Mars Hill Bible Church, January 7

I visited Mars Hill tonight. I am amazed at the air of ignorance felt there, in regards to the controversy clouding in and crowding in on the place from the outside. I felt quite idolatrous even thinking of Rob Bell in a critical, consumerist fashion. Is he giving me what I am used to hearing? Was that a wise choice of words? How dare he be funny? And even examining the worship. Yes, of course, they would play that song. It’s so Mars Hill. Can you imagine? Struggling to worship as I myself try to understand the theology of the church?

Yet the hype seems to die every time I visit. I am sick of examining the church as a phenomenon, whether at Mars Hill or West Cannon, or elsewhere. I want to be a part of Jesus in the world. In his body, doing what he does. This is what spurred me to write this “Abigeauty” thing, if I do in fact write it. In technical terms, it is a struggle between the philosophy of looking back at the Bible—trying to model the worthy characters, follow all commands as timeless law, being an Acts style church—contrasted with what I suppose is what Mars Hill is at work on: Living and breathing as a moving, working body of Jesus in the world he has placed us in, as living out the projection of Scripture and this “new covenant” in Jesus’ blood. In doing this, Mars Hill has ignored commands, it would seem, like allowing a woman to be a deacon or pastor (a position with a different role for them than a traditional church). But if specific, cultural commands like this are to remain forever, how different is this covenant than that of Judaism? New look, same (not so great) taste. Or, if 2 Corinthians 3 teaches what I propose, it is the taste of death. If the old letter kills, would a new “letter” kill as well? Yet if what we were doing was being Jesus to our world in a holy pleasing way, how is a woman teaching an adult Sunday school class somehow disobedient? Surely it meant something in Paul’s day, but something about that kind of Biblical interpretation grinds against me terribly.

All these thoughts came about because a woman was interviewed on stage, telling her “story” of taking a teaching job in a Grand Rapids alternative high school. Rob used it as a launch pad to speak of Jesus’ teaching on the Good Samaritan. He asked a question of the story, “Who was the real priest? Who truly revealed God?” Anyways, after the service, a conservative friend of mine said, “I never thought I would hear a woman preacher tonight.” What a taboo topic in my circles. And how ridiculous! The issue of a woman’s role in the church has become the determining factor of a church being “liberal” or “conservative”. It seems so much smaller than the way of Jesus.