About the Author

Paul Smith

Paul Smith is an author, teacher, and recently retired after serving 49 years as minister at Broadway Church in Kansas City, Missouri. While in high school he founded a series of spiritually transforming youth camps and college retreats that were attended by thousands of young people annually over a period of ten years. After his undergraduate degree from Washington University and Master’s degree in theology and biblical studies from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, he came to Broadway Baptist Church in midtown Kansas City, Missouri in 1963.

In his almost half a century as pastor at Broadway, the church experienced significant and on-going change, becoming nationally recognized as a pioneer in small groups, contemporary worship, team leadership, justice issues, progressive theology, church renewal, and spiritual formation. After years of attempted expulsion, the church was finally dismissed from the Southern Baptist Convention in 2007 for performing gay unions. It dropped the name Baptist, becoming Broadway Church. In 1980 he created a workshop on spiritual gifts which is used around the world and translated into Spanish, German, and Portuguese. He delivered the 1988 Distinguished Christian Scholar Lecture Series at William Jewell College and was given the GLAAD Leadership Award in 1995. Smith has taught extensively on contemporary church life in many churches and schools including St. Paul Methodist School of Theology, Unity Ministerial School, and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has written for numerous publications including Tikkun, and had numerous reviews of his books and interviews on radio, television, and the internet. He is a regular guest writer on the Integral Life website. He contributed two chapters to the book, Enabling the Dialogue About Homosexuality, and has authored six books with two still in print, Is It Okay To Call God Mother? Considering the feminine face of God (Hendrickson) and Integral Christianity – The Spirit’s Call to Evolve (Paragon House and forthcoming Danish edition from ID Academy Media in Denmark). He currently presents workshops around the country on Integral Christianity while working on his next book.

Posts by Paul Smith

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Building a Transformative Friendship with Jesus

Leave a Comment

One of the finest presentations on Integral Christianity you will ever see. Recorded during the 2015 Return to the Heart of Christ Consciousness event, this was far and away one of the most talked-about highlights from the entire conference. Watch as Paul Smith takes us beneath the crust of evangelical extremism and beyond the noise of outdated belief systems into the very heart of Christ Consciousness itself.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Six Varieties of Christians and Their Churches: From Tribal to Integral

Leave a Comment

Christians and their communities of faith exist in rich diversity today. Why are there so many different kinds of Christians and churches? There are historical aspects, political factors, matter of taste, and personality types. However, from an integral perspective of evolutionary stages we can see a quite remarkable tendency for churches to fall into one of perhaps six different altitudes of understanding.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Integral Christianity: Answering the Call to Evolve

and

and Leave a Comment

Paul Smith talks to Ken Wilber about his latest book, Integral Christianity: The Spirit’s Call to Evolve, laying the groundwork for a truly integral approach to Christianity that identifies, honors, and includes the very best of all previous interpretations of the Gospel, while clearing the space for radically new understandings, expressions, and experiences of Christianity to emerge.