Why (Most) Students Side With Rob Bell

I don’t know how many college students have taken the time to pick up Rob Bell’s Love Wins, let alone taken the time to read it, over the course of a busy spring term… but this summer, if they do, I think we’ll find that many of them will more or less fall into agreement with much of what Bell has to say.

And it makes perfect sense, really.

We’ve become a  global community — and few know this better than our students.

Long before most of us were willing to explore the outer reaches of the internet — let alone Facebook — our students were out “surfing” into unknown territories and making “friends” with people on the other side of the world.

Literally.

As middle schoolers, and high schoolers, they were learning about people and life from other cultures — and becoming familiar, even comfortable with it.

At a young age, when fears are few and far between, they were able to knock over some of the barriers that we — their older counterparts — were likely trying to establish in their lives.

Whether we believe it or not, most of us were raised — and even taught — how to be exclusive in our approach to life.  We were taught, starting at a young age, about what makes us special — unique even — and that that was what made us somehow “better” than others.

It might have come from our parents (who were concerned about our self-esteem), or our teachers (who wanted us to believe in our abilities), or our coaches (who wanted us to excel), or someone else… We were told that we had that special “something” that set us a part.

And if we’re honest… we liked it. A lot!

I mean, who doesn’t want to believe that they’re special, right?!

Sadly, this same mentality also made its way into the Church, likely playing off of the theme of Israel as God’s Chosen People in the Old Testament. This “special” designation was now being passed on to — or at least opened up to include — Christ-followers… even though Jesus really seemed to imply that what God was doing was for EVERYONE.

And so for decades now — likely centuries — our churches have taken on more of a country club ora about them — celebrating those who were “in,” and pittying those who were “out” — and seemingly believing that this was how God wanted it to be.

Whether it was what we intended to communicate or not, what our younger counterparts perceived was that God was playing favorites — and that “we” considered ourselves to be those favorites.

But this younger generation — precisely because of the connections they’ve made globally — are unwilling to believe that’s how God works.  They’re unwilling to accept the idea that a “good God” would allow — not some stranger — but they’re new friend; to suffer judgment, condemnation and eternal separation from God because of what they think — or don’t think — about Jesus.

Many of these young people would claim a strong belief in Jesus themselves.

But when it comes to talking about the implications a “lack of belief” might have on someone else’s life… well, that’s a whole other story.

There’s a chorus in one of Dave Matthew’s songs that seems to hit the nail on the head — aptly describing this tension between those who believe God to be capable of radical inclusivity — and those who do not:

Everybody’s happy everybody’s free
Keep the big door open, everyone’ll come around
Why’re you different, why are you that way
If you don’t get in line we’ll lock you away

Everybody’s happy and free — just give them time — they’ll come around… you’ll see.

NO. It doesn’t work like that. Do as I do and do as I say — that is truthfully the only way.

And what I’ve found with some of the students I’ve encountered is that — if you really push them on this — they would choose to be loyal to their non-believing friends over a God who would seemingly not find a way to make space for their friend — which is another post, for another time.

But I wonder:

• How do talk about the inclusive and exclusive dimensions of the Christian faith with students?
• How does your ministry model the inclusive dimensions?
• Does your ministry model the exclusive dimensions?

I’d love to know what you think about this! Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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Posted May 24, 2011 — my follow-up to this post: Snubbing God — click here to read it.