Great Expectations

My name is Mark Smith. I'm a guy who loves Jesus, His Word, and His Church. I am filled with Great Expectations for what the future will ultimately bring - Matthew 24:14.

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Location: Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

My favourite verse is Psalm 16:11, my other favourite verse is Acts 20:24, my other favourite verse is Habakkuk 3:17-19, and my other favourite verse is Matthew 24:14.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Why Is Relevance?

I read this in Finally Alive on the weekend,

What Is Relevance?

As a preacher, I think a lot about relevance. Why should anyone
listen to what I have to say? Why should anybody care? Relevance
is an ambiguous word. It might mean that a sermon is relevant if it
feels to the listeners that it will make a significant difference in their
lives. Or it might mean that a sermon is relevant if it will make a
significant difference in their lives whether they feel it or not.

That second kind of relevance is what guides my sermons and
my writing. In other words, I want to say things that are really
significant for your life whether you know they are or not. My
way of doing that is to stay as close as I can to what God says
is important in his word, not what we think is important apart
from God’s word.

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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Why Are We Here

I was looking on the Saddleback Resources website for some possible promotional video clips to show as we kick off The Purpose Driven Life this Sunday. One that they recommended was this clip from Everybody Loves Raymond....

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Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Strange and Interesting

Justin Taylor entitled his blog post on this topic How to Train Your People to Laugh at Anything. It's a strange story, if you read it and listen to the 5 minute clip.

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Thursday, October 01, 2009

Tim Keller is so smart!!

Tim Keller on how he sees the strengths and weaknesses of the Reformed, the emerging, and the Willow-Creekers:

John Frame’s ‘tri-perspectivalism’ helps me understand Willow. The Willow Creek style churches have a ‘kingly’ emphasis on leadership, strategic thinking, and wise administration. The danger there is that the mechanical obscures how organic and spontaneous church life can be. The Reformed churches have a ‘prophetic’ emphasis on preaching, teaching, and doctrine. The danger there is that we can have a naïve and unBiblical view that, if we just expound the Word faithfully, everything else in the church — leader development, community building, stewardship of resources, unified vision — will just happen by themselves. The emerging churches have a ‘priestly’ emphasis on community, liturgy and sacraments, service and justice. The danger there is to view ‘community’ as the magic bullet in the same way Reformed people view preaching.

From Justin Taylor