Its 1:30 in the morning

It's after 1 AM and I just got home about an hour and a half ago from Grandville, Michigan and "Isn't She Beautiful?" at Mars Hill. May I say it was worth my time. Albert, the Youth Minister, and I left early today to get back at a decent time. We missed the afternoon breakout session on Tuesday and the evening. I am going to be getting notes from a friend who was sticking around.

Let me start by saying a little of my background with Rob Bell. I have read "Velvet Elvis" listened to several of his sermons and watched some Nooma Clips (AWESOME). I have found him to be thought provoking and extremely deep in his understand of scripture, especially the "Jewishness" of the Bible (my new word). I do not agree with him at every level, but I have found him to be genuine and heartfelt.

Now to the conference. Some impressions to begin. Mars Hill meets in a old mall. "The Shedd" is a huge open space with a stage in the center of the room with four screens in a box form above the stage. Just like the Mars Hill website (newly updated) the church is minimalist in look. There is no sign on the street near the church. When asked in a Q&A about it Bell answered, "you found it didn't you?"

Best phrase of the conference, "Wow, that is a big steeple." The phrase is taken from a Marilyn Manson song. Bell uses it to refer to ministers who brag about the size of their ministry.

Bell in his teaching has an ease of flow in his presentation. I sat there and listened to him speak and when he was done thought, "wow that was an hour and forty-five minutes." In the Monday morning session Bell's title was, "This lovely, frustrating, intoxicating, painful, hard, compelling mystery called church and why she's worth dying for." This was a wonderful talk on the Pastors being broken and poured out as a good gift(Eucharist) like Christ. Here are two quotes among many that hit me, "To be a leader in the church is to let your body be broken and your blood be poured out for others." The second about the church, "Your church is a gift (Eucharist) to your community." I could have left right after that session and felt the cost of the conference was well worth it. It hit me right between the eyes. I came away changed by that message and it will stick with me!

Monday evening Bell presented “There’s a box? A Theology of Creativity.” He spoke of the way he gathers for and presents sermons. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Came away with some great ideas and more creative and practical ways to prepare for preaching.

This morning he spoke on “A Few thoughts on God, Jesus, salvation, judgment, heaven, hell, who’s in, who’s out, and the end of the world as we know it.” I figured I would have trouble with this and I did, but it did make me think about my own view of salvation. I will not bash Bell point for point here. I will say it was useful to help me solidify a little more strongly my views of what the Bible says about salvation.

Best part of the conference was on Monday evening and the worship band. The leader opens by saying something like, we here at Mars Hill believe in responsive readings so you read the lines in parenthesis and I will read the rest.

We want the funk
(Gotta have the funk)

Those were the first two lines, I don't remember the rest. Then the band starts playing in the "key of funk." So we sing "All Hail the Power of Jesus Name," "Let it Rise" and several other songs in the "key of funk." It was soooo awesome!

I will be attending C3 in February and look forward to that. I will let you know how it goes.