Book Review: Velvet Elvis

I want to do better at engaging the things that I am reading… so I’ve decided to start writing short book ‘reviews’ after each ‘professional’ or ‘non-fiction’ book that I finish. I want put down in writing what things affect me and influence the way I think. It’s a way for me to engage that particular book in a deeper way; to wrestle and struggle with the material that stirs me the most. Putting it down on paper/cyber paper helps me to do that kind of thing. As an aside, I am not going to critique the book here. I’m really only going to pull out the ideas/quotes that I found most interesting… and in most cases, I won’t really even write my own analysis about them… I’m just pulling out the ideas that were most important to me. Perhaps I can give my ‘editorial’ in the comments section if this post generates any discussions.

So… large disclaimer… this is a book review. If you don’t like books… ignore this post and go down to the next post about Disney World. If you don’t like reading about what someone else has been reading… run and save yourself.

So, last month, I finished reading Rob Bell’s ‘Velvet Elvis.’ I highly recommend it. I didn’t agree with everything in the book… but he sure as heck-fire made me think all the way through which doesn’t always happen with Christian literature. Another perk of the book is that it’s a very fast read.

Talking about God… Bell has this to say in chapter one: “The moment God is figured out with nice neat lines and definitions, we are no longer dealing with God. We are dealing with somebody we made up. And if we made him up, then we are in control. And so in passage after passage, we find God reminding people that he is beyond and bigger and more. This truth about God is why study and discussion and doctrines are so necessary. They help us put words to realities beyond words. Which is why it only works when they serve a greater cause: us finding our lives in God. If they ever become the point, something has gone seriously wrong. Doctrine is a wonderful servant and a horrible master.”

To me, the most important chapter was the fourth one: Speaking about Jesus and the cross… Bell has the following things to say: “There is Jesus’ death on our behalf once and for all, but there is the ongoing work of the cross in our hearts and minds and souls and lives.” (Bell’s point here was to suggest that the church often ONLY looks at the legal ramifications of the cross… Christ died FOR us… in our place… to pay our debt… to take our punishment. He also wants the church to remember to look at the HOLISTIC nature of the cross. Yes, Christ died FOR us… but He also died so that something would change IN us!) “The point is becoming more and more the kind of people God had in mind when we were first created.” (I hadn’t thought of it quite that way before but it makes really good sense in light of another statement he makes in this chapter…) “It is possible for the cross to have done something FOR a person but not IN them.” (As I pastor, I see this all the time.)

Finally, Bell’s thoughts about heaven and hell are very intriguing: “For Jesus, the question wasn’t, how do I get into heaven? But how do I bring heaven here?” “What’s disturbing then is when people talk more about hell after this life than they do about hell here and now. As a Christian, I want to do what I can to resist hell coming to earth. Poverty, injustice, suffering – they are all hells on earth, and as Christians we oppose them with all our energies. Jesus told us to.”

I could’ve written about two more pages (Microsoft Word is where I type all my posts out first) on the various thoughts that I highlighted throughout the book… but I like to keep posts as short as possible. I know that personally, I tend to just skim blog posts that wind on and on and on. All that said, it really was a pretty good book!