Metallica, Coming Soon to a Church Near You

Pastor John Van Sloten preaches on many topics in his sermons. He is dedicated to looking for the way that God reveals himself through both the Bible and through his other "text," creation. While it's easy to imagine that we can find God in a forest or on a mountaintop, Van Sloten contends in his book The Day Metallica Came to Church that we can find God in culture, which is also his creation. Whatever people produce through the talents God has given them is also an extension of his creation. And he can reveal himself through that creation. In fact, he says that creation, including culture, helps to illuminate Scripture, not only the other way around.

The book starts with a challenge that Van Sloten received to preach a sermon on the music of Metallica. He took it seriously, and found that some of Metallica's angry lyrics echoed the anger at injustice that is found in the words of the prophet Jeremiah. Since then he has gone on to explore (and preach on) the ways he sees God in all of culture--movies, architecture, art--the list goes on and on. It sounds like this was not always a comfortable transition for his church.

As I finished reading this book at The Glen Workshop, a retreat for Christians interested in the arts, I found myself thinking that some of his theology is intuitive for artists. Christians who are searching to express beauty in their music, words, painting, and films often sense that they see God revealed in all sorts of creative work, even if the person doing the creating is not a Christian.

Van Sloten explains the theology behind this. It has a lot to do with common grace, a term many of us know but don't always think through. He says, "God's goodness surrounds all people. God's truthful light doesn't discriminate; it shines everywhere. And it's shining more brightly and consistently than we realize."

I'll admit I am not immediately attracted to theology books. This one particularly interests me because it examines the connections between God and the culture where I live, engage and create. These are the same connections that I find so exhilarating when I attend the Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College. Journals like Image, Ruminate and The Other Journal seek the same intersection. The book Through A Screen Darkly, by Christian film critic Jeffrey Overstreet, explores the same themes in film.

Take a look around you. Yes, God speaks to us in the wind and in the storm. He might also be speaking to you through that movie on Friday night.