Thanks for this, Ron. So much I resonate with here (not least the flight metaphor for worship services!), but no time to say much more than that you have given me much fodder for reflection this morning.

Thanks for this, Brad. Very well said.

Thanks for this excellent reminder that "being ready" for Christmas is about examining and shaping our character and behaviour to fit with the coming child. All the best to you as you prepare for Christmas.

Thanks for these excellent reflections, Brad. I'm currently going through this book with a group of young adults and we discussed the opening chapter last night. Not surprisingly, we zeroed in on many of the issues—good and bad—you identify here. There was a good deal of appreciation for Bell's willingness to ask existentially relevant and honest questions about hell and the nature of God (some of which many had wondered about since childhood), but there was also a suspicion that he was playing a little fast and loose with Scripture, highlighting what fits his view and minimizing or ignoring what does not. I think there is much to be affirmed in Bell's pastoral desire to rehabilitate people's inadequate or damaging conceptions of God (which seems to be the driving force behind most of his books). At times, though, I fear he is leaning, as you suggest, toward "creating a God that fits our culture perfectly."

Couldn't agree more, Brad. Thanks for posting these thoughts, as well as your recent post on the MB Forum.