The site was initially started by metal guitarists for metal guitarists, but it's power was quickly recognized by players of all genres, and it's refreshing to find a Joe Satriani tab on the same site as a Chris Tomlin chord chart. Not that I could ever play the former, but it's good to know they are there. ;)
Another great feature of the site is that they comb the web for articles relevant to their primary audience (metal guitarists) and re-post them on their site, along with links to the original articles. These are often articles I would never see otherwise (the one I'm blogging about was in the Calgary Sun), and might be about upcoming albums, artist interviews, or obits for guitar legends that have passed away, etc.
One of the feature articles from 8/13 really caught my eye: "Pastor talks about 'The Day Metallica Came to Church.'" What a provocative title! I had to read it, and you should, too.
I also encourage you to view the video excerpt (below) from the pastor's (John Van Sloten, pastor of New Hope Church in Calgary) sermon, as well as read the PDF sample from his book.
At the core of what Rev. Sloten is saying in this sermon and in his book is that God can and does speak to us through our culture at large, or at least we can, by the Holy Spirit, find Spiritual truths in secular culture and its art forms, heavy metal music included. Sloten, a pastor of a Reformed Christian congregation, fully supports John Calvin's idea that "all truth is inspired by the Holy Spirit," whether or not those espousing the truth acknowledge it's source.
What's more, Van Sloten challenges believers to not ignore our secular culture or we risk missing its cries for help. Our world cries out for God, and we miss those cries as we fearfully turn a blind eye (after one last, contemptuous, self-righteous glare, of course) to anyone and anything outside of the church. God tells us through the Apostle John in his first Epistle that we are to be "in the world, but not of the world," but many of us have decided to not be in it either, if we can help it (1 John 2:15-17). I made this very point myself in one of my blog posts from back in July Sloten reminds us that Christ himself had no time for the self-righteous, hypocritical church establishment, but rather spent His time with those who most needed Him. Jesus states boldly in Mark 2, ""It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (verse 17).
The challenge here, of course, is to safely walk that fine line between being aware of our culture so we can hear and respond to its cries for help with the love and grace of Christ, and allowing ourselves to be led away from God and into temptation. It can be very easy to rationalize our participation in activities that we know are contrary to what God would want for us by saying, "I'm just getting understanding of our culture so I can minister more effectively."
Wayne Watson (I'm dating myself here, I know!) clearly understood this balancing act when he penned the lyrics for his 1988 song, "The Fine Line:"
There's a fine line
Between taking bread with a lost man
And being consumed by his way
While reaching out in love
Temptation's right at your door
Guard what you're thinking of
It's a fine line
When I hide my eyes
From the darkest of our life's insanity
From the worst of the world's profanity
I've gotta be careful
I don't miss anyone in need of me
It's a fine line--Oh yes, it's a fine line
We cannot follow Christ's example and be willing to reach out to a lost and hurting world and simultaneously ignore God's warnings elsewhere in Scripture. God tells us to "flee from sexual immorality," (1 Cor 6:18), and to fill our minds with "...whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable...,excellent or praiseworthy" (Phil 4:8). This could be difficult to do while watching an R-rated movie to see if God has anything to say through it. You don't have to watch porn to understand that our world has twisted God's design for sexuality, or to understand that many people turn to sex for a feeling of affection and self-worth that only God and God-centered relationships (parent, spouse, etc.) can provide.
I have not read enough of Sloten's book to know whether or not he addresses this. I hope he does. But I absolutely intend to read the whole book, which will probably result in a few more posts.
But overall, I applaud Rev. Sloten's efforts here, and I agree with at least some of His points about finding God's truth in our culture at large, and often in very unlikely places. I also strongly believe that all of us individually and the Church as a whole need to do a better job of understanding secular culture and reaching out to people where they are, instead of cloistering ourselves inside our sanctuaries and waiting on the world to come walking through our doors. We'd be waiting a long time, I think, and what's more, I think deep down inside, many traditional church-goers would be quite content if the unwashed -- and unsaved -- masses never darkened the doors of the church at all. Heaven forbid anything upset the sterile, self-righteous status quo! :)
And who knows? Perhaps Sloten's sermon and book will help overcome the stigma surrounding heavy metal music. Certainly there's heavy metal music out there that any believer would want to avoid, but that can be said of just about every genre of popular music. Metal has a lot to offer. Many instrumental virtuosos ply their trade in the metal arena, and as Pastor Sloten and droves of metalheads around the world know very well, there is an emotional power and lyrical authenticity found in heavy metal that is hard to find elsewhere.
Rock on!
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