Chris Smith - To Be Connected To One Another
Exploring faith journeys and inspiring ministries that embody the good news of God. This is The Cumberland Road. I'm your host, TJ Malinoski. Being connected to one another is an innate human desire. A connection can make us whole, complete, and fulfilled. Being connected as Christians is crucial because feelings of isolation are very real and even present within the faith community. Today's guest names some of these reasons for this isolation and even offers some guidance. Chris Smith is today's guest. He is a member at Brunswick Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Tennessee. He is also the Director of Information Technology at Memphis Theological Seminary. In our conversation, Chris shares his faith journey and can see the church being fractured by biblical interpretations and practices and competition. The challenge, Chris says, is to seek out the connections that we do have and engage one another in discussion and dialogue. Enjoy this conversation on Cumberland Road with Chris Smith.
T.J.:Chris, thank you for joining me. You are the director of information technology at Memphis Theological Seminary. I'm gonna ask you what that means and what that entails. But first, let's talk about another passion that you have, and that is soccer or what we call it here in the United States, soccer, football.
Chris:Yes. I've played soccer since I was 6. So and, actually, it wasn't the first one in my family to play. I've got an older sister. She's 11 years older than me.
Chris:She played. And after after I played basketball first. Oh, no. I was going to play in the NBA first, and then just didn't have a league to play in or something like that, and, had to pick another sport. Played started playing soccer, and and that kinda stuck.
Chris:It definitely stuck.
T.J.:And growing up for you in kind of you were in the Texas area. Right?
Chris:Yes. In San Antonio.
T.J.:And so soccer kinda picked up in that state in faster and more largely than some of the other states.
Chris:Yeah. Region wise, Texas is kinda one of the one of the big deals. California, New York, those are some of the other big big teams. Texas is big enough to where we got 2 different, not divisions, but, like, we get 2 represents representation squads. You get the south and then you get the north.
T.J.:Alright. Well, how far did you take it into that sport?
Chris:I got a full ride, to a d two school, so college, and then I got to walk on to a semi pro team. But because of finals and school, stuff like that, I I had emailed and was like, I have to come in late. And the coach was like, that's fine. Great. And so I come in the next week, and he was like and I played with the team, and he's like, kind of, like, wanted to make me sort of one of the captains.
Chris:But when it came to registration, he's like, we've already registered all the other players, so we don't have space. And I was like, woah.
T.J.:Oh, no. How old were you at this time?
Chris:I was probably 21, 22.
T.J.:So this is a young man, young Chris, who's building a dream, possibly a career in the sport, and then you hear this news.
Chris:Yeah.
T.J.:No. That's devastating.
Chris:Especially if because I was coming from a walk on where I I got into the sport and then kinda was already realizing you need to know somebody to get a shot. And this was finally like, oh, well, here's my chance. I got a callback from an open tryout. So
T.J.:Not bad.
Chris:Yeah. I was I was I was gassed up at that point to be like, yeah. This is fine. It's gonna happen. And playing with the team too.
Chris:I was I got along with the guys. I wasn't supposed to stay at the housing, because I wasn't registered with them, but they were like, yeah. Just come on. You're in.
T.J.:Well, how did you do on those finals?
Chris:Oh, I mean, I I graduated eventually.
T.J.:So, Chris, tell me a little bit about your your role at Memphis Theological Seminary and what a director of information technology does.
Chris:So I graduated with a degree in computer science. And, basically, you know, at the seminary, the director funnels most of the technology. All the hardware issues, all the applications, the website. It's it's maintaining maintaining all of that, keeping it running, the student side, like the, the portals and everything. Just just if it has electricity, kinda it kinda comes through IT.
T.J.:So you can make or break a class, just by having the tech working or not working, especially now in in 2021?
Chris:Yeah. And and luckily for us, we had already been had started the process of getting the professors acclimated to doing online courses before before the pandemic, before all of that hit. So they'd all gone through training, and then it was kinda like, well, we're forced to go online the next semester, and I think it worked out pretty well.
T.J.:Good. You must be a man of patience of having to teach and reteach and help and assist not only the student body, but the faculty and staff as well. How how do you maintain that patience?
Chris:Well, I mean, part of it is you have to just know that people were learning at their own pace. As long as they're still willing to learn, I think it's it's fine. You can you can take your time. Yes. It gets frustrating, but I I don't have to voice my frustration all the time.
Chris:I've I've got friends for that.
T.J.:That's right. That aren't connected Yes. And that will listen. Yeah. Well, Chris, thank you so much for joining me.
T.J.:I wanna ask you, share with me a meaningful experience that you've had with God.
