Velvet Elvis

A good friend of mine recommended this book to me. Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith. I, in turn, recommend it. Its the kind of book that reads easy. A little too easy in fact. When I was done, I felt like, "That's it?" On the other hand, he deals very well with some of the misconceptions of biblical interpretation and inspiration, church life, discipleship and 1st century Judaism and Christianity. He has a number of excellent points that are simply taught and therefore easily learned. There are times when I felt that his points were not developed enough. He makes few efforts to deal with the obvious counter-arguments. Click on the picture to go to Amazon. Others have posted more in-depth reviews there.

Here are a couple of points he made, among many...

"Somebody asked me the other day why our church doesn't support the arts because we don't have dramas and short-act plays in the services. I realized the question, as with almost every question, goes back to Creation. I don't believe something has to be in a church service to be "for God." As if the only acting that is "for God" is acting in a church service. A church is a community of people who are learning how to be certain kinds of people wherever they find themselves, so they can do whatever is is they do "in the name of the Lord Jesus." The goal isn't to bring everyone's work into the church; the goal is for the chruch to be these unique kinds of people who are transforming the places they live and work and play because they understand the whole earth is filled with the kavod of God. God isn't in one building only. Doing things for God happens all the time, everywhere. If you are an actor, the goal isn't for you to do your work in a church building, in a church service. Please, go wherever it is in the world that people act and do it well. Really well. Throw yourself into it and give it everything you have."
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"Missions then is less about the transportation of God from one place to another and more about the identification of a God who is already there."