Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith

[Jeremy S]

Velvet Elvis (by Rob Bell - the dude with glasses from those Nooma videos) - is a real thought provoking book, and really hits at the heart of faith. There are some ideas in here that will have you nodding your head in agreement, and others that'll have you feeling pretty uncomfortable at times - but they're all trying to introduce the idea that it's OK to ask questions, and most of the time, it's really beneficial to ask questions.

One of the opening quotes, which defines this book, says:

"For thousands of years followers of Jesus, like artists, have understood that we have to keep going, exploring what it means to live in harmony with God and each other. The Christian faith tradition is filled with change and growth and transformation. Jesus took part in this process by calling people to rethink faith and the Bible and hope and love and everything else, and by inviting them into the endless process of working out how to live as God created us to live.

The challenge for Christians then is to live with great passion and conviction, remaining open and flexible, aware that this life is not the last painting.

Times change. God doesn't, but times do. We learn and grow, and the world around us shifts, and the Christian faith is alive only when it is listening, morphing, innovating, lettering go of whatever has gotten in the way of Jesus and embracing whatever will help us be more and more the people God wants us to be"

What do you guys think of that quote? I love the phrase "the endless process of working out how to live as God created us to live" - doesn't that make life sound so much more mysterious and adventurous?

What does this imply for you and your faith? For RSCC and for our Youth Community? Thoughts?

(If you want to read the book, or get it on audio CD to listen to - please come talk to me or Rich)

[victrosity]

hey j-susted i would like to read that book after i have finished exams? got a copy

[Jeremy S]

No worries bro - I got a copy, and I think Rich might have an audio book - so you can listen to it.

[Richard G]

Yo, victrosity.

Yep, the youth community has Velvet Elvis on CD which is rad cos you can 'read' while driving. As Jeremy S said, it's provocative - in the best possible way.

Yep, Velvet Elvis definitely has an adventurous flavour running through it, as Jeremy S's quote highlighted. The first time I ever read the book, the quote that most resonated with me had a similar vibe:

When we’re too exhausted to jump anymore, we’ll lie down on the mat and stare up at the vast blue sky above us and watch the clouds go by and listen to the breeze as it moves the leaves overhead. I’ll be there on my back, and I’ll say a short prayer: “God, I can’t believe I get to live this life."

Love it.

[Christina]

One of the quotes in this book, that really captures me, reads:

"What I do know is that this pursuit of Jesus is leading us backwards
as much as forward.

If it is true, then it isn't new.

I am learning that what seems brand new is often the discovery of something that's been there all along - it just got lost somewhere and it needs to be picked up, dusted, and reclaimed."

This Idea of picking up, dusting and reclaiming I feel is part of "the endless process of working out how to live as God created us to live". A lot of the time people get preoccupied with the 'new' forgetting what was always there, then a couple of hundred years later people reclaim what was always there as the new-new and we forget about the old-new. If you've ever watched a young child play with a bunch of toys this concept will make a lot more sense:

Give a 3 year old a toy car, and I mean one of those robust fisher price ones, because a 3 year old could choke and die on a matchbox car, and you'll see there little brain ticking over. They will look at it, touch it, throwing it, hit it and bite it, all in the excitement of having an unfamiliar object to play with and discovering how it works. But if you give them a toy firetruck they will must likely lose interest in that car. They'll hold on to it for a while but soon need both hands to figure out how the firetruck works. Once they know the won't go pick up that car again. They don't realize that that toy city will run a lot more smoothly with both forms of transportation, because there minds can only hold onto the one at a time.

We still do the same thing as we grow up. When something new and unfamiliar comes along we have trouble to learn and hold onto what we previously held, especially when we are bombarded with thousands of knew messages everyday via media.
We have to continually push through it all grasping at what is true and holding onto them, as sometimes we have to turn and go back picking them up again because we dropped it all by accident a while behind.

We have this major weakness in the fact that we don't see the whole picutre of all the knowledge we are given. Or focus so much on what is exciting we miss the little details. I think that this is what makes living life a continual process, the fact that we keep missing the mark.

But here is what excites me about that. God gave us people around us to encourage and guide us. To let us know we forgot something and to guide us back to the original intention. Someone will come along after this and remind me of what I didn't write or never knew.

This is the endless process of working out how to live as God created US to live. This process isn't just individually it is to be done as a group, a community. As in proverbs it is written "iron sharpens iron" (losely quoted) therefore each person teaches each new things and encourages them... you need more than just yourself to work out how God created us to live. For example, in the process of baking a cake you do need different types of ingredients to create the end result.

But within all of us falling short of Gods glory 2 Corinthians 9-10 says:

"But the Lord said to me, 'My Grace is sufficient for you, For my power is made perfect in weakness'... For when I am weak, then I am strong"

Life really does sound exciting.