Chris:Well, to start with, I mean, I can remember not wanting to go to church and sit still. That's that's early on. I didn't grow up in the church, but I grew up aware of the church. We were always the visiting family pretty much, so I didn't I didn't have a home church. In the summers, we would go back to Mobile, Alabama from San Antonio, and that was really the only time that I went to church.
Chris:My mom didn't find a church in San Antonio, so she didn't wanna be that, family that only comes on Easter and Christmas, so we didn't go. I will say, though, in in in Mobile, there was there was one, like, Sunday school service that I got, and it kinda got me interested, and it was just, like, just the stories, just hearing everything, the, you know, the bible stories. And I was little, and I was just like, I finally got to move around, and then there's like, okay. Now there's there's a message here. And I was like, okay.
Chris:This I can do. Just sitting in the in the pews, I was like, nah. Not about that. And and it's so that wasn't the you know, the Sunday school made it not the worst experience for a child, more as a as an adult, meaningful experience with God, and we're gonna skip way ahead. But, you know, it was I was working at Memphis Theological Seminary, and, it was a time where I I thought it's time for me to advance my career, and and there was really no upward mobility for me here.
Chris:And so I was just going home, and I stopped to get gas. And this man who was asking for change came up to me and was just like, God's got you where you need to be right now. And and it was just it was for me, it was a bizarre, but I was like, experience, but it was kind of, like, the most guidance at at the time where I was like, okay. I I can do I can do that. I can maintain.
Chris:And ended up that, like, upward mobility actually did come after that. And I was like, well, alright then.
T.J.:That's interesting, Chris. So you are surrounded daily by people preparing for ministry and staff who are doing ministry, faculty who are doing ministry, and yet it was a stranger at a gas station that Yes. Spoke prophetically to you in the time when you needed to hear it the most. That's pretty neat.
Chris:Yeah. And and it's it's it's an odd surreal kind of experience. It's not the the story that I, like, would wanna base all of my faith or anything, like, on. But it's something that happened, and I'm like, that was that was strange where, you know, like, that's not a normal thing to happen.
T.J.:Well, an affirmation as you're stewing with life issues, here was something that came to you that kind of was affirming that you were on the track that you needed to be for the time. And here you are. Here you are. How long have you worked at the seminary?
Chris:I've been at the seminary since 2014.
T.J.:Okay. So have you bumped into that man since?
Chris:I would not recognize him if I saw him. So I it's possible.
T.J.:So looking across your faith and your life experiences, how has faith in Jesus Christ given you purpose? Purpose in your job and purpose in your relationships?
Chris:It's a it's a great time to reference. I just watched Shang Chi and the 10 rings, and they say, aim aim at nothing, hit nothing. And and I I I think a lot of my time, while it's not the politically correct answer, is, like, I've spent a lot more time trying to discern that purpose. And I I feel like I'm I've got one, and I've always had a connection with with Jesus, but I don't think mine is necessarily going to be always speaking or or or talking or or spreading that, verbally, at least.
T.J.:Your your role specifically there at the seminary is a form of ministry.
Chris:Right.
T.J.:I mean, you're and you are ministering to and with people who are already doing ministry and are preparing for it and couldn't accomplish what they needed to do without you.
Chris:And the behind the scenes is is a role more than I would I I prefer I feel more comfortable in, than than trying to to be the leader, so to speak. I don't I don't I don't feel the call to be the face, for everyone, which it it it ends up happening sometimes being that I am a minority, that I get put on the put on the, not the pedestal, but, like, put on, put on the spot to speak for minority, which is okay some of the time. Just it's it's it's a constant, though, endeavor.
T.J.:What does that feel like? That must be that must be an odd feeling.
Chris:I mean, I I grew up with with that, really. Like, if you're going to be the 1, African American in the class, it that's that's the way it goes. Like, oh, well, what do you what what do you think about this? How do you feel about that? Okay.
Chris:I I I can't really speak for everyone, but for me. This is how I feel. So
T.J.:Well, on a very personal level, let's revisit the question then. This is a relationship between you and Jesus Christ and your faith. What is it that just keeps drawing you back and identifying with this faith and with this relationship?
Chris:I mean, at the end of the day, I I don't wanna be a bad guy. And there's there's tenants in, Christianity that I think guides you to be a good person, to be stand up. And I identify with those. I I value those. And, you know, I'll say that I don't wanna be the one to speak and and do all of that, and and give my testimony.
