When Rob Bell needed new glasses, he couldn't find any frames he liked in the store. So he ran to his car and grabbed a pair of sunglasses.
"Could you put the lenses in these?" he asked. So they did.
His glasses in some way represent the man he is: pragmatic, unorthodox, and entertaining. He's the kind of guy who probably uses the word "awesome" a lot. "This is awesome. That's awesome."
Bell, 39, is the founding pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan, and also a best-selling author/speaker. When talking with him, you get the sense that he has a lot buzzing around in his head. And in his new book, Drops Like Stars, Bell appropriately juxtaposes two subjects not often intersected in Christendom: suffering and creativity.
"I'm kind of endlessly exploring and listening and learning from the world around me. This all first came about because I was giving some lectures at a creativity forum and I was doing some talks on basic art theory and I kept bumping up against this. I thought, This is not just true about art theory, but this is true about life, too," Bell says. "This is true about cancer."
Drops Like Stars presents the idea that suffering, while often painful and confusing, gives you an opportunity to be creative through your response. He uses several examples of how pain binds humanity together and unites across boundaries.
Bell admits that even the process of writing a book can be laborious. "My audience is humans," Bell says. "Something gets birthed inside of me that's worth doing all the blood and sweat and work to make it an actual thing. Books are the closest a man gets to giving birth. There's a moment of conception which is quite joyous, and then from there it's just months and months of carrying this thing around."
The release of his new book coincides with a nationwide tour—the first public traveling he's done in over a year. Bell spoke in Des Moines to a crowd of around 650 people on August 20 at the Hoyt Sherman Place. He soaked in all-things Iowa by stopping into the Iowa State Fair and admiring foods such as chocolate-covered bacon-on-a-stick. "My son even joked, 'I wonder if they have stick on a stick?'" Bell quipped.
On stage, Bell maintains your attention by shifting his tall frame in calculated movements and pacing his words to mimic the subject matter. He works the crowd with a steady glare and looks for moments of brevity in the reactions of the audience. Looking up to the ceiling and down the aisles, Bell is equal parts speaker and audience; not trying to hide that he is enjoying himself and trying to soak in the new setting.
Despite being a rising star amongst American pastors, Bell maintains that he's not out to impress anybody or make a name for himself. Even his friends refer to his public persona by a different name. "They call me Capital RB when they're talking about that stuff," Bell says. Still, his influence has grown with the popularity of his books and Nooma videos, but seems to remain at an arms-length politically.
When we asked Bell if he would have been willing to give the invocation at Obama's inauguration, he responded, "I would be interested, but I would have to ask a whole series of questions. Am I just trying to make everybody feel good? The whole thing just feels like a formality. It seems pretty far from the biblical example of prayer to me," Bell says. "They should call it 'A speech involving God that somehow minimally offends people."
And that goes against everything that Rob Bell is. He isn't one for unnecessary tradition or prewritten prayers. And while Bell's critics suggest he's soft on the authority or spirit-inspired accuracy of the scriptures, Bell doesn't seem to get caught up in others' opinions."Whether or not you are a Christian doesn't depend on whether you wear a suit or not," Bell says.
He's cool and people know it. He talks about art theory one minute and then quotes Will Ferrell the next. However, Bell refutes the idea that people are only interested in the message because of the cool-factor. "Historic Orthodox Christian faith is terribly compelling—the idea that suffering can be redemptive. God, through the resurrection, wants to put everything back together," Bell says. "The cross is not convenient. Loving people is not convenient."
Pastor Bell is part of a new breed of church leaders who are pushing to keep the church relevant in a post-modern society. Tackling tough subjects like suffering, sex, and doubt, Bell seems to fearlessly continue on a crusade to share the rich history and narrative of the Bible.
And what does he want to leave with his audience? "The world is hard and it appears dark. One of the gods of our age is cynicism," Bell says. "But there is a new creation bursting forth in the midst of the old one. Hope is real."
Photographs by Matt Crummy
