Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith is the first book by Rob Bell, pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids and featured speaker in the NOOMA videos. I read straight through it today and was genuinely surprised at how much I liked the book. It is an excellent call for Christians to think outside the box of cafeteria evangelicalism and to live a life that fully embraces God in all its aspects.
My prejudice against the book was based on my limited exposure to Bell.  I saw one NOOMA and I wasn’t that impressed and I recall hearing faint rumors about his “bad theology.” Honestly, I didn’t find his theology to be bad upon reading. Arminian at points, but certainly within the bounds of orthodoxy and also more precise than most emerging writers. (The statement of faith of his church can be found here.)
Velvet Elvis is not a memoir. It does include a lot of personal stories and has a personal tone, but it has a flow and purpose. It’s a book that wonders about the vastness of God, how little we can understand. It’s a book that encourages readers to reflect about their own faith. It discusses the main points of the Christian faith in a way engaging to a postmodern generation, particularly those who grew up in the church, both the accepting and the cynical.Â
Rob Bell is not a messianic Jew, but he has a healthy obsession with setting the Bible in its original context. I think many readers will glean interesting insights from what he writes about Jesus’ world. Bell certainly wants to be relevant, but he also demonstrates a commitment to the truth. Personally, I enjoyed his endnotes because I love seeing what books authors like enough to cite, Bell certainly passed my test in that department.
I wouldn’t say Velvet Elvis was life-changing for me, I’ve read enough from the emerging church that I am over that bubble in some respects, but I certainly think it is helpful and would recommend it to people who are curious about the emergent church, suddenly aware of their obsession with systematics and apologetics and also young people who are wondering about the faith they grew up with and the culture they are discovering in the rest of the world. (8/10, borrowed from my sister Janelle.)Â
I might offer these two critiques to help you see a little bit more about Bell’s theology. “Rob Bell Tolls on the Bible”: http://www.apprising.org/archives/2006/08/bell_tolls_on_t.html
And “Rob Bell: ‘Trampolinianity’ And the Virgin Birth”: http://www.apprising.org/archives/2006/12/rob_bell_atramp.html
I pray this helps.
Pastor Silva,
Both the quotes in questions are completely out of context, and I don’t disagree with Bell on either. Most people I know who say that they use the Bible as their only guide are (a) wrong about the fact that the bible is their only guide or (b) have bad theology. Everyone has presuppositions and denying that you do is foolish.
Bell says that he affirms the virgin birth, he is just using an example. I don’t disagree with that use of example either. *shrug*
I honestly think that most of the disagreement with the emerging church regarding theology is a lack of common terminology and a talking-past of one another.