Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith

When the Jesus revolution exploded in the first century, its members were called People of The Way. The way of Jesus—the way of love and peace and sharing your possessions and compassion and risk and forgiveness and harmony. The Way. Today, millions in our world continue to be fascinated with Jesus and his teachings, but are scared to death of his followers. If the Christian movement in Western culture does not rediscover its origins as a way of living and relating to the world, to God, and to our neighbors, it may likely die in the next few generations. The days of repeating the same propositions, beating people over the head with statements about hell, and claiming authority over people because of some sort of moral imperative are over. Christians, and many others, have written plenty of books about the shifts that have caused the dramatic decline in the effectiveness of the Christian message in our culture. While their analysis is often penetrating and right on—especially in the areas of postmodern philosophy and its effect on how we understand the nature of truth and belief—that’s not what this book is about. This book is an exploration of what it looks like to actually try to live in The Way of Jesus again—in a world so dramatically different from the early years of Christianity. So what does the Christian faith look like in the new world we find ourselves in? Not theories, but stories. Not guesses about the direction it might take, but accounts about what directions it IS taking. Not brainstorms, but a pastor writing about his experience. Even more, what does it look like for the ancient, orthodox message of Jesus to be communicated and lived in such a way that a highly wired and cynical culture might actually start listening again? This is a book for those who know there’s a God. For those who know that truth, beauty, design, and love come from somewhere, but they cannot stomach the current versions of God they find in local churches. For Christians who want a life of risk and movement and revolution, but are not finding it in the places they are looking. For those who want to listen, but don’t speak the languages they are hearing.