About Mark

Mark Cowper-Smith was a lawyer in Canada for many years. Despite professional success, he found his life to be devoid of purpose. He began a search for God. As a result of a radical conversion to Christ he began to teach the Bible wherever and whenever he was asked. In 1988 a group of people requested Mark to plant a church. The church experienced very rapid growth as well as severe trials, none of which God wasted in the development of Mark’s character. His teaching and mentoring are full of wisdom, which he refers to learning the hard way. Mark and his wife Shelley have traveled and ministered at churches in England, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Russia, New Zealand, Fiji, Mexico, Canada and the U.S.A They have a heart to see all of the church powerfully filled with the love of the Father and released to minister that love in power.

Up Close and Personal With God

We are told that we need to “know” God but rarely are we told HOW to know God. We are told that God wants an intimate relationship of love with us but we are not told what our part is or how to do it. Join Mark on Thursday nights from 6:30-8:30 pm; Jan 22, [...]

Let’s start at the beginning

Here are some thoughts from Chapter 6 of "Is God Religious": It hurts to see Him reduced to the level of employer or boss. Not only that, it just doesn’t work. If we have to compete selling just another religion, then we are going to lose. As religions go, Mormonism is much more attractive, if [...]

New Book – Reluctantly Supernatural – coming soon

Science has failed to answer our deepest questions concerning the purpose and significance of human life. As a result, our culture is turning to the supernatural realm for the answers. The Bible is literally filled with the supernatural power of God intervening into human affairs. Not only does God act supernaturally into the lives of [...]

Life in the Spirit

We speak often of “life in the Holy Spirit” but often it means different things to different people usually depending upon our differing theology about the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit. This is unfortunate because life in the Spirit is a much deeper reality than simply whether or not you believe in the supernatural [...]

All You Need is Love

  It is not possible to over emphasize the centrality of love in the Kingdom of God. The only thing that rivals the centrality of love is the centrality of truth. In our evangelical tradition truth has been emphasized more often than love with the sad result that we tend to become highly qualified Pharisees. [...]

Serving Truth after its Expiry Date Part 2

Not only has the game changed but two very destructive lies have been injected into the game. Our culture has accepted two huge lies. The first is that if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle, you must fear or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you must agree with everything they believe [...]

Serving Truth After It’s Expiration Date

As Christians we are to be a truth telling people. We believe in capital "T" truth. We believe that just as there are God designed laws that govern the physical world there are God designed laws that govern the moral world. We believe that there are absolutes that govern moral choices and that these do [...]

What did Jesus do with demons?

This is part two of Deliver us from Evil - see Part 1 And this brings us to the central difference between authority and religion. Jesus began his role as teacher by teaching about the Kingdom of God but he didn’t stop at simply teaching about it. Jesus demonstrated the Kingdom of God by demonstrating [...]

What do we do about evil?

We had a very interesting video testimony scheduled for last Sunday about a family set free from years of negative spiritual activity in their home, referred to as "haunting". I decided that I should take the opportunity to speak on the subject of our Christian authority over evil. There is a very illuminating incident in [...]

Contrast between Religion and Grace

Recently Shell and I were down in Guadalajara doing a conference at a cutting edge church there. The conference was on training the church to recognize communication from God and how to share it effectively. I was ready to teach Sunday morning but I knew I had a prophetic word for the church. I thought [...]

Am I Grading Myself on the Curve?

This is the scariest part of discovering the truth about ourselves. If you haven't got to read the first two posts or listen to the sermon online - try it - I guarantee you will get a few laughs. This is the last installment before I move onto another topic - hopefully a bit lighter [...]

Do you ever doubt your influence?

Do you ever doubt your influence? I am talking about your good influence. I never doubt my bad influence. I think all of us wonder from time to time just how much good we are actually doing for God. Last Tuesday I was asking myself that question. It always seems to me that I could [...]

Do I really want to change?

Did I get your attention last week with my statements about Christians and truth? See post here if you missed it. It has the sermon link too. Truth = change and change = increased responsibility. I am thinking of the story of Jesus and the man at the pool of Bethesda. A crippled man has been [...]

Are we prone to self-deception?

We Christians think of ourselves as truthful people. We say we not only know the truth but we love it as well. Being a Christian, I have a lot of Christian friends. Being a pastor, I have known a lot of Christians over the years, in good times and bad. I find the above statement very [...]

What Gives us Access to God’s Presence?

One of the most overlooked and misunderstood aspects of the wonder of God’s grace is the fact that grace, and grace alone, gives us access into His presence. Click here to listen to my last sermon. Let’s look at some familiar scriptures, some popular, some not: Eph. 2:1-5 “As for you, you were dead in [...]

Why the Law?

If our faith is about a relationship rather than law, why does the law exist? We were always intended by God to live life with our focus upon Him. He designed our operating system as an intimate relationship of love. Out of that relationship, we will be compelled by His love to do what pleases [...]

The Trouble with Truth

Mark Cowper-Smith Let’s be honest, most of us aren’t.We all like to think of ourselves as basically honest people. We believe this because most of the time we don’t leave the house in the morning intending to lie our way through the day. Strangely, neither do we leave the house consciously intending to [...]

Do you want to get up close to God?

Up close and Personal,  A practical guide to an intimate relationship with God. We are told that we need to “know” God but rarely are we told HOW to know God. We are told that God wants an intimate relationship of love with us but we are not told what our part is or how [...]

IS MEGA BETTA? Is big always God’s will?

Today, I suggest we kill a sacred cow. The sacred cow is, "bigger is better." I planted the first church I pastored, and I did it as a church growth disciple. I began with what I took to be a foundational tenet of the church growth movement; "Your church will succeed or fail based on your leadership". [...]

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