Everything Is Spiritual

In Everything is Spiritual, Rob Bell takes the readers on his spiritual journey, imparting insights and posing questions along the way. Read as a memoir, it feels like it fills in gaps and behind-the-scenes moments of his very public career as a pastor of a megachurch and his subsequent "fall from grace" and exit. More importantly, it returns to a very authentic exploration of ideas that originally attracted me to Bell's writing. Reading the book reminds me of his early work with Velvet Elvis, in both the stream-of-consciousness style of writing and the underlying philosophy of not seeking to provide answers, but rather pose questions and ideas. He talks about forms and structure (thinking, processes, objects with "thingness") that are important, but whose purpose is to create space to step into and experience with your soul, examining both what the forms tell you and reading yourself into the forms. And that's what it feels like he creates with this book: that he's created a space to explore and become.

Rob Bell writes with the same cadence he uses when he speaks, which makes his books very readable. This book is a good blend of memoir and inspiration -- the things that happened in his life, the questions he asked, and the inspiration he felt.