JO KADLECEK speaks with Simon Smart about his work with Australia’s CPX…
Simon Smart is the executive director of The Centre for Public Christianity (CPX), a media company with a mission “to promote the truth, beauty and goodness of the Christian story to a public that’s largely forgotten that grand narrative and its meaning”. Since 2007, their goal has been to promote a public understanding of the Christian faith, believing that, when properly understood, the person of Jesus is immensely attractive and life-giving.
Simon Smart. PICTURE: Supplied
When Smart is not recording CPX’s Life & Faith podcast or being interviewed for a radio or television program (he recently appeared on ABC’s The Drum), he hopes you’d find him surfing on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, where he lives with his family. In other words, Smart’s life is full and fascinating as he interacts with, and in, a world of diversity…
CPX has a lot going on in what seems an ambitious mission. What’s a typical day like?
“Yes, it could seem ambitious, especially in an environment that is increasingly fragmented and divided. But we try to speak with empathy, respect and understanding. We assume a low base in terms of familiarity with, and warmth towards, the faith.
“So we do a lot of research and writing that seeks to understand and engage our culture and the influences all around us. On any given day, our team could be writing an article for the mainstream media, preparing and recording our Life & Faith podcast, writing talks to be delivered at conferences and schools, or doing a radio interview on a topic where Christianity or religion generally is the subject of interest or debate.”
“In the 15 intervening years since we began, our task hasn’t become easier. Today, the sheer foreignness of religious belief and practice to most people in Australia is evident to anyone who attempts to speak a Christian voice into the public. “
Tell us about a few of the stops along the way to becoming the executive director of CPX and how they shaped you for such a unique role.
“I was a history teacher for about 10 years before my wife and I moved to Vancouver in Canada to do a theological degree at Regent College. That was a very formative time and gave me an expansive picture of God and his activity in the world. When we came back to Australia, I worked in publishing for the Anglican church, where John Dickson and I did a bunch of writing projects together. When John and Greg Clarke were starting up CPX, they invited me to come along. I didn’t take much convincing. ”
What do you think are some current challenges Christian believers face in Australia’s public square?
“There are so many, and most stem from the chasm that has developed in recent decades between believers and everyone else. Swathes of the population have little or no meaningful contact with Christians and what they believe, and hence caricatures tend to dominate. People are estranged from the Christian story and only familiar with the church through prominent divisive debates that don’t help much when it comes to understanding who Jesus is and the implications of his life – and resurrection – for people today.”
SIMON SMART – IN SHORT
Books on your bedside table…”I’ve just finished Cormac McCarthy’s final two novels. Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (it’s 800 pages and I’m still deciding!) Also, Barack Obama’s A Promised Land and James KA Smith’s On the Road with St Augustine. Not actually next to my bed but worth a mention is Christopher Watkin’s Biblical Critical Theory.
A favourite Bible passage…”Ephesians 2 for the stunning, life-changing picture of God’s grace for the believer. Dead, but made alive; foreigners excluded from citizenship brought near and welcomed as citizens with access to the Father.”
There must be some hopeful things happening in Australian culture?
“It seems to me, people are people and therefore deep down they seek and long for the same things – for their life to mean something, for there to be love and community around them, for the joys and sorrows of life to sit within a framework that makes sense of the world and their experience of it. We all desire to be truly known. We seek pleasure and comfort but also challenge and purpose. And, despite the inevitable heartbreaks, we want there to be hope such that we don’t give way to despair.
“Christianity has an enormous amount to say about all those things, and that gives me great hope in terms of what is possible in connecting with people.”
Let’s talk about leadership. Best and worst advice you’ve received?
“The worst is that in coming into a position of leadership, you should establish your mark quickly with little regard for what’s gone before you and for the people involved. I’ve been given that advice and I think the opposite is true.
“The best advice, or perhaps it’s just what I observe in good leaders, would be making people rather than outcomes the priority of your decision making. And actually doing that rather than just speaking about it.
“Outcomes are important, of course, and you need to offer people challenge as well as support. But it’s when people sense you’re truly for them, that they will commit to what needs doing, and hopefully flourish in their lives. Good teams thrive on different skills and the perspectives of different people working towards a common goal. Imposed uniformity might feel safe but it lacks vitality.”
Any trends in leadership lately that inspire or concern you?
“I’m concerned with an overly utilitarian approach to leadership that, in seeking even noble and worthwhile goals, finds a way to ignore the humanity of people in organisations. The best leaders are somehow able to marry a commitment to excellence and good outcomes with recognisable interest, concern (and even love) for the people they lead.”
Simon Smart (left) appearing on Australia ABC TV. PICTURE: Screenshot/Supplied
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After 15 years at CPX, what do you still look forward to?
“I love this work and the challenge of finding a way to elevate the conversation about human questions that we all (eventually) ask, and how Christianity speaks so powerfully and in such a life-giving manner to our deepest longings and into every area of life. It’s endlessly fascinating to me, and I really like trying to convey something of that to people for whom that would be a foreign concept.
“That’s not the public perception, though. In the 15 intervening years since we began, our task hasn’t become easier. Today, the sheer foreignness of religious belief and practice to most people in Australia is evident to anyone who attempts to speak a Christian voice into the public. It’s in that environment that CPX sets out to faithfully represent historic Christianity, offering up a picture of what is at the heart of the Christian faith and how it speaks to contemporary life.”
Finally, what advice would you give now to yourself in the early part of your career?
“Read widely, including – but not limited to – people and ideas that you disagree with. Remain sensitive not only to what you want to say but how you say it and what it will sound like in the ear of someone who is not a believer. Always see people in terms of relationship and not as objects or recipients of your ideas. Remember that people have a story to tell and by asking the right questions you might get to hear it. God cares about each of those stories.”
