Following Jesus - Northwestern College

COVER STORY
Changing Church
Today’s Christians are wrestling with how to make their faith
relevant and countercultural
When Rob Bell’s book Love Wins created a storm of
controversy following its publication last year, both
USA Today and Time magazine called Dr. Richard
Mouw ’59 for comment. Mouw, a leading evangelical voice
in the United States, serves as president of Fuller Theological
Seminary. Bell, at the time the pastor of Mars Hill Bible
Church in Grand Rapids, Mich., is a Fuller graduate.
In fact, Bell may be Fuller’s most well-known alumnus.
The 41-year-old was an evangelical celebrity by the age of
30, having founded Mars Hill in 1999 when he was just 28.
The church grew quickly and today draws 7,000 people to its
Sunday services. Bell also created the popular video series on
Christianity called Nooma (a variation of the Greek word for
spirit) and authored books with the unusual titles of Velvet
Elvis and Sex God. In 2011 Time included Bell on its list of the
100 most influential people in the world.
Mouw describes Bell as a solid evangelical with a provocative
style. “I’ve always admired the way Rob reaches out to the
younger generation and people who are alienated from traditional
churches,” he says. “I’ve met many people in Grand Rapids
who go to Mars Hill who either came to faith in Christ or
who found a new vitality in their faith through Rob’s ministry.”
Some of those people, however, (Mouw says as many as
1,000) have left Mars Hill due to the theology of Love Wins.
The book is widely criticized for Bell’s suggestion that the
redemptive work of Jesus may be universal—that every person
who ever lived will eventually succumb to God’s irresistible
grace and enter heaven.
“I think the voice in the book is, again, more provocative,”
Mouw says. “It’s speaking to a broader culture.”
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