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I am watching the Nooma video series that Rob Bell does so I decided to read this book to understand his theology. I was concerned. For one, I found often that his analogies or explanations were so vague that I often wondered "and what does that mean!"

Unfortunately as I read Velvet Elvis, I actually found myself getting bored with Christianity...taking out the element of faith in God feels like taking out the adventure. Bell's theology diminishes the sovereignty of God, the historical reality of the Bible, and gives a skewed description of human nature [particularly in the passage about Peter walking on water... that it was losing faith in himself that made him sink...why then did Peter worship God when Jesus rescued him and took him back to the boat? It was Jesus's enabling that Peter was able to walk at all!] Rob Bell dilutes the offensiveness of the Gospel in order to make it seem more applicable and palatable to post-moderns. Faith is never easy but it cannot be written off.

On the other hand, I agree with Bell full-heartedly that God meets us and loves us as individuals. And it is important that we recognize the lenses we bring- our cultures, our generation, our own personal stories- as we enter into relationship with God, as we read Scripture, pray, attend church, or whatever.

I also appreciated the way Bell speaks about the mission of the church, bringing Heaven to earth. I do think that God invites us to participate in the renewal of the earth and I do really hope that we are living in a generation that will move beyond our church walls.

Bell's running statement: "God has spoken, and the rest is commentary" highlights his theme of questioning everything. This is why the book has so much appeal. And this is why you should read it for yourself.