He works throughout the world, lecturing in theological colleges in the UK, Canada and the United States, but is primarily concerned with the renewal of congregational worship at the grass roots level.

After a period in the Netherlands and two posts in church youth work, Bell became employed full-time in the areas of music and worship with the Wild Goose Resource Group.

In 2005, the BBC apologised for a broadcast by Bell in which he said that a Muslim corporal he had met who had been conscripted into the Israeli army had been jailed for refusing to shoot Palestinian children.

He said: "I perfectly understand that at a time when Jewish sensitivity in Britain is running high because of anti-Semitism that part of my remarks might have been interpreted as furtive racism.

[5] He had remained single because he believed that this enabled him to work without hindrance or compromise as a public Christian and fulfil his commitments in the area of worship in the Church of Scotland.

[7] In 2018, Bell received the Cranmer Award for Worship from Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, "for his outstanding Christian witness, through hymn-writing, broadcasting and social action.