It was rainy outside, it was cold inside and the room was a little dark. Nevertheless, it was a night filled with warmth, light and beauty. Rob made his last stop on his speaking tour to support the release of his new book, Sex God, here in Chicago at a little old school moviehouse called the Portage Theater, complete with working organ and overpriced popcorn. At the beginning of the Q&A session, Rob made it known that he didn't particularly want to talk about the book ("I don't want to talk about it, I wrote it" - a joke lost on most of the crowd). So instead, we had an hour-long 200+ person coffee date. The audience picked his brain and he poked at our hearts. The questions were a mix of theology (predestination, evangelism, making disciples of all nations, homosexuality, even tongues - all of which were met with challenging, often surprising and always genuine and heartfelt answers - and questions about how our church communities can be more like Mars Hill.

Here were some of the notes I took, verbatim:

Baptisms = Mikvah (sp?) - Pools of water on the mountain by the Temple. God is in Jerusalem. Ritual cleansing from Leviticus. But John the Baptist is baptising in the river way out in the sticks.

Church is a gift to the city - measure of a Church... if it left, would the city protest?

We are putting flesh on truth - truth incarnate.

We are to be a eucharist for others - bodies broken, blood poured out for each other. It's why you may be drained after serving, even though you're doing something life-giving - your body is being broken. You are being a eucharist for others.

Godly Man - Relationship with his creator. Centers his life on grace and love. I am a sacred creation, created to do something unique to help God restore the earth.

Tongues - Cessationalists - "There was a party and then God came out and said 'Alright, everyone out of the pool'". Dispensationalists - that was for then. It's not good to put boundaries on the divine. Seen too many things with his own eyes. Other extreme - if you don't speak in tongues, you're not a Christian... "Do you speak in tongues?"- creates a hierarchy, first and second class Christians. Also not good.

Live and move in the world in a way that people see love and hope. Your life is different. People will want to be around you.

There's lots more but I'm going to save some of it for upcoming posts.

The evening was capped with the viewing of a new Nooma video, "You", and he stuck around afterwards to sign books and shake hands. I don't usually get starstruck, but this was as close as I've ever been to that. Here's a guy I've listened to every week for almost three years, and including the archives, a person whose given me two books, four years worth of sermons (which iTunes tells me occupy 4.1 days worth of listening), videos and other assorted experiences. He is a person who has literally changed my life after every sermon. You know the icebreaker question - if you could have dinner with any person living or dead (except Jesus, because that makes for a boring question), who would it be? My answer would be Rob Bell. So despite recognizing that he's a person just like you and me, and that the last thing he wants to be is a celebrity, I was still surprisingly nervous to meet him. We shared a particularly meaningful exchange with (ask me about it if you want to know more) then my friend and I went to a local burger joint to unpack everything we learned and began to work through what it meant for our life.

More of his answers will trickle into the coming week's posts, but if you have specific questions, I can try to remember how he answered. Meet me in the comments.

Labels: Jesus