Wednesday thoughts about Rob Bell and Velvet Elvis

Over at revgalblogpals, they have been in a book discussion over the book Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. The thing that we related to the most was his chapter on burnout and trying to be "SuperPastor". I know this struggle, I have struggled with thinking I had to be super woman, super pastor, and tried to do it, and burned out trying to do it myself. We aren't called to be superhuman. We are called to be human, after all we are human beings. Okay so I am preaching to the choir, myself, and maybe I need to keep hearing and reading it.

I am just at this place in the book. I keep getting interrupted in my readings by the munchkins. But I will say it is good interruptions. I had read this before in an excerpt Rob Bell wrote for Chritianity Today, called the The Storage Room Meltdown.
Here is what he had to say: "I could feel my car keys in my pocket, and all I could think about was how far away I could be by 11 a.m. How much gas was in the tank? How fast could I drive?

Sitting on a chair in a storage room, I could hear the worship space filling up with people, and all I wanted to do was leave. What do you do when you're pastor of a church, it's Sunday morning, people are finding their seats, you're scheduled to preach, and you realize you have nothing to say? How did it come to this? It started out so great … One minute you have these ideas about how it could be, and the next minute you're leading this exploding church/event/monster."

He goes on to say: "We were growing. House churches were springing up, partnerships were beginning with other churches around the world, and people who had never been a part of a church were finding a home. Two years into it, around 10,000 people were coming to the three gatherings on Sundays. In the middle of all this chaos was me, superpastor, doing weddings and funerals and giving spiritual direction and going to meetings and teaching and dealing with crises and visiting people in prison and at the hospital. It was happening so fast. One minute you have these ideas about how it could be, and the next minute you are leading this exploding church/event/monster. I tell you all this because there's a dark side. It's one thing to be an intern with dreams about how church should be. It's another thing to be the 30-year-old pastor of a massive church. And that is why I was sitting there thinking about how far I could be by 11 a.m. I escaped to the storage closet to be alone. I was moments away from leaving the whole thing. I just couldn't do it anymore. People were asking me to write books on how to grow a progressive young church, and I wasn't even sure I was a Christian anymore. I didn't know if I wanted to be a Christian anymore. I was exhausted. Full of doubt. I had nothing more to say.
And so I sat there with my keys in my hand, turning them over and over, hearing the room getting louder and louder and more and more full. At that moment I made some decisions. Because without pain, we don't change, do we? but I realized that day that things were wrong with the whole way I was living my life. If I didn't change, I was not going to make it. In that abyss I broke and got help … because it's only when you hit bottom and are desperate enough that things start to get better. This breakdown, of course, left me with difficult decisions to make.
This breakdown, of course, left me with difficult decisions to make. Mars Hill was alive and people were being transformed. Who would leave all that? I decided to be honest about my journey, and if people wanted to come along, great. But I was still going to have to take a new path. And a new journey began, one that has been very, very painful. And very, very freeing.
It was during this period that I learned that I have a soul."

Well he says more, and I'll be glad to share the article with you or you can read the chapter in the book. Its a good chapter. I think whether you are a Pastor who is planting a church, or is pastoring a mega church or a little church, somewhere you are going to get to this place in your life, your ministry. And if you seek the help you need, change your path, you too will learn you have a soul, but you will have to face and feel the pain. I would say that some days, I am still facing and feeling the pain, and when I do, I realize, I have gotten off the path, or am having to look at another shadow part of myself.

Here is the Nooma for the day. It is a Nooma we could all use. It is one I can especially use. The Psalmist wrote, "Be still, and know I am God."

• "Why is silence so hard to deal with? Why is it so much easier for us to live our lives with a lot of things going on all the time than tojust be in silence? We’re constantly surrounded with “voices” that are influencing us on how to think, feel, and behave. Movies, music, TV, Internet, cell phones, and a never-ending barrage of advertising. There’s always something going on. Always noise in our lives. But maybe there’s a connection between the amount of noise in our lives and our inability to hear God. If God sometimes feels distant to us, maybe it’s not because he’s not talking to us, but simply because we aren’t really listening."

Velvet Elvis

I am in a book club that is presently reading the book Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell.

