Rob Bell Livestream Event

This Tuesday, July 24th, Rob Bell will host a live event where he will talk about "What's next" for him. As we all know, only Rob Bell could have a random event with basically no information on a Tuesday night at 10pm, and tens of thousands of people (if not more) will tune in to hear what he has to say.

As ridiculous as the Rob Bell hype is sometimes, count me in for this one! But I'll be viewing from the comfort of my couch, as I think most of us in the cohort will.

A link to the Livestream event is here: http://www.livestream.com/robbell

If you log in through facebook, you can chat with other people watching. Hope to see some of you on there!! Perhaps post your thoughts on the "event" in the comments section on this blog.

Love Wins & Erasing Hell

Hi friends -

I just finished reading Rob Bell's "Love Wins" and Francis Chan's response book, "Erasing Hell." I am blogging my thoughts and responses to both books on my personal blog, here.

Just thought I'd invite everyone over to read my thoughts and perhaps share some of your own.

Has anyone else read either of these two books? Any thoughts about them?

Love Wins?

This video promoting Rob Bell's new book has caused quite a stir online. (BTW, note the article linked is written by our old friend Sarah Pulliam).

I know we've talked about the Heaven/Hell debate before, but I thought I'd just throw it out on here since we are supposed to be "emergent" - thoughts on this video?

Rob Bell: December 10: Columbus

Rob Bell will be in Columbus for his "Drops like Stars" tour on December 10th. It would be great to go to this event with a group of "cohorters" (cohortians?).

Info: Palace Theatre, 8pm. Tickets are about $25 after all charges and fees and are general admission, so purchase them on your own (but definitely purchase ahead of time is my advice).

I would recommend trying to get a rough head count for the even within the next week or so, each person purchase tickets individually, and then perhaps we can work out some carpooling or a meeting spot before the event, and then drinks and conversation afterward.

Perhaps a good event to invite some new and/or different folks for conversation as well??

Other thoughts/ideas??

The New Perspective

TIME picked up on the continuing discussion in theological circles regarding so-called "New Pauline Perspective" which is basically reinterpreting Paul's letters (especially Romans) in light of his strong commitment to Judaism. In other words, don't read the New Testament like a Christian, read it like a Jew.

What is interesting is that this article pits Rob Bell against Ben Witherington, and the fact that TIME considers a new understanding of what it means to be a Judeo-Christian one of the top "10 Ideas that are Changing the World."

Read about it here