Integral Life

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.