Pastor John Van Sloten

I just got my first official report on sales for  The Day Metallica Came to Church…  and it was disappointing.  It’s not the lack of potential revenue for New Hope Church that bothers me (although I was hoping for some kind of rationale to allow me to spend time on a second book).  And I don’t think it’s a problem with my pride (although who can really be honest about their own ego).  What bothers me most is that the idea isn’t catching on the way I hoped and dreamed it might.  And maybe it’s too soon to make any calls in that regard.  I understand that.  But still disappointment lingers.  I know that God’s timing is not our timing.  And I still believe with all my heart, that the idea of co-illumination is an important one.  And I realize that I am an impatient man.  So then I’ll wait… and try not to catastrophize.   It’s still a good idea, what’s happening on the ground at New Hope is real, God has all kinds of ways of affirming the work of his hands, you may still write another book John… so just relax and trust. 

This morning, immediately after I read the sales report email, my son Edward’s cab arrived – to pick him up for his day program.  As a  Sikh taxi driver stood waiting at the end of our walkway, an elderly woman walked by him on the sidewalk.  I can still see them both… and feel the truth in what I saw.  Often I wonder who those cab drivers are.  You hear stories about how experienced and well educated  immigrants end up driving taxis… is this guy one of them… making the hard employment choice for the sake of his children’s future?  And the older woman, well I recognized her!  She’s Coleen, the one who delivered flyers in our neighbourhood for years. I wrote about her once, about her dignity, strength and work ethic.  Seeing those two hard working people together I remembered again the privilege I have to do what I do.  And how truly good things are.  And how ‘just right’ the job I’ve been given is.  I’ll keep working at it!

Last night my friend Geoff texted me and jokingly asked what I thought God was saying through the NHL hockey game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Calgary Flames.  I don’t know if it was the movie I was watching at the time (Inception), or not, but my first thought was that the experience of  God’s revelation via the game was multi-layered.  Initially I felt a bit defensive about Geoff’s question thinking, “Well, no… I don’t think that everyone watching the came is drawing all of the theological conclusions I made in chapter 4 of the book relative to the sport – that our communal yearnings for victory and the joy of play are foretastes of the victory and joy we’ll one day know in Christ when heaven meets earth.”  Heck, I don’t even do that much revelatory math while engaging a good game! 

Even though I believe it’s true. 

I think God’s revelation through the game might be known in layers.  For one person the game is merely a relevant experience (fun and entertaining)…  for another its more (understood as God’s good gift to humanity- “Thanks for hockey God!”)… and for another it’s even more (this is a experiential foretaste of the union with Christ in heaven)… and for another even more than that (a numinous, real time, sense of the presence of a God who made all things, who is now holding all things, and would whisper through a hockey game that he’s here, by his Spirit present to life – bringing a joyful distraction to our troubles, providing a joy that points to a greater joy, or perhaps  just loving the creational goodness of the game with us).

Everyone’s watching the same game, but they’re all hearing and seeing something different.  From simple revelance all the way to a profound sense of revelation.   God at a very superficial (but still good) level…  God at a very deep (3rd heaven- http://bit.ly/gU1HbJ) level… and all kinds of revelatory layers in between.

This morning I woke up praying about some of the struggles I’ve been processing recently… especially in regard to people not being awake to the powerful truth of God’s active presence in his world.  Why aren’t more people knowing and experiencing you in all things God?  If you could just open their eyes to see.   Open my eyes to see.

How do you get people to read a book they think they’ve already read?  Book distributors are telling my publisher that they’ve already got tons of titles doing what The Day Metallica Came to Church does (so why carry ours?).  But they don’t really.  They have tons of books engaging culture as a source of illustration for Christian truth, but in terms of taking that next step and seeing culture as real time revelation, they don’t have that many. Yes there are a few titles that expound upon the ‘all truth is God’s truth’ thesis, but (and I may be ignorant or naive here) there are none that I know of that take the next step and speak of how truth in creation speaks to truth in the bible (and vice versa), and how that conversation plays out, and how this co-illumining dialogue then busts the door wide open in terms of evoking a sense of the real time presence, power and glory of God. 

 This is the big idea in The Day Metallica Came to Church. 

And it seems that pre-concieved notions are so strong that it remains veiled and  hard to see.  Maybe it’s just a time thing… or perhaps the book wasn’t clear enough on this… I don’t know.  But if you have any ideas on how to bridge this gap let me know.  I am so convinced that this way of knowing and experiencing God needs to get out there.

Would you invite heavy metal band, Metallica to your church?  Local pastor…

I was just reading a fascinating story about how the Salisbury Cathedral (in the UK) was built.

