Rhetoric Race and Religion
Most successful religious leaders have also had a solid business mind. All institutions, spiritual or otherwise, need revenue to survive. They must also, argues Rob Bell, meet the needs of their constituents.
Bell is an evangelical Christian who, at the age of 28, founded the Mars Hill Bible mega-church in Michigan after his Christian rock band, Big Fil, folded. In 2011, he published the book Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, which advocates for a loving Christian church. In it, Bell questions the existence of hell. His uncertainty polarized his followers and the greater Christian community. Since its publication, Bell has left Mars Hill and has moved to California to work on a television project.
This year, he published a new book called What We Talk About When We Talk About God. Bell spoke with Fortune about innovation in religion and the business quirks of the “church world.”
Fortune: How did it all start?
Rob Bell: I started out in a band. I had grown up in church, so when the band broke up and I needed to figure out what to do with my life, I just had this sense of, “Man, church could be done better.”
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