Velvet Elvis

I just finished Rob Bell's book, Velvet Elvis. The title was inspired by a painting he has stored in his house, a velvet Elvis with a flamboyant artist's signature. Bell asks himself: what if the proud artist decided that he had achieved the ultimate and definitive painting of Elvis on velvet such that no further painting was warranted? Art can never be completed and is always growing and changing. Bell claims that the church and the Christian religion have likewise not been completed and that Christians have the responsibility and the authority to keep the faith fresh and alive and continually reforming. Christianity is not a finished work that we simply study and admire; rather, it is an ongoing collaborative project.

Bell asks his readers to ponder the authority given to the disciples to "bind and loose" and what this means for keeping Christianity in tune with the times and life as believers experience it in the world today. Moreover, Christianity is not about pie in the sky when we die; it is about how to live in the world as a disciple of Jesus and how to be as radically generous and loving as Jesus himself. It is not about righteousness and exclusion and condemnation; it is about grace.

This is a small book with a huge message. It is written in plain language and is accessible to anyone with a 6th grade education, but it's message is quite complex and important. Jesus is with the church now, and we are called to be disciples, not just consumers of a canned Christianity. Bell's take on Christianity involves a more profound commitment but offers far greater and more immediate rewards than the fundamentalist Christianity that was shoved down my throat when I was growing up.