May 21, 2001
MICHAEL W. SMITH:
Midlife freedom
___By Kevin Eckstrom
___Religion News Service
___FRANKLIN, Tenn. (RNS)--In the rolling hills outside this genteel Southern town, more than 400 people have gathered under a big white tent. In minivans and muddied pickup trucks, some have traveled from across the state to check out the hip, informal church that meets on a 200-acre farm.
___Over near the pair of horses stands the farm's quiet, unassuming owner, dressed in blue jeans and a windbreaker. He cracks his signature smile, wraps a friend in a bear hug and heads into the tent for church.
___When he bounces up on stage and takes a seat at the keyboard, people stop their chattering. They crane their necks to see. Most know him as Michael W. Smith, an enduring gospel icon who continues to mint gold records. But inside the tent, he's just Michael. Pastor Michael.
MICHAEL W. SMITH
___Here at New River Fellowship, a church he and his wife, Debby, started two years ago with two other families, Smith is worlds away from the screaming fans, the grueling concert schedules, the creative pressures of the music industry.
___Inside the tent, it's just "Smitty," his music and his God. If he had his way, that's exactly how it would stay.
___After leading the crowd in a short worship set--the same song he sang for President Bush at his inaugural prayer service--Smith takes the microphone and begins a heart-to-heart talk, reflecting on this newest phase in his career.
___"Ya know, I thought I had lost my ever-lovin' mind to do something like this," Smith said in his slow, West Virginia drawl. "If I knew everything that needed to be done and everything that comes with starting a fellowship, I probably wouldn't have done it."
___Like most of his other ventures, Smith's church has been touched with success. He and the four other "co-pastors" do little in terms of advertising--word-of-mouth seems to take care of that.
___But the church, along with Smith's newest, well-received album, "Freedom," marks a dramatically different path in his nearly 20-year career. He admits he's still a pop singer at heart, with a certain fondness for Elton John and Billy Joel, but now his steps are more deliberate, more strategic.
___"I don't believe in mid-life crises, although sometimes I think I'm in one," said Smith, 43. "But you reach a point half-way through your life when you realize it's not about me.
___"I've been successful, it's been a good life, but my career comes way near the bottom, compared with my relationship to Christ, my wife and my kids."
___After all the accolades, all the sold-out shows, Smith is looking for more. He wants to be sure people know him for more than "Friends," the sentimental song that shot him to stardom in the mid-1980s. He's looking to have an impact.
___"It's almost like he woke up one day and thought, 'I've done it all, but there's got to be more to life than this,'" said Don Finto, former pastor of Nashville's Belmont Church and Smith's spiritual mentor for the past 20 years. "He knows what it's like to be successful, but that's not the key thing in his life. I'm sure at one point it was."
___Smith's star began to rise nearly 20 years ago, playing backup for friend and gospel star Amy Grant. He eventually broke out on his own and has since sold more than 7 million copies of his 14 albums, recorded seven gold records and one platinum and won more than two dozen Dove Awards, the gospel equivalent of a Grammy.
___He has remained the enduring star of contemporary Christian music--and one of the few to survive with his family intact.
___Like the gospel industry itself, Smith has matured and refined his talent. He is taken seriously and recognized for his musical integrity.
___"He is the biggest dreamer of any artist I've ever met, and his looks don't hurt him any," jokes Grant, who still tours with Smith for Christmas shows. "He's pretty easy on the eyes."
___Over the years, his songs have been incorporated into church hymnals, shot to the top of secular music charts and helped build an enduring friendship with the Bush family.
___"He's a musical prodigy," said John Styll, founding editor of CCM magazine who has covered Smith since he launched his solo career. "He's so talented. And people like him. They just like him."
___Part of what kept fans coming back for more was Smith's humble, low-key style. And he seemed accessible.
___"They see a guy who's not a hypocrite," said Bill Todd, who functions as the senior pastor at Smith's new church. "They see a guy who means what he says, they see a guy who's not going to judge non-believers, but he's going to befriend them in order to lead them to Christ."
___"Freedom" marks a turning point for Smith mostly because all the songs on the album have no words. It almost seems that after 20 years, Smith has nothing more to say verbally.
___Grant believes Smith's real musical talent has been overshadowed by his voice. Underneath, she said, he is a composer at heart.
___"He's got great pitch, he can sing good harmony, he hears it, but you could get somebody selling dog flakes and have Smitty write the instrumentation for the commercial and you'd have people lined up for eight miles to buy dog flakes," she said.
___Smith's next record is in the works, but his energies are, at least for now, focused elsewhere. He's mulling over a film company and working to resurrect Rockettown, a club for troubled youth in nearby Nashville.
___Smith said one thing that hasn't changed, and probably never will, is his desire to reach teenagers. "I don't want to stand before God one day and say, 'Oh, I thought someone else was going to rescue that kid,"' he said.
Get printer-friendly version of this story
Send this story to a friend
News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!
