Stefan Smart's I Am Mark is a unique, dramatic public re-telling of Mark’s Gospel, says Alastair McIver.
When some 2,000 years ago, a man called Mark sat down to write about the things that were going on around him, even he, with his prophetic insight, could not have foreseen that his words would one day turn him into a global, best-selling author-and still be making an impact in the 21st century.
His story, borne of the extraordinary events and happenings of the time in which he was living, around 40 years after the death of Christ, was, of course, the eternal story and as such, would go on to reach and impact billions around the world in the years that followed.
And today, nearly 20 centuries on, that impact continues to grow.
Mark, a travelling companion of Paul and Barnabas, and a disciple and long time companion of the apostle Peter, recorded all that he knew of Jesus’ life, from baptism to resurrection.
It was, and remains to this day, an action-packed, powerful story, a page turner-and truly relevant to the world we inhabit today.
Seeking To Impact Neighbourhoods For Christ
Mark’s Gospel is one of the most significant Gospels. Come back in more recent time to a quiet city suburb in the south of England, around 36 years ago. There lived a teacher, his wife and family. The teacher had become a Christian that year and as part of that dramatic conversion, a seed was planted in his heart and mind. That seed saw the birthing of I Am Mark, a unique, dramatic public re-telling of the aforementioned Mark’s words to the nation’s churches.
Meet Stefan Smart, the English and drama teacher who, three and a half decades on, is about to set the world on fire, with the help of American Catholic TV station, CMAX Media. After several years of performing his one-man presentation to rave reviews across the UK, he has now teamed up with CMAX Media and its partner ministry, Awakening the Domestic Church, an independent ministry, to bring it to the global masses.
For Stefan, it is the fulfilment of a dream and the outworking of a passion that he has lived with for decades.
Carrying The Gospel Worldwide
“I performed Chapter 15 of Mark’s gospel for the first time in 2008,” says Stefan.“ I had volunteered it for my local church for their Easter Good Friday service. I’d been wanting to do if for awhile.”
Over the next ten years, working with professional director Lisa Gilmour, the project developed to the extent that he was invited to perform it to his first ‘secular’ audience at the Scottish Story Telling Centre at the Edinburgh Festival, a breakthrough in both confidence and reach. The seed planted in Stefan was beginning to grow.
“Very early on in my Christian life, I definitely sensed that God might be calling me to be an evangelist, and to carry a message worldwide. The sense of calling never left me. I never questioned it. It’s only now, in the last few years, that I’m beginning to see what that might look like.”
“I found myself so inspired by Stefan’s acting,” says Jenny Baker, National Leader of Celebrate, “that it felt like I was encountering the Gospel for the first time." She added that it would be "an excellent resource for long time believers as well as those who are on the fringe of faith.” The Church of England Newspaper called it ‘Dynamic Story-telling,’
As it reaches into English speaking homes around the hemispheres, the eternal words of Mark, written two millennia ago, are about to be brought to life in a contemporary, visual and oral way.
This is yet another giant leap for the power of the message to reach into the broken lives and communities of the world.
To access the resources, visit the I Am Mark website:
https://iam-mark.com/on-film or visit the CMAXTV website: www.iammark.cmax.tv
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