If I ever keep a list of bestest pastors I’ve heard; Judah Smith would be tops, hands down. Only for one particular reason: he mixes attitude with humility (now there’s an oxymorn!), in all he keeps his focus on Jesus. He’s got this molecular thinking which at the same time is contemporary, yet bible adhering AND uncannily funny! With his knack of keeping his listeners captivated as they listen to stories they’ve heard a million times over… Totally inebriating! And all he preaches is Jesus, nothing more nothing less! Though I’m a critic of many things, I’ll be honest here; almost every one of Judah’s messages have moved me, made me pay more attention to things in the bible, and have influenced my prayers.
His talks on God’s Grace are only outdone by Max Lucado’s books. By the way, Grace can be a weird (read 'illogical') little (read 'unmerited') concept (read 'personality') that’s sorta hard to grasp, especially for the noobs (no offense! :D ), but it’s by far *the* most outtathisworld, free (read the letters, “FREE”) gift given to anyone who believes that such a thing exists (it’s that simple, just believe!). I’ll get into the topic of Grace in another post, soon. Though the reason I brought up Grace was because I stumbled upon this goldmine of a pastor a couple of months back while watching the 2008 series of Hillsong Conference where he did a message on the topic of ‘Embrace Grace’. I became a hardcore fan right after... (of Jesus, of course! :P )
I’m not going into much with this post, cos it’s got two forty minute videos embedded right underneath, both of Judah’s. The first being the talk on ‘Embrace Grace’ (which he gave at Foreward 2009, couldn’t find the same he gave at Hillsong Conference 2008) and the second (aired very recently) where he and his wife answers some really funky questions that’s relevant to our society today. The answers they give are as humbly attitudinal as they come and by far the best I’ve heard... (Especially his reply to “Is dancing in clubs or schools bad? What about grinding, cat daddy and dougie?”)
Embrace Grace [Live @ Foreward 2009]
The Discussion Q&A [Live @ The City Church, Seattle]
You can watch most of Judah’s messages over the past year from http://www.thecity.org
