MIKE SMITH

What do you do at Metro?

As Executive Pastor, I try to be available to help make it happen - whatever it takes. Every day I try to find the balance between loving on and being in relationship with people and accomplishing a task-oriented administrative-type role here at Metro. Obviously, I rely on the Lord Jesus every step of the way!

Tell us about yourself.

I have finally found success in my life in that I have a beautiful wife (Jenny) and an amazing son (Jackson)…because of them, I’m a very blessed and exceedingly wealthy man now! I'm more Italian than I look. My mom's full-blooded Napoletana (from Naples, Italy) and I lived in Italy for 15 years. I actually have a life away from here (that I sometimes attend) in which I speak Italian and live Italian. I love music and have had a 20-year music career prior to this current role at Metro (which, I wouldn't trade for any other job!)

How did you come to know Christ?

A good friend faithfully (for 6 months...) invited me to church here in LA about 13 years ago while I was in the midst of a pretty wild ride in the music world. Once I finally went to church I really dug it and found a different face (young, hip) to Christianity than I'd expected. I attended church for about a month and one day my hand kinda' went up on its own during an altar call and I accepted the Lord and have been a work-in-progress ever since.

Do you have a life verse?

I'm not sure I can single-out one verse that I stand on for life. I think that I'm so confident in who God is that I stand on all His promises, through which He sustains me with an eternal perspective - 'the hope of eternal life'. I feel fortunate in that I believe the Lord has given me a generous portion of the gift of faith. Lately, I've been trying to grasp what it means to take that gift to the next level through a verse in Galatians 5:6 that says "...the only thing that counts is faith working through love".

Email: msmith@metrochurch.org