“The immense [cathedral] began, in 1220-1225, as a set of stone posts and beams that established the Lady Chapel at one end of the future cathedral. The builders had a general idea of the cathedral’s eventual size, but no more.  However the proportions of the beams in the Lady Chapel suggested a larger building’s engineering DNA and were articulated in the big nave and two transepts built from 1225 to about 1250.  From 1250 to 1280, this DNA then generated the cloister, treasury and chapter house; in the chapter house the original geometries, meant for a square structure, were now adapted to an octagon, [and] in the treasury to a six sided vault.  How did the builders achieve this astonishing construction?  There was no single architect; the masons had no blueprints. Rather the gestures with which the building began evolved in principles and were collectively managed over three generations.  Each event in building practice became absorbed in the fabric of instructing  and regulating the next generation.”  p70, The Craftsman, Richard Sennett

I wonder if God builds his human church the same way; revealing his plan, purpose and very self over generations, on a need-to-know basis?  Makes sense.  Since it would take forever for God to complete the fullness of his work.  And a project of this scale would certainly take much more than any individual or individual generation could ever bring to it.

http://www.mlive.com/living/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2010/10/author_finds_theology_behind_p.html

This morning I read an article on Christopher Plummer playing a part in a new movie based on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  In the piece the actor says, “I think one can be quite free in one’s interpretation of fictional characters.”   As soon as I read his words I was reminded of something I wrote in my book – quoting Dorothy Sayers -  “In The Mind of the Maker, mystery writer and essayist Dorothy Sayers writes of the deep joy a playwright feels in watching her script brought to life by the actor. To hear an intelligent and sympathetic actor infusing one’s own lines with his creative individuality is one of the most profound satisfactions that any imaginative writer can enjoy; more—there is an intimately moving delight in watching the actor’s mind at work to deal rightly with a difficult interpretation, for there is in all this a joy of communication and an exchange of power. Within the limits of this human experience, the playwright has achieved that complex end of man’s desire—the creation of a living thing with a mind and will of its own.

 Imagine the joy God feels in inviting you and your imagination into his story! God invites all of us to play a role in his collaborative and redemptive production. In order to fully participate, we need to muster every bit of childlike creativity and imaginative energy we’ve got. We need to study the script, read it well, and then, with innocent abandon and trust, throw ourselves into the part—just like you did when you were a young child listening to your mom, dad, or grandparent read you that story, hanging on every word. Do you remember how it felt? Sitting so close as she read to you; so free to enter into the narrative. A whole new world came alive. You came alive! You went places and did things you could have never imagined. This is what it means to enter into and believe in God’s bigger story. This is what trust in a nearby Narrator can bring to your life, no matter how old you are.”

(Sorry for the extensive quote… but here’s the point I want to make…)  Reading Plummer’s words reminded me of Sayers’ words which reminded of the fact that whenever a role is played out in life, we can know that God wrote it, even as we bring our individual interpretations to it.   So, whenever you read about an actor doing their interpretive thing, you’re reminded.  Whenever you fulfill your role at work, home, on the field, in the classroom, you’re reminded.  Whenever to fill the role that is a human life, you’re reminded that the Playwright prepared your script, freed you to fill out the role, and is now, right now, delighting in what you’ve brought to the part.

“John Van Sloten finds divine revelation in a cup of cappuccino and at an NHL hockey game, but he’s far from naive; indeed, his brand of faith is as deep and expansive as his joy is infectious. These are the profoundly humble, intelligent, yearning ramblings of a seeker with wide open eyes and the courage to shove aside conventions of church-culture to discover grace and goodness. “

“Van Sloten manages to turn everyday events such as getting on a plane, watching the Discovery Channel and listening to a Beatles’ song into startling acts of love and hope.”

Jacquie Moore, Senior Writer, Swerve magazine, The Calgary Herald

“An artistic and playful reminder that, though the Church is God’s primary instrument for changing the world, that doesn’t mean God is limited to religious stuff.  Scriptures are filled with God working in unlikely and scandalous ways, through brothel owners and adulterous kings and reborn terrorists. And just as the Scripture says the rocks can cry out, John Van Sloten reminds us that so can the rock stars. May we find something of God in these pages that can help us love better… and change the world.”

Shane Claiborne
Author of The Irresistible Revolution
freelance troublemaker and instigator of holy mischief
www.thesimpleway.org

“The art of the missionary lies in relating to the culture around without betraying anything crucial to the Gospel. John van Sloten is a wonderful model of how to do this for our postmodern world. On the one hand, he demonstrates a deep understanding of our culture—and great compassion for its pain, confusion and longing. On the other hand, his response is not born of a superficial desire to be “relevant,” but comes from a strong grasp on Scripture and rediscovering what it says about how God is at work in our world. Reading this book should be a priority for anyone who cares about communicating the Gospel today.”

John Bowen, Director of the Institute of Evangelism, Associate Professor of Evangelism
Wycliffe College, University of Toronto