Bell and Trombone
I remember the first time I heard Rob Bell. For those who don’t know (and didn’t just click on that link!), Rob is the pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, which is not to be confused with Mark Driscoll’s Mars Hill Church in Seattle. My first exposure to Rob was listening to an audio recording of his first book, Velvet Elvis. The book had caused quite a stir among some of the conservative reformed watchdogs because of Rob’s rather loose interpretation many traditional doctrines, and he has been accused of devaluing the necessary importance of those doctrines.
But I’m not here to add to that fire. There are plenty of sites that are willing to do that. Happy Googling!
I remember I was talking with a friend of mine, telling him about my reaction to the book. Really, I didn’t see what Rob was saying as being so hugely dangerous like those watchdogs. And I could quickly see why Rob was becoming so popular among the 20s and 30s in evangelicalism. But there was still something that didn’t sit right - and it had everything to do with what I figured made him so popular.
As I told my friend, Rob has a very different preaching style. It’s not hugely polished. He stutters and pauses and searches for words. But he’s very genuine in that way. He sounds like he’s just talking to you — even when he’s reading the manuscript of his book. He is emotional, as his voice rises and falls and speeds and slows down. It’s obvious that he’s passionate about what he’s communicating, and wants to transfer that energy to his audience. And it’s infectious. He does it very well.
It’s probably just my cynical nature, but I quickly found myself wondering — “what if it’s just a shtick?” Because, like I said, Rob’s great at it. Since listening to his book 3 years ago, I’ve watched all the NOOMA videos, and I added his podcast to my rotation. And I realize how much of his draw for me is found in his style, and that’s not a bad thing. I think that it makes him much more effective. It communicates that the Jesus he is talking about is real and visceral and vital to his life. It communicates that he’s a real person with disappointments and hopes and relationships. It’s an amazing in-road to a generation that is cynical and disconnected and saturated with slick marketing. Yet I couldn’t help but wonder if it wasn’t just one more example of that same slick marketing.
This seed of cynicism came back this weekend. I found out through an acquaintance’s blog that the first two episodes of TROMBONE PLAYER WANTED was available for free off of I-Tunes. TPL is a series of short management/effectiveness films by Marcus Buckingham around his Simply Strengths management plan. Never heard of Marcus? Neither had I. But my acquaintance seemed to think it was a “great resource”, and so I decided to give it a look.
To my surprise, there was the same stuttering voice, the same searching for words, the same music and subtle B-storyline being told through cut-scenes throughout the film. Marcus had the exact same shtick as Rob. To at T. I did a little searching and realized that the films were made by the same people that made the NOOMA videos, so you could easily say that Marcus just decided to copy Rob. That very well could be what’s happening. But it still crawls under my skin in an odd way. And it’s not helped by the fact that I really disagree with some of the stuff Marcus was saying - that’s a whole other thing.
To be clear, I’m not saying that I think that Rob is a fake. I’m really not. I’m saying I’m amazed at how possible it is to fake and copy what Rob does. And that makes me nervous. Thanks to post-modernism, we’er all familiar with the idea that the way you communicate is very much a part of what you communicate. And seeing Marcus — it makes me wonder who we’re fooling when you do a sylistic cut-and-paste. And why exactly would you do that in the first place?