Skye Jethani reports on a recent message the Rob Bell gave at the National Pastors Convention that I hope all of us can get down with. He writes:
Most of the church leaders attending this morning’s session at NPC probably thought they don’t share much in common with mega-church pastor, mega-celebrity, mega-author Rob Bell. They were wrong. Bell spoke about being criticized—the “million little paper cuts” of criticism that pastors face all the time. He used that common pastoral experience to talk about the “absolute imperative that we become masters at forgiving people.”
Bell recounted the story of a letter he received from a supporter. The note, in which the writer recounted how he defended Bell when another person accused him of being nothing more than “fluff and irrelevance,” was intended to edify and encourage. But he said the only part he remembered was the criticism. This, says Bell, is the definition of a “chocolate covered turd.” It looks sweet on the outside until you take a bite. Then it betrays you.
That’s how ministry is. You may hear nine really good things, but it’s the one critical comment that will eat away at your soul. We tell ourselves that it’s really nothing, that “you just have to laugh about it,” and that those small paper cuts really don’t hurt. But they do. Over time, says Bell, those small wounds build up and we experience “death by paper cuts.”
The only solution is forgiveness.
5 comments:
Zach, I agree with what you are saying about being careful of how we say things. Criticism is often hard for fallen humans to take (including me); when it comes in an unkind expression, that makes reception of the criticism even more difficult. Most importantly, unkindness simply doesn't glorify God.
With that said, do you think that Rob Bell has possibly opened himself up for much of the criticism he has received, by stating certain things quite carelessly himself? In regard to our tongues, care must must be taken at all times, including with criticism, but not *excluded* to it.
Here is what I mean. For example, Bell has shown himself to be careless in some pretty problematic ways with theological statements in his books. In Velvet Elvis, Bell states that whenever you hear a pastor claim to "preach the Bible," what you will, in fact, hear is that man's *interpretation* of the Bible. Thus, there is no way to simply "preach the Bible."
This statement sounds good at first (perhaps even epistemologically humble), until one considers that what Bell has just done is thrown out a statement that makes it *very difficult* for any pastor to be able to say authoritatively, "The Bible clearly teaches this or that on this or that subject." This is a very postmodern mindset but not a very Biblical one.
I hope that the above statement doesn't sound unkind... however, one must ask, is Bell himself being unkind here to pastors who want to preach what God's word says, without their preaching being endlessly questioned and taken down a postmodern trajectory of "that's just your interpretation"?
In the same book, Rob also describes the Christianity as a "trampoline," with doctrines being the "springs" in the trampoline. He then asks, theoretically, what would we do if our understanding of some of those springs stretch, or if some of the springs even break? What if certain doctrines that we hold turn out to be wrong? Would we still be willing to follow God? The examples that he uses are the Virgin Birth and the Trinity. I can only answer, without the Virgin Birth and the Trinity, you simply don't have Biblical Christianity, as it has historically been understood.
Yes, we should be as careful and as kind as possible in our criticism of Rob Bell and/or of anyone with whom we have theological disagreements, but it is equally important for men like Bell, who have public teaching roles as pastors, to not put out careless theological statements for public consumption. When the words of our mouths are evaluated, kindness *and* concern for clarity and truth are both essential. Biblical balance is the key.
I have no disagreement with what you say here Chris.
I have critiqued Rob on this blog. You can search for Velvet Elvis and read my review if you like. Some good and many things that make me scratch my head.
z
Thanks for the reply and the tip about your review, Zach!
I appreciate Bell's desire to help pastors cope with criticism. I also agree that how we critique a brother is important. Where the fruits of the Spirit are absent, you can be sure the Spirit is absent.
My only concern here is that it perpetuates the misunderstanding of what forgiveness is.
Bell has been the target of a lot of criticism and can speak from experience, but is it good/right/noble to "forgive" someone who has pointed out your theological errors? Is this loving or dismissive and disrespectful?
Too often we hear a call to "rise above" or "endure with great patience" called something it isn't: forgiveness.
I engage this issue and a couple of really thought provoking articles "When Forgiveness is a Sin" by Dennis Prager and Greg Koukl's response here.
Tim,
I hear your concern. If that is what Rob is doing (dismissing all those who disagree with him by saying he forgives them) then that most likely is a problem.
Since I didn't hear the actual talk I can't know for sure what he is referring to and I would have to withhold judgment on this until I knew what he was specifically referring to. Perhaps he is talking about some of those folks (I have read their blogs) who write about him in such a way that if it were written about me, I would be very hurt.
I don't know his reference point, but I was encouraged by the reminder to be a man that forgives.
Certainly there is a more nuanced discussion that probably needs to surround this issue.
Post a Comment