Currents Counter-Culture: Tony Soprano Sings
How this pastor uses pop culture to talk about faith.
April 1, 2003
Chris Seay's fascination with the TV series The Sopranos first produced a Leadership article, then a book, The Gospel According to Tony Soprano (Penguin Putnam, 2002) and a string of national media appearances. He has since written another book, The Tao of Enron (with Chris Bryan, NavPress, 2002). Chris pastors Ecclesia, a cutting edge congregation in Houston. We caught up with him at the health club where he and his family work out. Leadership: You find gospel lessons in places most people wouldn't think to look. How do you do that? Chris Seay: I intentionally look for it. I think it comes with a trained eye. Having the experience of a church planter, I'm wondering, How can I connect with this person? What's our common ground? For me, it's most often through art, film, music, or to some degree current events. Were you surprised that the article on ministry "mob-style" led to a book? Yes, I was. I was writing the article, searching for a metaphor, and I thought, I could write a book on this. The publishers want me to add a new chapter, and they'll re-release it next year with The Sopranos final season. A mob boss seems like an unlikely link to the gospel. I find the things most of us in Christian culture assume would be the furthest out—vulgarity, sinful behaviors—those are the places that people need the gospel most, and our best points of contact. Watching The Sopranos, you get this deep sense of neediness that comes from these characters and the spiritual search they're on. These films and stories are a wonderful invitation to the gospel and to the story of God. I work in a part of the city that's largely homosexual. People often assume that they're always hostile to the gospel, but quite often it's just the opposite.
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