Rob Bell, the popular speaker and author has announced to his 7,000-member Mars Hill Bible Church in Michigan, that he will be leaving them to start a new ministry at the end of the year.
Bell founded Mars Hill 12 years ago and has pastored the congregation through its rapid growth but told members they would “be fine” without him.
The author of the controversial book on heaven and hell called “Love Wins” spent much of his sermon on Sunday sharing with the congregation the vision he feels for his new ministry. The new calling on his life will see Bell and his family moving to Los Angeles to undertake several different projects, including writing projects and public speaking engagements. Bell also said he would not be starting a new church.
Congregants posted some of Bell’s remarks on Twitter.
"To be honest with you, I thought I would die here, but that's not really the right way to say it... Change is a form of loss," Bell said, according to Heidi Fenton.
"We service a big God and none of this is shocking to him. All we can do is embrace a future that is going to be brilliant," Bell insisted, as posted by Chris Zoladz.
Bell comforted worried congregants by telling them, "You are going to be fine."
Mars Hill Bible church released the following official statement:
“The infamous quote "change is the only constant" certainly holds true at Mars Hill. We have experienced ongoing changes that have improved and transformed – as well as at times unintentionally created tension or heartache within our community. And now, we have another significant change to hold together.
Feeling the call from God to pursue a growing number of strategic opportunities, our founding pastor Rob Bell, has decided to leave Mars Hill in order to devote his full energy to sharing the message of God’s love with a broader audience.
It is with deeply mixed emotions that we announce this transition to you. We have always understood, encouraged, and appreciated the variety of avenues in which Rob’s voice and the message of God’s tremendous love has traveled over the past 12 years. And we are happy and hopeful that as Rob and Kristen venture ahead, they will find increasing opportunity to extend the heartbeat of that message to our world in new and creative ways."
The news attracted so much attention that Mars Hill Bible Church's website suffered a crash on the day of the announcement.