Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell

So I just recently finished reading Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. Admittedly I had some reservations about reading this book because I have always heard really mixed reviews on Mr. Bell. I am happy to report however that I really enjoyed this book.

Now I have never really done any serious research on the theology of Rob Bell, and I am still a little shaky on what all he believes. But in this book, he just genuinely seems to be painting a picture of what he wants the Christian faith in the world to look like. In it’s simplest, Bell calls for the believer to fall more in love with Jesus, and to be more in awe of Him.

In Chapter 2, Bell describes the necessity of biblical interpretation. Interestingly, he argues against the idea that people can just live as the bible says, stating that everyone has there own biases and interpretations. Chapter 3 is possibly one of the most thought provoking chapters in the book, where Bell delivers his thoughts on missions and the reconciliation between truth and our experience. These are just things I found interesting in two of the eight chapters in this book.

There is a lot of great discussion points in this book, and I really wished I had read it with someone else so that we could have discussed it as we went. In my opinion Bell is not presenting anything that has not been presented by others who are questioning and “repainting” as it were what the Christian faith looks like.

A lot of people would fault Bell for being post-modern and emergent church folk, but I am not going to do that. The fact is, as I see it, and read it in this book, Rob Bell has a genuine love for Jesus, and he wants others to experience that kind of love also.

I just recently picked up one of his other books, Jesus Wants to Save Christians, and I am excited to read it when I finish the last chapter of Crazy Love by Francis Chan.