Influential Book 2 / Velvet Elvis

Velvet Elvis was the first Christian book I read after leaving Bible College in June 2006. I felt I needed a long break from theology and even reading in general, but there was also the small mitigating factor of my daughter arriving two weeks early and mere hours after I handed in my final essay.

While at Bible College, I had been left frustrated and disillusioned by how the majority of the theology books I'd had to read, sidelined the experiential reality of following Jesus. So, when Rob says how faith should be like a trampoline in his first chapter I was hooked. He was articulating exactly what I was struggling to put into words for myself.

I am a trampoline jumper who had been taught predominantly brick theology for three years (and most of the years before that).

I think that many books become influential simply by timing. If I’d picked Velvet Elvis up earlier or later, maybe it wouldn’t have had such an impact on me. But by the time I read it, late in 2006, I’d had the chance to reflect back on my previous three years. They were years that not only included the academic world of Bible College, but also a sudden influx of experiential faith learning through things like the Toronto revival, meditation, lamenting and forgiving, and accepting Father God’s love for me.

This all meant I had undergone a rapid deconstruction of faith at the same time as studying for a theology degree. Admittedly, on the surface, this wasn’t probably the best time for that to happen, but the mix of academia and experiential worked for me. It never allowed me to divorce one from the other.

Reading Velvet Elvis then gave me language and freedom to reimagine what Christian faith could be devoid of the religious lingo and trappings and annoying beliefs held within both the academic and charismatic worlds. It provided a way forward that was open and inviting.

But more than that, it sparked a desire in me to write. As I say in my bio, crafting essays led me to discover how much I love writing. Reading Rob’s first book—the unique style, the binge-worthy shortness of it, the fresh ideas, the freedom it communicated—as well as the timing, all conspired to start a dream within me to write books.

Whenever I momentarily lose my love of writing or I get bogged down in trying to communicate a particular idea and my motivation dwindles, I re-read Velvet Elvis. More than the sum of its ideas, its become one of my all-time favourites by sheer virtue of how it causes me to dream about how I can participate in repainting the Christian faith.