“Not a typical or uncontroversial fundamentalist:” Sidney T. Smith and the story of Elim Chapel

a new book from Robinswood

Smith was not a typical or uncontroversial fundamentalist, since drinking, smoking, and dancing were reputedly familiar practices in his home, and his own moral probity was doubted by some. (Bruce Hindmarsh, “The Winnipeg Fundamentalist Network, 1910-1940,” Didaskalia, Fall 1998.)

Link to a story on this book, published in the September 25, 2010 edition of the Winnipeg Free Press.

O

n the day following his death, trading on the floor of the Winnipeg Grain Exchange was halted and a period of silence observed to honour the memory of Sidney T. Smith. From his beginnings as a commission-based stove salesman for the McClary Manufacturing Company, Smith rose to the stature of grain baron, founding the Reliance Grain Company and twice serving as president of the Winnipeg Grain Exchange.

Yet his greatest passion was his Christian faith, and particularly the work and ministry of Winnipeg’s Elim Chapel. A lay preacher of international repute, Smith was a confidant of such luminaries of twentieth century evangelicalism as Arno C. Gaebelein and Lewis Sperry Chafer, and late in his life played the role of mentor to Jim Rayburn, the founder of Young Life.

Sidney Smith, however, was hardly a conventional Christian leader. The very qualities that fueled his rise in the grain business also shaped his work in ministry, and his blatant disregard for the cultural assumptions of the evangelical and fundamentalist circles in which he traveled often produced deep, even divisive controversy.

Drawing on sermon texts, interviews, archival materials, and published works⎯both from the history of the grain trade and from sources related to the history of the church and evangelicalism⎯Not a Typical or Uncontroversial Fundamentalist traces the story and significance of this extraordinary figure.

This 125 page book is now available for purchase for $15, including postage. For more information on how to order, please leave a comment below.

You can also contact the author at 196 Kitson Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R2H 0Z5 or at 204.781.8450.

If you are in Winnipeg, you can purchase a copy of the book at Hull’s Bookstore, located at 372 Graham Avenue.

Jamie Howison is a priest of the Anglican Church of Canada, the pastoral leader of saint benedict’s table in Winnipeg, and the great-grandson of Sidney T. Smith.