A couple of weeks ago <a href=”July 7) I went with my friends Kevin, Danielle, Brent, and Savalai to the “Everything is Spiritual” talk by Rob Bell. Rob Bell is, for those that don’t know and might be reading this, the founder and main teacher and Mars Hill, a big church in western Michigan. He’s also well known for his brainchild, the Nooma series of teaching videos.

Rob is young, hip, and I think held up on a pretty high pedestal by a good number of people. I think this post is pretty typical of how a lot of people view him. And I think that it’s generally true–he’s a pretty smart guy with a really good message. I have a couple of quibbles though. I’m going to post a review of the talk by my friend Brent, and then my own review in two parts. The first will be a general review and the second a somewhat more detailed look at some of the problems with the talk.

*Update:* I’ve posted my review in two parts: Impressions of Everything is Spiritual and Fact-checking Everything is Spiritual. Also, I’ve posted a reassembled photo of the whiteboard Rob used here.