With our recent focus on Rob Bell here at this blog...I thought it would be interesting to post a current event peeking in at how a Pastor and a church have recently been impacted with the views advertised in Rob Bell's latest book on bookshelves now, entitled "Love Wins!" So as I was digging around some websites I frequent, I found this article and video clip
at www.churchleaders.com and thought it was worth looking at in light of all the Rob Bell controversy:
FOXNews reported that a United Methodist Church pastor in North Carolina was recently removed from his position because he posted to Facebook that he supported the view of hell described in Rob Bell's new controversial book, Love Wins. Pastor Chad Holtz said he was "shocked" by the decision to fire him, because the post was intended to engage his congregation in discussion, but it ended up angering them. Holtz said congregants complained he wasn't representing their views. Bell's book describes the traditional view of hell as a place of eternal torment "misguided and toxic," and Holtz's Facebook post detailed his personal journey toward "losing the idea of hell." Holtz called the congregation "good decent people ... who are simply feeling a little threatened by a pastor who is asking questions they don't want to ask right now." He admitted that he'd posted other notes on subjects such as gay marriage that had troubled the congregation before, but this recent one seemed to be "the last straw."
I would love to hear everyone's thoughts on this one!
Way of the Pastor,
Joe Drew
OK, I caved and watched a video blog. Anyway, it sounds like there was more to the story than just this one thing. There were other issues that he and the congregation were not in agreeance with, and releasing him was probably the best thing for both. We don't know the behind the scenes or what lead up to this, how much did he and his congregation disagree on, how long has this gone on, how vocal is he about his stances, how does he treat his people when they disagree, etc. We don't know if he had been corrected by his denomination (I think they do that) or not, how defiant is he in his beliefs. So for both to be able to move on and find their place is good.
ReplyDeleteYeah but the question is would you fire this guy even for his Rob Bell beliefs even if there were no other issues of conflict in his past?
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