The history of Brent Smith Ministries
"You are my God, my Governor, my Guide.
You make my life complete.
And you planned the thoroughfares and crossroads
Laid out for my feet."
I currently serve as the Pastor of Grant Avenue Baptist Church in Springfield, Missouri. I have been a licensed and/or ordained Southern Baptist minister for 17 years now. Many have asked me over the years whether I am a preacher who sings or a singer who preaches. After years of struggling with that question, I have peace in saying that I am the former as opposed to the latter. Just call me "The Singing Preacher."
God had all of my days (and all of yours, too) written in His book before I was even one day old. Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." How I love that verse! We are not simply hapless beings that crawled out of a puddle of ooze one day! God created us, and has a plan for us!
When I graduated from high school in 1989, my desire was to move to Nashville or Hollywood and become the next Elvis Presley! I wanted a career in the entertainment industry so badly I could taste it! I wanted the "Johnny B. Goode" dream of "baby, someday your name will be in lights!" It was all about me!
I had become a Christian in December of 1988, and, the more I grew as a Christian, the more any goals or aspirations that would bring me glory were pushed aside. Psalm 37:4 tells us that, when we delight ourselves in the LORD, He will give us the desires of our hearts. When we delight ourselves in Him, we are living to see that He is pleased. As we do this, our desires are transformed and absorbed - morphed, if you will - into His desires for us. Simply stated, it means that we start wanting what He wants for us! My point is that, as I grew as a Christian, and wanted more and more what He wanted for me, my desire to pursue a "career" in music never went away. It did change, though, and now my desire for my music is to simply see Him glorified through it, to see souls saved through it, and to see the saints of God encouraged through it!
Now so much more than a career in music, God's calling upon my life is to bring encouragement to the people of God. Through singing and preaching, my duty as a soldier in God's army is to drown out the devil's voice of discouragement with God's voice -- the voice of encouragement!
