This time, it's actually on Twitter, and it's less than 140 characters.
In an interview with Rob Bell earlier this year, CT senior managing editor Mark Galli asked the Mars Hill Bible Church pastor how he would present the gospel on Twitter. Bell replied:
I would say that history is headed somewhere. The thousands of little ways in which you are tempted to believe that hope might actually be a legitimate response to the insanity of the world actually can be trusted. And the Christian story is that a tomb is empty, and a movement has actually begun that has been present in a sense all along in creation. And all those times when your cynicism was at odds with an impulse within you that said that this little thing might be about something bigger—those tiny little slivers may in fact be connected to something really, really big.
In his response, Bell provoked a fair bit of criticism in the blogosphere (as he did again last week when he told The Boston Globe, “I embrace the term evangelical, if by that we mean a belief that we together can actually work for change in the world, caring for the environment, extending to the poor generosity and kindness, a hopeful outlook. That’s a beautiful sort of thing.”)
But Galli pointed out that he was cheating anyway. His answer was a lot more than 140 characters. "You can't really tweet the gospel," Bell replied.
Well, last night, Bell gave it a second shot on his Twitter feed: "The gospel is the counterintuitive, joyous, exuberant news that Jesus has brought the unending, limitless, stunning love of God to even us."
At 117 characters, he even left enough to retweet.
Posted by Ted Olsen on October 6, 2009 11:47AM
Comments
No can RT w spaces and punctuation :(
Posted by: Jeff Cagwin at October 6, 2009
What? Where are all the basement theologians? Rob Bell says something that you can't rip out of context, and is orthodox and all of a sudden it's all quiet on the western front....
Posted by: David Brush at October 6, 2009
Seems like there MUST be much more threatening people to criticize and cut down than another believer walking the walk a little differently than perhaps you do. Isn't there?
Posted by: Sara Huizenga Lubbers at October 6, 2009
I tweet the Gospel daily. The main part of tweeting the Gospel of Christ Jesus is to be patient and humble without striking back at those who strike at you.
John 15:17 - [Jesus said:] This I command you, that you love one another.
Romans 5:8 - God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 10:13 - for "WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED."
“Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.” (Isaiah 26:4)
Posted by: @GospelToday at October 6, 2009
Bell's thought, evangelically orthodox or not, will change large sections Christianity in the USA.
Posted by: Sabio Lantz at October 7, 2009
It's so sad that the simple gospel message, originally preached to poor fishermen and impoverished, marginalized people has become shrouded in twenty-first century nonsensical language. If God desired to openly and clearly communicate salvation in no other Name under heaven, why do some of us go to such great lengths to confuse and obsfucate this simple truth? As a former charter member of Mars Hill, I am greatly saddened in regard to how the church has drifted theologically and in regard to its leaders who have taken it such directions. What has taken place there is not inconsequential but will have far reaching ramifications for those who continue to remain influenced by its teachers and their teachings. Suffice it to say that "All that 'twitters' is NOT gold."
Posted by: GK at October 9, 2009
No, Bell has managed to ignore and/or avoid any real mention of the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, the defining element of the gospel so clearly communicated ("twittered"?)by both Peter and Paul in those sermons recorded in the Acts.
Posted by: Bruce A. Sabados at October 17, 2009
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