Chris:You can give your testimony as much as you want. God is you and God, me and God, we all have our different relationships. It's just, I don't like feeling bad about decisions that I've made. And so if I do something or or said something, I'm gonna have to play that back all over in my head all the time. And so this is just the fact that, like, Christianity and God doesn't really make me feel bad.
Chris:I have I have a overwhelming good and positive experience with the church. I know that there's a lot of people who don't, and and that's unfortunate. But for me for myself, I would like to stand as as least being one of those people who has had a good experience, And I can I can share that when possible?
T.J.:And there's a lot of grace in this religion, in this faith. You know, with this place of forgiveness, it is hard to find forgiveness in other areas in my life at least. And to know that that there are people who will forgive me and that there's a god that will forgive me, man, it allows me to breathe a sigh of relief because I can never hit those, you know, those great spots of being the perfect example or the perfect life or always making the right decisions, always saying the right things. Right. There must must be a tremendous amount of pressure for those who try to live that way.
T.J.:So I like this faith because it's got this wide birth of grace, and I I personally need that.
Chris:Exactly. Exactly. And I I I I love that people take that as as not everyone does, but, like, I love that people take that as a interpretation. And that's I that's really where I that's where I fall in. I'm like, that's nice.
T.J.:Chris, where are you seeing God working in your life today?
Chris:I mean, for me personally, eve even if you include that we're going through the pandemic, I'm I'm still living a rather comfortable life. I I just bought a house. I'm at peace. I don't have it all, but I got enough. So I think he he's gifted me with with the friends and family in this situation that I that I have.
T.J.:Those are good things. All in 2021? You bought a house this year?
Chris:I yeah. I bought a house this year.
T.J.:Alright. Congratulations.
Chris:Thank you.
T.J.:Alright. Let me ask you a harder question. It's a follow-up to the to the other one is, where do you see God working in the world today?
Chris:It's, you know, it's so easy to get caught up in all what's going wrong, but there are plenty of good things going on. Child and infant mortality rates are going down. We're facing natural disasters, but people are still giving to those relief funds. Mhmm. You know, those are the kinds of things, you know, you really should grasp onto more than than the negativity.
Chris:It's it's real easy to to go to go down or feel bad about something. But, and I don't know why that is, but I I do, like you know, just recently, they started doing, like, the memes, that would have, like, good stuff that would happen. And I I don't follow that enough, but it's it's it's nice to have those also to counterbalance all the the bad stuff you would see or, like, the news became a really you're gonna see more bad stuff than good. So just having that that counterbalance offset it, you know, it's nice.
T.J.:Yeah. Yeah. Well, Chris, one of the one of the reasons why I asked if you could be on the podcast is most of the guests are ministers on Cumberland Road. It's just a natural occurrence. But you have some unique insight of the church as a layperson.
T.J.:And before I ask this question, do you mind sharing a little bit how you got connected to the Brunswick Cumberland Presbyterian Church? There's a story behind there, I think.
Chris:Yeah. So when I was still in school, at University of Memphis, my I had a classmate, Cara Rivera, who we had to just exchange numbers, for class because we were cool. We're like, well, let's hang out sometime. You know? We're we're gonna go to the club.
Chris:Like, that was that was the plan. We never actually went to the club or did anything like that, but, like, years 2 years maybe after we we had been in class together, she just sent out a, like, mass email or not email, mass text message, to all the numbers in her phone saying, hey. Come to, beer and bible study, at RP Tracks. And at the time, I was kind of like, well, I hadn't been to church in a long time, and I was like, I'll I'll go. And I I was visiting a church, but it wasn't I wasn't tied to it.
Chris:And so I was like, you're in bible study. I was like, this really fits where I'm at right now. So being a college student and, went to the RP tracks and met Corey Williams, because he was running it. And, I mean, the rest kinda takes off. Like, I wasn't going to church, but, you know, you meet the pastor, and it's like, okay.
Chris:Well, he's cool. I'll I'll go to your church. And it just so happened to actually be, like, 10 minutes from where I was living. So I was like, I have no excuse to not to not go at least once. And so I went, and everyone was nice, and I enjoyed it.
Chris:Enjoyed the people. It started out really as a challenge to myself that I was like, I've never been to church, every Sunday of a month. And I was like, that's where it started, and I kept going.
T.J.:And so you've been at Brunswick for a little while now. Right?
Chris:Longer than I've been at the seminary. Yeah.
T.J.:With that background before the question, I'm really interested because get to hear from ministers quite a bit. I always always draw so much from those who their vocation isn't wrapped into their calling. So what ideas, what hopes, what dreams do you have for the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, the also just the the Christian church in general?
