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!"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A bit of sally bashing....

Came across a good bit of Sally bashing over at salvationsoldiers I have to say we try and make sure that everything we raise goes into projects that build local community in Poplar but hopefully if you read this blog you get that sense anyway.
Read more

Lost Voices of Mission...Fred Brown

Image
Along the world famous Oxford street in London's Westend; nestled in among the classy frontage of designer shops there is almost an unnoticeable, unimpressive wooden door. It is more or less alongside The Regent Hall's main entrance onto the busyness of Oxford Street. People pass the wooden door oblivious to the equally unimpressive wooden steps that go up three storey's to what was Regent Hall's youth club. When I was 10 I played on these bare wooden steps totally unaware of the significance behind and upon which I played. Many years later I discovered a university youth work course - as an induction to Youth Work - stopped outside this insignificant wooden door to point out that Youth Work as we know it in the UK started behind this door. ...whether that be the surbanite flower people that flooded the Westend to express their free love; or the hard core drug community this unimpressive wooden door became the 'portal' that blurred encounter between church an...
Read more

Types of Christian Spirituality...

Image
It is easy to think and to limit ourselves to a single approach to Christian spirituality. A 'if it works for me it should work for you approach' tends to narrow our appreciation of other ways which actually impoverishes our experience of spirituality. Urban T. Holmes has developed a means of exploring spirituality and helps develop an appreciation through discovering links between spirituality, temperament and predisposition. The diagram illustrates his ideas together with potential inherent dangers. The vertical continuum speaks and helps us understand our relational orientation to God. This ranges from engaging with God through understanding and theological process to a more emotive response. Horizontally speaks of a persons preferred means of pursuing the spiritual life. Kataphtic speaks of affirmation and the need of something tangible in an individuals spirituality- this may take the form of worship, art, even imagination with the use of metaphors, symbols and images play...
Read more