Rob Bell Hugged Me

First off, let me clarify something: I'm not a stalker.

That said, I flew 2700 miles to Michigan, then drove three hours to go to Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids, MI just to see Rob Bell Jr, speak. This is not because I idolize Rob Bell - although I probably would take a job being his personal assistant. It is not because I am obsessed with him - although I have seen all ten of his Nooma videos and have downloaded and listened to every sermon he's preached for the last two years. I admire Rob Bell, but I am in love with what Rob Bell is doing. He is repackaging Christianity in a new and fresh way so that millions are hearing what it actually means to actually love and follow Christ. And God is using him.

Spartan Stadium
First off, Mars Hill is in an old shopping mall that - unless you're a local - is next to impossible to find. We had Mapquest directions and a map of the area, and we still took us 20 extra minutes. The church bought this old shopping mall, which is kind of perfect because it has wide hallways that all lead down to the anchor store, which used to be Sears but now is just a big hexagonal room. Very industrial. And very...underwhelming, really.

Their sanctuary is just a bunch of gray chairs lined up in the round, which means that there's a center platform that's surround in 360 degrees by rows and rows of chairs. There's a big white square above the stage with four identical projections on each screen. The stage is covered in light gray carpet and is about 30x30. There's a few dozen speakers hanging from the ceiling, one soundboard, a Dell Computer that plays the Powerpoint Slides and a DVD player.

That's it.

Oh, yeah, and 3,800 chairs and people cramming in for each of their three identical weekend services.

That's almost 12,000 people per weekend.

!!

The crazy thing is, it really doesn't feel like 3,800 people in the room because at any give point, you're at max 24 rows away from Rob Bell. That's the power of being in the round.


The Congregation is Our Instrument
The best part of being in "the round" is that during worship, everbody sings at each other, which gives the place this overwhelming feeling of sound. I talked to Troy Murphy, the lead worship guy (you can read his online rants and raves here) and he said something pretty cool.

"During practice, the band is like, 'Man, what is missing.' Then on Sunday, we're like, 'Oh yeah, the musicians.' We really feel as though we're a back-up band, and the congregation is the primary instrument."

It showed. I couldn't see the band, really. Or even Troy, really. All I could see was the white cube above, with the words, starkly projected as white-on-black words on the screen. You couldn't focus on them: they didn't want you to. They wanted you to join everyone in singing. And it was powerful.

I couldn't help but think that 3,800 people all facing one direction would have been a very different feel. More like a concert than a sing-along.

You're Tall
We were there during "Family Worship Cafe" in which they took out a ton of chairs and put down colorful mats for kids and parents to sit together on the floor. On this day, all children's church was closed and kids attended church with their folks. Troy played fun, camp songs like "I Got the Joy Joy Joy Joy Down in my Heart." It was kinda fun.

Then Rob came out with two other teachers, a 23-year old guy Josh who is in charge of the 56 ministry of 5th and 6th graders, and this pretty blonde woman, who read the Scripture, which in this case was the story of David and Goliath. She'd read the story, Josh would re-word the story in kids' terms, and Rob would then come and discuss the geopolitical and religious ramifications of the story. It was cool, tag-team teaching.

And Rob is like 6'1". I thought he was kind of shrimpy. I saw him on the stage at WillowCreek and he looked small. But of course, that stage'll make anyone look small.

Huge News
But the coolest thing that happened was after the service, when Rob Bell made a few announcements. I was just thinking the other day that perhaps the reason that Rob doesn't write books is that he throws the amount of resources that it would take to write a book - which is considerable - into making Nooma videos. I was thinking that maybe he thought that writing books wouldn't reach anyone.

Then, on Sunday he announced that he had indeed, published a book with Zondervan. It's coming out today and it's called:
Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith

Here's the crazy thing. Someone at Barnes and Noble read the book, and decided to make it Barnes and Noble's Book of the Month, which is only slightly less important than having Oprah recommend your book. It means that at EVERY Barnes and Noble in North America, Rob's book will be the featured book of the month, on display and highlighted. Just to give you an idea: last month's Book of the Month was "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."

Here's the other crazy thing: the chief buyer at Border's Books also read Rob's book and they made it their Book of the Month as well.

Here's another crazy thing: Barnes and Noble asked Rob to do a book tour throughout the country.
"You mean you want me to travel around to your stores," Rob asked.
"Yes," they said.
"And talk about Jesus?" he asked.
"Yes," they said.
"I think we can work something out," Rob said.

So he's taking the month of August off to go on a book tour and signing tour. And he announced all this to his congregation while I was there. Which was really exciting.

Brothers Can't Shake Hands
After the service, I went up to Rob and waited in a short line to talk to him. The woman ahead of me asked him if he got her email. He said yes, and said something about how he hoped Cody was doing better. I think he was friends with this woman, which was shocking. Can you imagine being friends with Rob Bell? I can. I'd invite him over, and we'd ride bikes. Then, we'd...oh sorry.

Anyway, then he looked at me, who was next in line.

This was one of those moments where I realized I probably should have prepared a speech or something. Extemporaneous speech is not my forte. So what I said was dumb, and I stumbled a bit. I explained that I was from California - San Jose to be exact - and that I'd flown to Michigan to visit my wife's parents in Ann Arbor, and we'd driven to see him because I was such a big fan of the Mars Hill community and what he was doing.

"You're a huge encouragement to me, and a lot of people out in California," I said. "The community you've built

"Thank you so much," he said, earnestly. "That is amazing to hear."

"Keep on doing what you're doing," I said. "Your fire makes a lot of us more on fire, too." I stuck out my hand to shake his.

He did the whole grab-your-hand-and-then-pull-you-in-for-the-hug thing.

"Say hello to the flock in California, would ya," he said.

I said I would.

So, if you're in San Jose, and a Christian, Rob Bell says, "Hi."

Kinda Depressed
I realized after meeting Rob that I was a bit depressed. He's only five years older than I am, and he's done amazing things and is being used powerfully by God. I can't really articulate it, but I'm getting the feeling that as I approach 30, I better vamp it up and really get serious about stuff. Up to this point, I haven't really produced anything worth talking about. I don't care about being on CNN or Oprah or anything - I mean, what would I wear? - , but I'd like to make a big difference somewhere. I feel like I've been given a bazooka, and I should be blowing a hole in the enemy's wall somewhere for Christ - but I haven't really been doing anything.

I guess overall, the whole thing made me wanna clean up my act even more and get more devoted and read and study more of God's word and work on my interpersonal relationships so that I can be in a place - or in the place - so if Jesus says, "Fire," I can.

*You can read more about this tremendous guy at this brief Detroit Free Press column, or read a longer, more in-depth and in some ways, more controversial interview from the Grand Rapids Press's religion front on Saturday.

**If that link doesn't work, try going directly to the Grand Rapids Press (for this one, you have to search at the top. Select "Grand Rapids Press" from the scroll down menu, then type in "Velvet Elvis."