We began our after-Sunday-morning-service discussion series on Rob Bell’s Love Wins last Sunday, October 2.
It was decided by that group to keep our discussions on Sunday mornings, rather than trying to also fit in a weeknight discussion. However, that could change with additional feedback. If a weeknight is the best time for you to meet and discuss the book, please let me know. The accumulation of even a few such preferences would quickly result in some weeknight conversations.
But feedback is what this post is about.
Both prior to and since last Sunday morning’s conversation I had heard from people who had either begun reading Love Wins or who had read the book all the way through.
The comments ranged from, “… Just finished reading the first chapter and all I can say is, ‘Wow!’” to “I’m not sure where Rob Bell is going, but if he’s going where I think he’s going, then I’ve got some serious problems with him,” to “How can he say that?!”
As you can see, responses to the book are strong, no matter how far someone has read.
I’ll try to keep you updated here as the discussions proceed, but my best advice at this point is this: First, read all of the book before you draw conclusions (always good advice!). Second, make sure you do your best to understand the points Bell is making before you press your own prior understandings onto what he has written in Love Wins (again, good advice).
We are dealing with weighty topics here–heaven, hell, Jesus Christ, salvation and the nature of God. Such topics will not allow themselves to be easily reduced to slogans or other kinds of short, commercial-like statements. The nuances and depth of these subjects require both patience and hard work, something our feeling-oriented, sound-bite driven society finds to be tedious and boring.
Fight the impulse to rush to judgment or a hasty conclusion. Allow yourself to be both informed and challenged by the book and the discussion about it. And, even more importantly perhaps, be willing to let your own thoughts and conclusions to be brought to the light of day through your active participation in the conversation. It is sometimes only when we try to explain our thoughts out loud that we find out what we are really thinking. And then we can see revealed what we might believe.
And beliefs matter. Beliefs matter a lot.
Be patient with yourself. Be patient with the book. Be patient with the conversation.
–Jim Morse
