...that I think may offend some. though i think it's quite insightful (for all y'all who don't live in or near Grand Rapids, this may not be that applicable) and true.
"I think there is (ironically) a peculiar cultural reason that helps to explain Bell's remarkable "success": he is located in Grand Rapids. The city is populated by large numbers of Dutch Reformed believers who have been well catechized and indoctrinated, but who were brought up in churches that increasingly feel old-fashioned and culturally dated. When such Christians are exposed to Bell, not only do they feel and enjoy the pulse of something contemporary, they are inclined to read their strong Christian assumptions into what he is doing. The see his "Nooma" video on forgiveness, say, and read in a lot of Christian assumptions, making the video quite a powerful tool. But if a biblically-illiterate New Yorker were seeing the same clip, I doubt that he or she would find much in it that is distinctively Christian. In other words, as Bell has progressed, he has provided less and less material that is distinctively gospel-shaped, or even Christian. I suspect he would be neither popular nor effective in either Seattle or New York. The irony, then, is that in allegedly reaching out to a new generation of non-Christians, in the Grand Rapids environment a fair bit of his success can be credited to the fact that he is in reality reaching out to substantial numbers of disgruntled (former) conservatives who are (unknowingly) bringing a lot of their Christian baggage with them."
-D. A. Carson (in an e-mail to Mark Driscoll). That is quite well-said.
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