WHEN EVERY JOB’S A PARABLE FOR GOD
Calgary preacher pens a book that celebrates how our work can bring us closer to the Lord’s presence
Calgary pastor John Van Sloten can see the hand of God in the everyday working lives of regular people.
So much so, in fact, that he has turned such understanding into the various chapters of a new book that is already gaining fans on both sides of the Atlantic.
Van Sloten, who recently left the New Hope Christian Reformed Church in northwest Calgary after two decades of pastoral work, has just had his second book published, Every Job A Parable, in both North America and the U.K.
It’s a little early for sales numbers, but the reviews have been good — “more than I could ever expected,” said the 56-year-old pastor, who made the difficult decision a few months ago to leave New Hope and concentrate more on writing, teaching and lecturing.
His new book follows the surprise success of his first work, The Day Metallica Came To Church, a work similarly based upon Van Sloten’s popular sermons, outlining how God’s hand can be seen through the various expressions in today’s art, music and pop culture.
That particular sermon, about certain similarities between the lyrics of the heavy metal band and the wording of parts of the Old Testament, attracted Metallica’s attention.
“What made me write the first book was a moment when I was doing what many churches do in taking examples out of the current culture and using them as illustrations in sermons to reinforce the truth in the Scriptures,” he said.
“Then I started spending more time focusing on these illustrations and trying to understand them more deeply. How is God revealed in things such as pop culture, sport and art? Through that journey, I came to the conclusion there’s more revelatory authority in those places than I, as a pastor, had ever given credit for.
“I preached a sermon on God’s truth through the music of Metallica and found in reading the lyrics of the band all sorts of resonance with the wrath of God, so I preached a sermon that made that point. Metallica found out and they sent a camera crew to our church in Calgary to film the sermon, so they could watch themselves. I thought I was in trouble, but they were gracious in asking to come, so I think Metallica and I are good.”
It was a natural expansion of that search for meaning in everyday life that resulted in the new book, which is subtitled What Walmart Greeters, Nurses and Astronauts tell us about God.
More than a score of interviews with Calgarians form the backbone of the book’s research.
“This is a book about the sacredness of work in our city, from electricians, mechanics, sanitation workers, carpenters, florists, farmers and hair stylists — finding all sorts of truth and wisdom in those places and those jobs.
“Our jobs are parables spoken by God in which and through which we can experience the presence of God, be moved and used by God in the world. These are not just places where we can make money or places where we have integrity and ethics or places merely to work for the common good, they are places where God is.”
Van Sloten was born in Edmonton and raised in Toronto and had a successful career in real estate until the birth of a son with Down syndrome almost 25 years ago became a pivotal moment in his life leading to a spiritual reawakening.
That led eventually to him returning to Alberta, taking over as pastor in the New Hope Church, where he would preach for two decades.
He is still ordained but left his pastor position to concentrate on writing and lecturing — he will be teaching a preaching course at the city’s Ambrose University one day a week starting this fall.
“This has been a good step of faith so far,” he said.
He already has plans for a third book, based on faith and science.
“It will be based on God’s body language — looking at the human body as text, as an icon. We all have bodies, after all.”