Mars Hill Pastor Resigns, Not Feeling Comfortable with "God Talk"

Kent Dobson, who took the pastorate of Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids after its founder left in 2012, has resigned, saying that he is uncomfortable around “too much God talk” and that he isn’t sure who God is. “I’ve always felt restless and a bit homeless when it comes to church and when it comes to God talk. When I hear too much God talk, I start to feel like (shudders) [it’s] too much religion. I don’t know; it gives me a restless feeling. ... I have always been and I’m still drawn to the very edges of religion and faith and God. I’ve said a few times that I don’t even know if we know what we mean by God anymore. That’s the edges of faith” (“Too Much God Talk,” Christian News, Nov. 25, 2015). This poor man is as deceived as Mars Hill founder Rob Bell. Not knowing “what we mean by God” is not the “edges of faith”; it is wicked unbelief, because God has revealed Himself in the clearest manner possible in the Scriptures. The emerging church is a bewildering conglomerate of doctrines and practices, and it has “conservative” elements as well as the most liberal and radical. As we explained in the book What Is the Emerging Church?, it is the logical outgrowth of New Evangelicalism and its non-judgmental, broad tent philosophy. Contemporary Worship Music is a bridge to the emerging church in all of its forms, and those who cross that bridge can never know where they will end up. They could end up in the radical camp occupied by the Rob Bells and Brian McLarens. Both are “interspiritualists.” In 2008, Bell joined the Dalai Lama for the New Agey Seeds of Compassion InterSpiritual Event in Seattle which brought together Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, Buddhists, Sikhs, Muslims, and others to dialogue on “the themes common to all spiritual traditions.” In his book Velvet Elvis, Bell gives a glowing recommendation of New Age philosopher Ken Wilber, who believes that man is God. Bell recommends that his readers sit at Wilber’s feet for three months! Emerging leader Brian McLaren also recommends Wilber’s work. McLaren has said that the emergents are targeting the children and grandchildren of today’s “fundamentalists,” and when I consider the weakness of the average independent Baptist and “fundamentalist” church and the shocking ignorance of so many pastors, I am convinced that the emergents will indeed succeed in this endeavor.

(Friday Church News Notes, December 11, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) 

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