"If the gospel isn't good news for everybody, then it isn't good news for anybody. And this is because the most powerful things happen when the church surrenders its desire to convert people and convince them to join. It is when the church gives itself away in radical acts of service and compassion, expecting nothing in return, that the way of Jesus is most vividly put on display. To do this, the church must stop thinking about everybody primarily in categories of in or out, saved or not, believer or nonbeliever. Besides the fact that these terms are offensive to those who are the "un" and "non", they work against Jesus' teachings about how we are to treat each other. Jesus commanded us to love our neighbor, and our neighbor can be anybody. We are all created in the image of God, and we are all sacred, valuable creations of God. Everybody matters. To treat people differently based on who believes what is to fail to respect the image of God in everyone. As the book of James says, "God shows no favoritism." So we don't either."
Rob Bell
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Matthew, I find this quote by Rob Bell particularly interesting because it clashes with something I recently read by another Grand Rapidian, James K. A. Smith. Bell, more than any other pastor in the Grand Rapids area is, I believe, identified with the emergent church, so it is interesting to hear him quote James—“God shows no favoritism.” Smith’s take on the emergent church in Grand Rapids leaves a different taste in the mouth. He talks of living and worshiping in an inner city church and asks, “What does the emerging church have to say to these communities—with horrible public schools . . . and families trapped in cycles of disempowerment because of drugs and incarceration? I’m just not sure that my neighbors, or those who live in the vicinity of our church, are asking the questions that up to this point, the emerging church has been trying to answer. They don’t subscribe to Regeneration Quarterly; and many don’t have internet access in their homes. So they are not reading The Next Wave or The Ooze. While the emerging church wants to be “urban,” in my town [Grand Rapids]it largely ministers to the young urban professionals living in the hip new condos downtown on the riverfront. But how can the emerging church reach those folks living on south Division or at Eastern and Franklin—places those people in the condos won’t drive after dark?”
--Dave
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