{Book Review} Drop Like Stars by Rob Bell

A different book with different ideas

Before getting this book I was really surprised by many of the comments and reviews I had read about it. It seemed like people were completely surprised by what this book was, what it contained and what it was about. It seemed like people didn’t research or read the product description of the book before purchasing it, or that they expected something completely normal from Rob Bell.

For me, this book met my expectations and really presented some ideas that made me think. First, this is not a small little hardback book like Rob’s previous works (Velvet Elvis, Sex God, and Jesus Wants to Save Christians). This is a larger hardback, 12 inch by 10 inch; basically the size of a good coffee table book. True to what others have said the book does not contain a ton of writing but rather is full of colored pages and photos/portraits of objects and scenes. The writing is interspersed in the same parsed style of short sentences and fragments that are Rob Bell’s style. As far as the book and artwork go they are quite nice and do a good job of helping Rob make his points, but everything is in a matte finish, I feel the book could have benefitted from glossy sheets, but I can only guess that would have raised the price of the book significantly. Oh and no, you can’t read through this book in 10 minutes as I have read some people say. If you work your way through this book in ten minutes you miss the point and I recommend you return the book, because you will get nothing more out of it.

As far as content goes, I think Rob came up with the idea of this being an “Art Book” hence the chapter’s titles: “The Art of Disruption”, “The Art of Honesty”, “The Art of the Ache”, “The Art of Solidarity”, “The Art of Elimination” and “The Art of Failure”. And I think by reading those chapter titles you can get an idea of where Rob is taking the reader. And an interesting note the table of contents is at the rear of the book rather than the front, an interesting idea that gets the reader right into the book without any presuppositions.

Overall I found the book to be thought provoking and it made me think about subjects like disruption, ache, and failure in ways I had not before. This book doesn’t delve into deep theology, hermeneutics, or psychology but rather it explores what it means to be human and what we all experience. I benefited from reading this book and I pray you may too.

Rob Bell's New Book

I finished this book last night, and I continue to hold to my stance that even if you do not totally agree with Rob Bell’s theology he always brings up some very good points that are worth think about and discussing. This book is a collaborative work of Rob Bell Teaching Pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids and the former Lead Pastor of said church Dan Golden on the current exile of the Church in America.

The point and ideas that Rob and Dan make in this book are clear and simple enough that I do not want to ruin it with a shoddy summary but I do encourage you to read this book. Bell is known to sometimes make links and correlations between New and Old Testament that are sometimes thin at best. And there are a few of those, also in one biblical reference he confuses Philip the Evangelist with the Apostle Philip, but small little things like this do not take away from the fact that Rob Bell & Dan Golden bring forth some very interesting ideas that can really make you reevaluate what you think your position in the world is. There are people who love everything Rob Bell writes or speaks about, they will enjoy this book.

There are people who hate everything thing Rob Bell writes or speaks about, they will dislike the book and probably find hundred’s of things wrong with it. Then, there are those of us to listen to Bell, and agree with him on some things and disagree with him on others. I get the feeling that is the kind of reader or listener he enjoys the most. Bell & Golden don’t ever claim to have everything right, but they do want to ask questions and encourage people to think and do. If you read this book with an open and without preconceived notions this book should deliver that for you.