Rob Bell's Heaven and Hell

Rob Bell's book on heaven and hell just came out yesterday. It is titled, "Love Wins." You can expect the blogosphere to erupt the next few days. I read over half of the book last night and this morning. I have a pretty good idea where Rob is going and what he believes. Here are my thoughts so far.

* Rob is dealing with an issue that our generation of world traveling, socially conscious, compassion and justice oriented people wrestle with deeply.
* Most of the Christians I know in the pews believe in some kind of soft universalism. The problem is that it is based on feelings and social acceptance more than their study of the Bible.
* Rob is trying to develop his theology of heaven and hell using the Bible. He does seem to be going in the direction of of a mild universalism (most probably go to heaven) and conditionalism (immortality is based on who we are and what we do with what has been revealed to us).
* Rob does a great job showing us how little we know about heaven and hell and invites people to question their certainty.
* I think it is important to be clear about where we can be reasonably certain and humble regarding where we cannot be quite so certain.

Here are my conclusions on this topic:

1. The Bible is clear there is no salvation (an idea that is far bigger than just going to heaven) except through Jesus (John 14:6).
2. The Bible is not quite so clear about how much of Jesus a person needs to know or profess. Hebrews 11 is full of people, Jews and Gentiles, who had never heard of Jesus and they are with God right now.
3. We are responsible for sharing and responding to the truth that has been revealed to us (Luke 12:47-48). Sharing the gospel, making disciples, responding to the gospel, becoming a disciple matters for now and the age to come.

I am grateful that Rob has written this book, if for no other reason than it will get more of us talking and studying what the Bible has to say about one of the most burning theological questions of our time. Let's pray God uses this book to take us deeper into our appreciation for his unimaginable love and wisdom displayed in Jesus Christ. May love win as many dialogue on this topic.

Visit our Restoration Community Church Website: Denver Church

Restoration Giving FAQ's

We are currently budgeting in 90 day intervals as a church. We enter into our second quarter in April. So, I want to let you know where we are during this “church-formation” stage in which we find ourselves. Below are some FAQ’s we hear fairly often.

1. What is our monthly budget? $42k.

2. Are we meeting our budget? No. We have a current short fall of $10-$13k a month. Our goal is to close that short fall so we can be independent financially.

3. Are we going into debt? No. Ron raises money through outside donor’s and churches to cover the shortfall.

4. Does Ron enjoy doing this? Glad you asked! Yes and no. Ron loves seeing people grow spiritually. Giving helps people put their money and their hearts where God is. See Matthew 6:21. At the same time Ron would rather focus his energies on being a pastor and training leaders at Restoration and throughout Denver.

5. Why should I give?

a. Because our vision is eternal. We want to see people’s lives transformed into the image of God.

b. Because your faith will grow. Luke 6:38 says, "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

c. Because Jesus promises to bless us if we give. Malachi 3:10 says, “Bring the whole tithe into the store house...test me in this and see if you do not have so much blessing you will not have room for it.”

d. Because we will likely cut staff salaries or positions in the near future, if our giving does not increase. That would not be fun!

6. How can we close our budget gap? By everyone prayerfully giving what they believe God wants them to give. If we all give intentionally we will we have all the resources we need to see people restored to the image of God.

7. Is there a way to make it easier to give? Yes! By giving online. Online giving is easy, safe, and consistent. Please consider signing up today by going to www.restorationcommunitychurch.us/give-denver-church.

Visit our Restoration Community Church Website: Denver Church

5 REASONS WE ARE READING THE SAME CHAPTER OF ROMANS EACH DAY AT RCC

At Restoration we are reading a new chapter each week of Romans and we are reading this chapter every day. Here are the reasons why.

1. Easter is coming! Reading through Romans is a great way to connect to the greatest story ever told.
2. Roman's is deep. You have to go through it slowly to understand it. It is not a quick read. You have to sink into it over time. Reading the same chapter seven times, particularly in different versions, really helps with this.
3. Romans is basic. If you want a solid understanding of the basic ideas of the gospel and therefore the Bible, Romans is the way to go.
4. We want to live our faith not just know about it. When we read the same passage slowly, it gets into us. God speaks to us through it. Wow, did you catch that? God speaks to us through it. He transforms us as we listen and are moved by him.
5. It unifies us. By reading Romans together we stay more connected to God and to each other. We want to be a connected spiritual community not a disconnected crowd.

If you have not started reading a chapter of Romans daily for a week, it is not to late to start. We are in Romans 4 this week. It will not make a lot of sense to you the first couple of times you read it, but by the end of the week you will love it! What a rich, beautiful story about God's love for us all.

Visit our Restoration Community Church Website: Denver Church

Externally Focused Church

Starting a meeting via Skype in 10 mins. It is a lab with other churches trying to be externally focused sponsored by Leadership Network. The old paradigm was, "How can we bet the best church in the city." The new paradigm is, "How can we bless the city given our the unique church the Holy Spirit is forming us to be."

The big questions for me today are the following:
1. How can we create service opportunities that are highly transformational for those serving and being served? We want our people to not only serve, but to grow when they serve.
2. How can we make our service projects more scalable? As we grow we want to be able to include more people in our projects. We also realize that one of the greatest gifts we bring to our city is the opportunity to serve. We want to invite people so they can see Jesus and his gospel interpreted through people living it out in real time.

Visit our Restoration Community Church Website: Denver Church

This will be fun.

Face This Or Die

We begin our journey through Romans this week at Restoration. Paul invites us to look at the reality of our human hearts in chapter one. He is a thanatopologist (I made this word up). Thanatos was the Greek angel of death. Paul forces us in chapter one to look at all the realities in this world that kill people and rob them of life. He takes us on this trip through Death Valley so that we will appreciate all the more the view from the top of Everest. We cannot appreciate the wonder of what God has done until we are willing to face the horror of what humanity has done. A new and sunny day is appreciated the most when there has been a hard and dark night proceeding it. We are grateful for medicine when we realize we are sick and will die if we do not take it. The same is true of what the Bible calls the gospel. We must courageously look at the brokenness in us and around us before we can be stunned and scandalized by what Jesus did for us. I confess my sins to people I know who love me and I trust. We can dive into Book of Roman realities because we have a God who loves us and in whom we can trust.

Visit our Restoration Community Church Website: Denver Church