Chris:I would hope for the church to be connected, and that's that's to everybody to to one another, to to other religions. I think it's easy to say that the the church is broken or or fractured because even we as Christians have different interpretations and misunderstanding or understandings. But I think it's kind of gotten away to where everything is a competition. And the the if you're not with me, you're against me attitude is really dangerous. It's a really dangerous concept.
Chris:It's great for sports, but not for everyday life.
T.J.:Right.
Chris:So I'd really I would I would hope I would hope that we as as as a community, would just be able to engage each other more and and not not look at everything as being such a a challenge. Just just because you believe in something else, doesn't mean I have to fight you over it tooth and nail. You know?
T.J.:That's a good thought. Enjoy enjoy our company while we have it. Yeah. Yeah. That didn't sound very difficult at all.
T.J.:Yeah. Somehow as human beings, we can make it difficult.
Chris:Yeah. It was because actually one of my and and he worked with me here, Elton Mormon. We became friends. Really, it was and they're the debates. Like, we don't have arguments, but we have debates.
Chris:And then I was like, we actually have debates. So it's not where we're like, oh, I can't talk to you now because I'm mad.
T.J.:Yeah. There's a difference between the 2. Mhmm. Where the relationship and the friendship remains intact, and you're both struggling to to pick at a problem or an idea or a concept. And that willingness to be able to hear the someone else might bring another perspective in and just to open our eyes wide and go, I hadn't even thought of it that way.
T.J.:Right. So not only does it deepen our thoughts or maybe a a relationship with god or faith or the meaning of life, but it can deepen that relationship with the other person as well. Yeah. Enjoying one another's company where you can freely debate Yep. Without throwing punches.
Chris:I'm all for
T.J.:it. Anything else in terms of hopes for the church?
Chris:I mean, just really that we're not just disjointed. Like I said, if if we can all just try and make the connection, because there's a connection there. It it doesn't really matter what y'all's differences are, what everyone's differences are. There's going to be something that that ties you together. You breathe air, they breathe air.
Chris:So, you know, you can start with that.
T.J.:Right. Which ends up being we breathe air. Yes. And then you can build build on top of that. Yeah.
T.J.:Well, you had mentioned a movie earlier that you had just seen. Are there any books or movies, that, have impacted you?
Chris:That's that's a weird one because, I would say, like, starter off, like, early on, very much commercial Christianity. That would that would have been that that was my major exposure to it. So and my friends don't like it, but I read the Tim LaHaye, the left behind series.
T.J.:Yeah.
Chris:I I read those books, and my friend, Jeff Davis, that was he was another some person that, like, we would have discussions, because he would invite me to his youth group, and that was one of the other and that was in high school, middle school where I would get more exposure to it. But, yeah, I I I read those. So those while not, you know I wanna say, I mean, it's it's fiction. It's all, it's all it's all that's fiction, but, like, just reading that, at the time was was major for me, and to have connection to other people at the time without going to church.
T.J.:So you guys were able to read and discuss what you were reading?
Chris:Right.
T.J.:Oh, that's so helpful. Yeah. That's that's that's helpful to be able to share that experience. Any movies? Any other books?
Chris:Movies or books right now. And I and
T.J.:the question is that impacted you so they don't have to be Christian themed.
Chris:That that opens that up a lot. But currently, I mean, impacting me would just be, rich dad, poor dad. I read that. That was that was impactful. And and just and it's again, it's it's a view.
Chris:Like, it's it's it's commonly I mean, most people kind of know rich dad, poor dad now. But just seeing the concept of of wealth, seeing it from a different angle, how somebody else thinks about something that you think you know, really. Because I think everyone has a concept of of finances, but doesn't mean that there's only one concept of finances. So that that that changes things where you just got to be like perception, and and thinking it outside the box, seeing seeing things in in a different light.
T.J.:Well, Chris, a man who a man of technology and a director of information, how can, listeners to this podcast continue to follow you on your faith journey?
Chris:Well, I am at Brunswick Cumberland Presbyterian Church. You could follow us and like us on Facebook. You could join us. Sometimes we're remote. But if you want to visit, we didn't we we appreciate that.
T.J.:Alright. And we can find you at Memphis Theological Seminary.
Chris:I yes. I am also at Memphis Theological Seminary. Csmith@memphis seminary.edu.
T.J.:Chris, thank you so much for sharing your time with me and sharing your faith journey and opening up your life. And, I appreciate it. And thank you for sharing your thoughts about the church.
Chris:You're welcome. Anytime. Thanks for having me.
T.J.:Oh, no problem. And thank you for listening to today's podcast. Grab a friend and travel with us on our next journey down Cumberland Road.
