Clark H Smith - a rough sketch
I'm going to attempt a brief profile for the sake of providing a backdrop for my writings on this site. Let's start with two important jumping off points:
1) I am an iconoclast - that means I like to knock over icons, especially social norms and customs. This doesn't mean I'm anti-social or reckless. It just means I always ask, "Is the opposite true?". Sometimes we arrive at some amazing places when we don't take the most well-beaten path.
2) I believe I have a purpose and that purpose is NOT to tell you what Rick Warren (or a thousand others) thinks. I believe God loves me and He wants to use me, such as I am, to speak to the world with the voice He gave me. I do my own study, I do my own careful soul-searching, I do my own writing. You won't find me ripping off others and re-packaging it as my own.
Theologically, I am filed under the As for Arminian. I am a fully-recovered Calvinist. No 12 step program needed, just one step - reading the Bible. I'm a student of history and culture as well as scripture. I am fascinated by the greats from Petrarch to Luther who opened some important doors for the common folk to walk through. I think personal spiritual exploration is important, but most of the theological errors people make begin with putting boundaries of personal comfort around God. I know people who don't want to go to Heaven if Grandma won't be there. I know a kid who doesn't want to go to Heaven because there is only always "praising God there and I just want to take a nap sometimes". We are about five dimensions short of understanding anything about the reality of God's habitation, so I'm a little timid when it comes to suggesting how He should get things done. You should be, too.
Practically speaking, I have the heart of a disciple-maker. For over two decades I have spent countless hours (and consumed countless bagels) sitting with small groups of men, teaching the Bible, and encouraging faith-filled application of the truths found in scripture. I tell my guys, if I am asking a question and you can't figure out the answer, "Faith" is always a good guess. And so it is true in life as well.
Along life's winding way I have shape-shifted into the form of a writer, a pastor, a business manager, a teacher, a finder of lost things, and a smeller of sourdough. Life is about what happens next, not last.
I am a sparklingly happy married man. My bride is the mother of four boys (and one daughter-in-love) for whom she sets the standard of what a wife should be. I'm also the father of a handful of bastard websites... I begat them, but I don't always give them the parenting they require.