To be honest I joined the book club hoping I would finish reading books I started. I have a habit of starting books, reading some, then picking up some other book to read, then going back to the original book, then back and forth like that. Eventually I finish them. I read the first book, "Leaving Church", finally after the due date for discussion. I have however not finished the second book, "Christianity for the Rest of Us", and am in the process of reading it. I decided however, that I wanted to be ready when it came time to discuss the third book Velvet Elvis. I put down the second book, and started reading Velvet Elvis. It is a very different style of writing than I am used to, but interesting. It is written in loops, as described by Leonard Sweet. And he uses very interesting objects as metaphors for things.

I really don't know that much about Rob Bell. Some people have heard him preach at his church or at some of the speaking engagements he has done. There is something else he has done is make some videos called Nooma. The name NOOMA comes from a phonetic spelling of the Greek word pneuma (πνευμα) meaning 'wind,' 'spirit,' or 'God's movement or agency.' I found some on You Tube. They are a lot like the book, spoken in loops. I am offering one here that is on You Tube.

Some people are very critical of Rob Bell. Some really like him. The church he pastors, Mars Hill in in Grandville, Michigan draws somewhere between 10,000 to 11,000 a weekend to worship. It is very intersting to me he started the church teaching through the book of the Bible, Leviticus. Now how many preachers do you know have even preached or taught out of Leviticus? (If you have taught Disciple Bible Study, you have.) I am saving my critique until I have completed reading the book. In the meantime, I will on Wednesdays be posting somthing about Rob Bell or by him, until we discuss the book on May 28. I would be interested in your thoughts as well.

Here is the video: Nooma - Rain

If you can't see it, here is the link to Nooma-Rain on You Tube

"Leaving Church"

Over at Revgalblogpals they have started a Book Club with the first book being Leaving Church by Barbara Brown Taylor. In April we will be reading and discussing Christianity for the Rest of Us by Diana Butler Bass, and in May the book will be Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. I bought all three books, but had not had time to read the book by Barbara Brown Taylor until last night. The discussion that was going on about the book led me to just go ahead and read it once the kids were asleep. I would have kept reading it except my eyes gave out and my brain quit. I did get to chapter 8. I have read other books of hers. I like her sermons a lot. They have been inspiring to me. I have heard her preach and teach at the Festival of Homiletics, and marveled at her ability to put the sermon together the way she does, and her way with words. But as I have read her sermons, I realized they would not work at the churches I have served. I have realized her style is not my style and that's okay. I have gained a lot from her book The Preaching Life.

Several things stand out to me in this latest book. She talks about her becoming a Priest and moving on to a church of her own as "natural course of things," and "I wanted it." I don't know about becoming a Priest, not being Anglican, but I do know that becoming a Pastor was not "the natural course" of things for me, nor did "I want it." But every body's call, direction in ministry, and following God's will is different than mine. But it makes me uncomfortable her saying it was the natural course. And I get uncomfortable hearing her say she wanted it, and not saying this is what I understood God wanting for my life, my ministry. I don't know, that may just be traditions, and language differences.

She also talks about the long, full days at her first church with no reference to days off, and losing herself there. And then she falls into the same pattern at the second church. That scares me reading that, no wonder she lost herself, burned out, was overloaded and then made the decision to leave the church. I can't say I have been perfect about getting my day off, but pretty close. And I can tell you my husband lets me know when I don't, and so do the kids. And I have been fortunate to have served in churches that cared whether I took care of myself or not and got my day off. Most recently my DS told me, that because I was serving a needy congregation to be sure to take breaks from it, get away and do something different. And I have.

The other thing I hear as I read the book is a somewhat romantic, naive view of the church and of the Priesthood. She did not grow up going to church and had very little idea of what the church could really be like. Having grownup in church, my father and mother being very involved, I have had an idea of what churches can be like, what preachers can be like, the good and bad. I have had to struggle through discovering what this appointive itinerant system is like. And each church is different and so I have had to learn the ins and outs of them.

I think I am going to stop now, because I have work to do, and I don't want to over load the reader. I'll post more later. I have enjoyed reading the book so far. By the way you can go to the revgalblogpals associate store at Amazon and order the books I have mentioned.