Rob Bell Fun Facts: 10 Things You Might Not Know About Evangelical Leader

Christian evangelical leader Rob Bell lives an interesting life. He was born and raised into a traditional Christian household. In 2011, he was named by Time magazine on its list of 100 top influential people.

He is the founder and pastor of the Mars Hill Bible Church located in Grandville, Michigan. Under his leadership, the church grew to take on the status of a "megachurch." He is a published author with 13 books to his name.

Because of some of his controversial views expressed in his book, he fell out with the Mars Hill Bible Church and left it in 2012.

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Here are 10 fun facts you might not know about evangelical leader:

1. Bell considers the Emmy winner and producer of hit TV shows, such as "Nash Bridges" and "Lost," Carlton Cuse, as a close friend.

2. Bell is a keen surfer and surfs regularly on Laguna Beach in Orange County, California.

3. Stand-up comedian, writer, TV show star and cartoonist for the New Yorker, Peter Holmes, is another close friend of Bell.

4. Bell's birthday is August 23, 1970 and attended Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois.

5. Alongside writing religious books he has written a novel' "Stronger" which he sold the rights to ABC for adaption into a TV show.

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6. After he left the Mars Hill community in Grand Rapids, Bell settled in California, according to Religion News Service.

7. Bell toured the United States with Oprah Winfrey on a "Life You Want Weekend."

8. Bell is the son of federal judge Robert Holmes Bell, who was nominated to his post by U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1987. Bell remembers traveling to the confirmation hearings in the family Oldsmobile, reports Time magazine.

9. When he was 21 and just out of college the evangelical pastor taught barefoot waterskiing at HoneyRock Camp near Three Lakes, Wisconsin.

10. At Wheaton College, Illinois, Bell was in a band, "_ton bundle" and had plans to live the life of a rock star, until illness changed his life, reports Time.

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