Rob Bell comforts Mars Hill congregation after announcing plans to move to Los Angeles

To quote from a famous phrase here on SI, “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out…” H:)

The sad thing for Mars Hill is that Shane Hipps is the apparent pastoral heir to Rob Bell. If you think Rob Bell is falling off the edge theologically, just wait until we get a full dose of Shane Hipps. Shane’s theology makes Rob Bell look like a Conservative Evangelical. He’s that liberal…..

There’s going to be a TV show made of his life.

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/09/lost_showrunner_carlton_cu…

They kept in touch and ultimately came up with the idea of a series that would be loosely based on Bell’s own life story as a musician who ended up founding his own church, Michigan’s Mars Hill Bible Church.

That’s really funny to me. I remember being given one of Rob Bell’s CD’s from his old band in the 1990’s called Big Fil. It barely qualified as garage band material. The main reason they even had places to play was because Ed Dobson who was the pastor of Calvary Church at the time (5,000 members) was constantly propping them up at places he spoke at (College Chapels, and etc…..) Even then, their following wasn’t big because they lacked talent. Big Fil broke up as a band, which then led Rob to go to Fuller Seminary. Rob then came back to Calvary Church to become the Saturday Night Service pastor. Rob created a following because of his speaking, not his music at Calvary Church’s Saturday night service. This eventually led to about 1,000 people leaving Calvary to plant Mars Hill Bible Church. Anyway, I find it amusing when a celebrity such as Rob Bell allows an urban legend to become the reality in his life (Rob as a rock music artist-turned pastor)

The CD that I used to have had such memorable hits such as “I’m not your Grandpa” and (ironically) “Swing Me Over Hell on a Cornstalk”. I threw it away about 4 years ago.

While at Wheaton, Bell’s band (which was regionally successful) was called “_ton bundle” then after Fuller he started the band “Big Fil” and after that band ended he released a couple of CDs under the name “uno dos tres.” My guess is that the TV show will focus on the band he was in while at Wheaton.

Brenda,

It looks as if I got the order wrong with his band Big Fil and when he went to seminary. Maybe the Wheaton band was good, but I really wonder if it was because of him. Big Fil sort of had a slower punk rock feel to it and Rob was the main guy writing and singing the songs…….

I just thought it was interesting that he had been in several bands. He must have really thought music was his niche. I haven’t listened to any of his CDs (maybe it was cassettes in his Wheaton days). I highly doubt any of them are “good” especially since Bell said his role in the band was “singer/yeller.”

http://www.grmag.com/features/04-08/04-08.htm