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I am a Rob Bell follower in the sense that I believe his teaching brings value and are intellectual, and his way of looking at the faith and the Bible make the most sense without just using "that is the way it is" as a scapegoat.

Now I am churchless and having a hard time finding a church. I think it is because I do follow so closely to the teachings of Rob Bell. Even the churches that try to be modern and different are just your same old bible thumpers; they just wear jeans and have a coffee shop in the church.

So what types of churches or Christians would Rob Bell followers be today?

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    Welcome to Christianity.SE. For a quick overview, please take the Site Tour. Your question might be a tricky one for this site, since it's somewhat personal, and could have a variety of different answers. It might help if you listed some of the specific beliefs that Rob Bell teaches that are important to you, and ask which denominations might be closest to those beliefs.
    – Lee Woofenden
    Feb 6, 2017 at 16:55
  • For more on what this site is all about, see: How we are different than other sites. For what's on topic here, which might help you edit your question so that it won't be closed as off-topic, see: What topics can I ask about here? and: Types of questions that are within community guidelines.
    – Lee Woofenden
    Feb 6, 2017 at 16:56
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    If you're looking for fellowship based around some level of doctrinal unity you'll find more in common with Oprah audiences than most Christian churches. Given that Rob himself has eschewed the church, I'm genuinely confused about what you are looking for. If you are not interested in the basic tenets of Christianity and are following a leader who has left the same behind and now finds his place outside any church, why do you expect to find any church that agrees with you?
    – Caleb
    Mar 24, 2017 at 8:22
  • Rob Bell said, in this article, that he affirms "the truth anywhere in any religious system, in any worldview. If it's true, it belongs to God." But how does he actually determine what is a "true"? For example God either is part of a trinity or is not part of a trinity. An "all inclusive" philosophy may be a great way to get a larger following but Christianity was not designed with an "everyone come as you are" message (e.g. Luke 13:24 would be different if that was the case).
    – x457812
    Dec 1, 2017 at 15:48
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    @Caleb - I agree with you. Rob Bell and the like, might like to have some friends around that believe similar things, but the whole idea of these "Churches" is that me as an individual is the one who determines what is true. Not the Bible, not the historic faith, not the Church, just whatever makes sense for me.
    – David P
    Dec 1, 2017 at 18:39

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According to terminology promolgated by Mark Driscoll and Ed Stetzer, Rob Bell has been identified as part of the Revisionist stream of the Emerging Church movement:

Revisionists are theologically liberal, and openly question whether evangelical doctrine is appropriate for the postmodern world. They look to leaders such as Brian McLaren, Rob Bell and Doug Pagitt. - wikipedia

According to Marcia Ford, in her article The Emerging Church: Ancient Faith for a Postmodern World:

So where can you find examples of the emerging church? Some postmodern-friendly churches have sprung from an intentional and interdenominational effort, such as Brian McLaren’s Cedar Ridge Community Church near Washington, D.C. Pretty much everyone in the emerging church recognizes McLaren as the movement’s elder statesman; his books, with titles like A New Kind of Christian and Adventures in Missing the Point (the latter with Tony Campolo), have helped define the emerging church.

Sometimes, the name of a particular church is a dead giveaway that it’s part of the movement, such as Scum of the Earth in Denver. Little question that it’s not, say, a Southern Baptist congregation. Many, like Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis, which meets in a living room setting in an industrial building, see themselves as an experimental community. Still others aren’t really churches but ministries affiliated with traditional congregations, like The Crucible, a postmodern outreach of the huge Belmont Church in Nashville. Vintage Faith in Santa Cruz, California, Apex in Las Vegas, and Holy Joe’s in London are but a few others.

...

Web sites to visit include www.emergentvillage.com [sic1] and www.theooze.com, both of which provide links to partner ministries.

1 the emergent village website appears to have absolutely nothing to do with the emerging church movement!

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  • +1 for your answer, but I have to disagree with the quoted article: I don't think you can fairly generalize the beliefs of a church based on their name.
    – Ben Miller
    Feb 6, 2017 at 18:39
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    @BenMiller I don't think the article is saying that, it's just recognizing that sometimes a name does convey certain information. eg If I moved to a town and saw the "Christian" congregations there labelled: "St Patrick's", "First Baptist, Springfield", "Congregation of Ascended Masters","Your best life now Church", I think I'd have more than a fair idea about each one of them.
    – bruised reed
    Feb 6, 2017 at 19:44
  • I don't know about the area you live in, but in my city, we have different churches with "modern" sounding names that run the Christian spectrum. Perhaps it's just trendy here. Even some mainstream denominational churches here have ditched the denomination in their church's name: I can think of a Baptist and Lutheran church here, as well as all different flavors of non-denominational churches with different affiliations. The idea that you can prejudge a church by its name doesn't necessarily apply here.
    – Ben Miller
    Feb 6, 2017 at 19:47

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