Editorial:
June issue
I am a fairly reserved Anglican. I
didn’t always know that about
myself. Not long after I first became a
Christian, I joined a large charismatic
church, where I struggled with the
endless repeated praise choruses, felt
bemused about people putting their
hands in the air and wondered what
on earth the flags were for. I went for
more than a year but I didn’t make any
friends – with a congregation of over
500 it was hard to pick out familiar
faces, or expect to be recognised.
And yet, despite my discomfort,
God did meet with me at that church.
I was baptised there. More than I
realised at the time, it shaped me.
There is real value in going to
churches where you might not be
that comfortable. Thanks to my
job I’ve since been to all manner of
events and been exposed to teaching
and theology that I wouldn’t have
encountered had I stayed in my
‘tribe’, but even then, I sometimes
don’t fight enough with that sense
of ‘God is here with us, but he’s
probably not with them.’
We concocted our church swap
experiment (p30) to see what happens
when people are exposed to ways
of doing church which are different
from their own. By and large, there
was something at each service which
made people think, challenged a
preconception about a different style
or even helped them encounter God
in a new way. So next time you have
a Sunday spare, why not pop in to
that church you always drive past but
suspect is dodgy? It’s not just good for
unity, it might be good for your soul
as well.
You might be sick of Rob Bell by
now. Or at least, you might be sick of
talking about his book and whether
or not he actually believes all will be
saved. He’s on our cover this month
because after all this talk about him,
we wanted to give the man himself a
chance to respond. As upbeat as his
recent public appearances have been,
I came away from our interview with
the impression that he was somewhat
bewildered, bruised and battered
from the slating he’d received from
the Christian community after the
publication of
Love Wins. As the
body of Christ we should be ashamed
of ourselves for forgetting that there
is a difference between a person’s
humanity and their theology.
Let’s no longer contribute to
the persecution of one individual
who was brave enough to say in
public what many Christians have
wondered about in private (I know,
because many of you have written
in to tell me). Let Rob Bell have his
say. Continue to wrestle with, argue
about and take seriously the ideas he
presents. But now, please, let’s leave
the man alone.
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