Progressive Christians are using the music of U2 to illustrate spiritual teachings.

As a teenager, Rick Hunter, 35, secretly listened to Van Halen and the Scorpions. His brother, however, openly blasted music deemed more appropriate for their household — Christian singers Amy Grant and Sandi Patti. When he played U2’s Under a Blood Red Sky, his brother argued it wasn’t explicitly spiritual. It was around this time Hunter began to consider how his faith and fandom intersected.

For his friend Jonathan Gundlach, a book about U2’s spiritual journey helped him re-evaluate his perspective on faith. 

Gundlach, 30, had become a civil rights lawyer arguing freedom-of-religion cases, and most of his time was spent in or related to church. But he began to realize he didn’t know how his faith and life coalesced. To sort out his spiritual crisis, Gundlach entered the seminary to get a deeper understanding of his faith. 

Around that time in 2002, he read a book called Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2 by Steve Stockman, a chaplain at Queen’s University in Belfast. The book chronicles the rock band’s expression of faith from their beginnings in a Bible study group at the now famed Mount Temple School. 

“I was making some decisions about where I was going and that book was enough to push me over the edge,” Gundlach says. “It nailed it. The book is about U2, but it’s more about the problems with standard evangelical Christianity and its close-mindedness.”

Through a mutual friend, Gundlach and Hunter met and discovered they had a lot more in common than their love for U2. They also had a desire start a church that would engage culture in a way that seemed normal and natural, not churchy, says Hunter, who eventually entered the seminary as well.

Last year, Hunter began the process of forming CityChurch Fort Lauderdale with a close-knit group of family and friends who shared his vision. Preview services began in September at the church’s rented digs at the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society’s New River Inn. The church’s official launch is Jan. 8. He describes it as place where people who are searching for something spiritual can go without getting talked down to. 

Hunter says his plans for CityChurch include incorporating arts and popular culture into worship and activities. He isn’t worried about drawing lines between music or art that’s explicitly labeled Christian or secular. 

“Many artists create good art the church would frown at, like Nine Inch Nails,” he says. “Christians need to learn to distinguish between good art and bad art, but so often we differentiate between explicit art and abstract art. I think U2 fits into that abstract art camp.”

Originally published in the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Full version available upon request.