Meet The Pastor
Lead Pastor David Smith
David has been the pastor of First Baptist Church since the Fall of 2017. David and his wife Stevi have three small children two girls and a son. David is a graduate of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky graduating with a Master of Divinity degree. In the fall of 2016, David also became an adjuct professor of Old and New Testament Theology for Missouri Baptist University. David has a passion to disciple men, women, and students to fall in love with God and His Word. Come and grow with us at FBC.
David's Philosophy of Pastoral Ministry
I am convinced that pastoral ministry in scripture is oversight/guarding of souls (Heb 13:17; Acts 20:28). All the other tasks of pastors come under this aim and are controlled by it. As part of guarding souls, pastors are also involved personally by leading the congregation in evangelism, bringing more souls to salvation by grace through faith in Christ.
The way in which I guard the souls of the congregation is mentioned in Acts 6 where the apostles stated their two priorities: prayer and preaching ministry.
1 Prayer- As pastor I watch over souls by regularly praying for the church as we see in Luke 22 where Christ prays for Peter. But I also lead the church in an evangelism prayer ministry. The evangelism prayer has greatly shaped FBC as we have seen salvations as a result of prayer. I believe that Christ called the church “A House of Prayer” and that the church today needs to get back to this. I believe the blessings we are seeing are coming from our obedience in prayer.
2 Preaching Ministry- Paul in Acts 20 describes his ministry of the word as being characterized by holding back nothing that was profitable. I believe there is a time needed for topical preaching as long as it is exegetical, but expositional preaching is the best approach to biblical preaching, and my preaching ministry reflects this conviction.
My ultimate desire as pastor is for all believers to glorify God and enjoy him forever.