, so, I would argue that at the core of most spiritual longing is to find your proper place in the kingdom of shalom

Interesting interview with Rob Bell in the newlook Tearfund magazine you can read the whole interview here. Here is a snippet that would fit within the false dichotomy of mission theme. (The False Dichotomy of Mission)

"In Tear Times last year Jim Wallis said that the connection between spiritual hunger and social justice was what the world was waiting for – what do you think that looks like?

RB - Well I think the fundamental hungers that people have are for meaning and for community and for task, which goes back to genesis one and two in which God created us to be co-creators and to further shalom, to carry shalom forward, so, I would argue that at the core of most spiritual longing is to find your proper place in the kingdom of shalom, and you can’t when people don’t have enough food.

Someone said something along the lines of ‘your greatest passion and the world’s greatest need – when those two meet, that’s your calling, and ultimate purposes for humanity are not… and then 'When you are you, then we can be we’, a great African phrase, so yeah, I think that we have lots of people who come to our church and they get plugged into some form of mission and then begin
to find God in very real ways.

But to present people with a gospel that’s all about Jesus just wants to save you – I mean the original call in exodus 19 is for a kingdom of priests – and the priest mediates the divine, so the call is never just to leave Egypt – we talked about this at Tearfund – the call is to leave Egypt and to be a certain kind of presence the world. So when you say hey, we’re out of Egypt, isn’t that great, you’re saved – as Paul says in Ephesians 2, mizboh – you’re saved to do good deeds, to repair and restore the world. So yeah, he’s right on.

Couldn’t agree more!"

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