Read this book recently and it was really good, this is the book report I had to do for school on it. I'd recommend it.
Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith
Rob Bell
An artist's signature on a painting of Elvis Presley and the possibility that this artist could have insisted that they had painted the greatest painting ever and because of that there be no need for anyone to paint anymore, became the starting point for this book by Rob Bell, a man well known for his narration of the Nooma devotional series. Artists, he says, are always exploring, rearranging, shaping and bringing new perspectives. Like artists, we, as followers of Jesus, understand that we have to keep exploring what it means to live in harmony with God and others. This is the idea Bell explores in the book.
I would say it is a book that challenges Christians who live in an ever changing world, to think about how we deal with a God who doesn't change and how our faith in an unchanging God is challenged by the world we live in. Bell, encourages readers to, “... live with great passion and conviction, remaining open and flexible, aware that this life is not the last painting.”
Bell, explains about things in the Bible, where our understanding of the significance is very dependent on a knowledge of the cultural context of the situation. He talks about rabbis and that their interpretation of the Torah was called a yoke. Followers of a rabbi and his teachings would take up that rabbi's yoke. He also explains further about the Torah and Jewish schooling, therefore giving a deeper insight into Jesus' choice of disciples.
As a reader, I appreciated the way Rob Bell presented his ideas in this book. He says from the outset that these ideas are just one man's interpretation of the Bible. He encourages readers to test and probe things for themselves. In Chapter One or 'Movement' One, as Bell calls them, there is a section called Questions. Sometimes I find that doubts and questions start to come into my mind, I know this is true of other Christians as well. God is so big and sometimes seems impossible to begin to understand. Bell encourages us to recognise these questions and makes a point that questions are not scary, when it comes to faith, not having questions is scary. When I have questions I can be humbled before God. It's the point where I accept that God is God and there is so much I do not know. Even some of the great men and women in the Bible had questions. Moses questioned God's choice of him as the man to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, David questions where God is many times over in the Psalms and even on the cross Jesus calls out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Another part of the book that I appreciated is in Movement Three in a section called Labels.
He challenges the label 'Christian' and the danger of it becoming a bad adjective rather that a positive noun. When you turn the word Christian into an adjective and use it to describe something, that something may not always be good and true. Being a Christian should mean that everything I do, is done to it's best and is for God's glory. Bell played in a punk band in pubs and bars and says this in the book,
“People would regularly ask us if we were a Christian band when they found out I was a pastor. I always found the question a bit odd. When you meet a plummer, do you ask her if she is a Christian plummer?”
From this I realise that as a Christian I will never have a secular job because Christ is in me, He is always with me and therefore whatever I do in His name will be blessed by Him.
