Re: Rob Bell/Nooma

I've posted in the past a bit about Rob Bell and his Nooma videos (here, here, here, and here). Well, C.J. Mahaney has a recent post entitled "Rob Bell, the Pastor’s Task of Discernment, and My Heart." In it, he offers four suggested biblical priorities for "the pastoral task of discernment":

Protect Your People

Prepare Your Heart

Preach Sound Doctrine

Pray for Rob Bell

Mahaney also links to Greg Gilbert's three-part review of Bell's Nooma series, which will be in the March/April 08 9Marks eJournal. Here are direct links to the three parts:

Part One: Overview and beginning of review, with the following headings:

• GIVING CREDIT WHERE IT'S DUE
• SUNDAY SCHOOL WITH A DOSE OF COOL
• PREACHING THE GOSPEL
• THE CROSS? THE RESURRECTION?
• HEY ROB, TRY THIS
• WHAT’S MISSING; WHAT’S NEEDED

Part Two: The meat of the review, with the following headings:

• NOOMA MISLEADS LOST PEOPLE
• NOOMA IS UNCLEAR ABOUT THE MEANING OF THE CROSS
• NOOMA TURNS CHRISTIANITY INTO A BANAL MORALISM
• CONCLUSION

Part Three: Comments on each of the first 18 Nooma videos

UPDATE: Vitamin Z has some good comments regarding Bell, Nooma, and Gilbert's reviews:

I hesitate to leave this up because I don't want you to be a 2nd hander. Make your own conclusions. Don't just trust Greg's assessment. If you haven't seen any of the NOOMA videos then I would encourage you to suspend judgment.

My friend John is a big fan of NOOMA and he was telling me that we need to keep in mind that Rob's video are not meant to encapsulate all of theology in 10min. Just because he might not outline his understand of the atonement in every video doesn't mean that he is heretical. If so, we would need to indict Jesus as being heretical for not communicating all of theology in each one of his parables. If Jesus told stories that were incomplete in an of themselves, why should we accuse Rob of doing the same? That is John's take.

I don't know. I am just passing along info here. Watch the NOOMA videos, read Greg's post and judge for yourself but do so with humility and gentleness.