Michael, it will take someone close enough to him to do that. My job in speaking to this is not to correct Rob Bell, but to advise those I know that I believe this is dangerous teaching.

You are so right Michael... you are not the enemy. However, there is a move in the culture at large which is being replicated within the church that would define a situation or conversation in such a way that any disagreement makes the person voicing the disagreement suspect in their intent.

I believe that is happening in larger, more noticeable ways in the church now and this particular conversation is revealing it to be so. If you disagree with Rob Bell\'s theology here, then you are by default a legalist and/or Pharisee. This is a strawman argument, but very effective at silencing critics.

Jesus said that if we\'re not for him, we\'re against him. As un-modern as that may sound, we have to pick sides.

Hi Pastor Scott.... I'm a church planter in Peoria, IL and found your site while doing research for a sermon series I am preparing on the Minor Prophets. I am inspired by your devotional writings and thoughts and would like to request permission to reprint some of them (with appropriate acknowledgments) for a 40-day devotional leading up to Easter.

Please let me know if that would meet with your approval. If not, I humbly accept and respect your wishes.

May God bless your ministry.

They exist to accomplish very different things for us. Our website is designed to help capture people just finding us our searching our area for churches. Our FB page is designed to be more up-to-date with day to day reminders and pics of church life. I see them as equally important but serving very different functions.

Interesting word choice Don. Change can be good or bad. I'm a fan of positive change myself :) How do you see using the word change to help shape your year in positive ways?

Mike... thanks so much for dropping by over here. I have truly benefited from your blog postings...it is part of my regular reading. I also appreciate your input on this question. I am most intrigued in your post (on which this entry is based) at the idea that excellence in "organization" can also play an important role within the context of ministry. It seems to me that everyone would be in agreement with facility design being done with excellence. But I am prone to believe that the idea of organizational excellence is more of an afterthought if it's a thought at all.

Thanks again for all that you share for people like me in the public domain!

Randi... love your answer. I think I have been following a similar path. The truly difficult balance seems to be in finding the sweet-spot between promoting excellence in all that we do and extending grace for those things which are not up to our personal interpretation of excellence. Thanks for your input on this.

Jason... your last comment got stuck in spam... don't know why. Anyway... I'm just catching this. I'm a little surprised to hear about the "what is truth" comment from another pastor... but I guess I shouldn't be. There are enough so-called "Christian" leaders going in that direction that they have cover.

Did you get a chance to read this article about this very problem? http://markdoebler.com/?p=1893

Thanks so much Jason...the next couple of months are going to be very interesting and intense for us as well. This is a year where we are pushing ourselves to go deep as a community of believers. We're digging deep into the foundational truths over the next twelve weeks... and I'm totally stoked.

But no matter what a church is focusing on...this is truly an exciting time of the year for the church, isn't it?

I really like the breakdown you give of levels of conviction. I think to a large degree, that helps explain the "believing in belief" the author of the book suggested. But as Rick Warren has stated, it's not a belief unless we act on it.... true belief REQUIRES action. We are becoming a faith movement that likes the IDEA of Christianity but not the truth and the meat of it.

This also reminds me how much more intentional we have to become about explaining our terms. Definitions get diluted and changed at a rapid pace and to call ourselves "Christian" no longer holds its historic meaning.

As you, I am deeply concerned with charismatic ministers who seem to be diluting the faith even further. A faith without core convictions can't stand the storms of life.