Can you feel the Nooma?

October 4, 2006

Last Sunday we used a video from Rob Bell’s Nooma devotional series (a phonetic spelling of the Greek word for spirit: pneuma) as a discussion starter in youth group. Rob Bell is the founding pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan, one of the fastest growing congregations in the United States. The videos are short pieces, aimed at young adult or older youth, with an eye at encapsulating key Christian ideas in a compact, media-friendly dialogue style.

Bullorn (pictured right, the one viewed by the youth) is Bell’s imaginary conversation with the “Bullhorn Guy,” that evangelist who stands on a street corner shouting (maybe through a bullhorn!) for conversion to his views of the Christian faith and warning damnation for those who fail to heed his urgent call. We Presbyterians by and large have long been weary with this sort of thing, in part because we believe that it is God who is the one who speaks to us, and that yelling isn’t going to make God’s word any more or less effective.

Bell has two main concerns. First, Bell argues that Bullhorn Guy has the message of Christianity all wrong, since God teaches love as the great commandment and, as a corollary, we have to approach all others with respect, regardless of whether they are Christian or not. “The way you love others is the way you love God,” he would say. This rules out the type of aggressive prostyletizing that Bullhorn Guy represents. But even more, Bell is concerned about how Christians like Bullhorn Guy make all the rest of us look bad. How we get painted by the same brush, ususally the brush of the worst examples among those who claim the name of Christ. His response: other Christians need to do better at being good examples of that great commandment, so that we can demonstrate that Bullhorn Guy is not what Christianity is all about.

Our discussion was good. We talked about other examples of people who, like Bullhorn Guy, make the “rest of us” look bad. We talked about what bad evangelism looks like, and noted examples at school. We struggled a bit with the “God loves everyone” angle, particularly when it comes to the really evil people out there: terrorists, Osama or Saddam. What do you think? Do you know any Bullhorn Guys?

I hope to use other Nooma tapes for my Adult Seekers Class. Looks like it is a terrific series so far.

Posted in Faith