I sat there, chilled by the morning air, looking at stars too numerous to count, listening to birds calling in the night filled woods and dwelling on the concept of God’s handiwork and now thinking about my own creative place in the star filled universe. I have a Masters of Divinity where I have spoken about God and will speak about God in a way that reflects that intentional study.

I have experience as a new church planter in a number of states and have pastored some of those churches. I have been a youth minister in several churches. All of those ministerial experiences, every one of them relate to a pivotal dynamic to the call of God and that is the use of the voice and life to express the love of God as reflective of God’s ministry through the person of Jesus Christ.

The concerns of my physical condition from churches and institutions that prevent me from performing ministry in the ways I just described, have led to a deep seeded frustration in continuing ministry. Why in the world a church could not look beyond the physical limitations and see the person of Kerry Smith is beyond me. I suppose they would not give the apostle Paul a job either, what, with his own disability.

Yet now, in the dead quiet of the night, I was left pondering if the call of God can be only in the form of a professional, education filled experience or could God use the Artist Kerry Smith? It is a question and deeply spiritual wrestling match that has hounded me for a long time and then, it hit me; God Needs the Artist Kerry Smith! Underneath Gods very own star-filled creation, at 3AM, with the hoot of an owl and a gobble from a turkey, I had my answer: God needs Kerry’s creativity in the world!

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C. Kerry Smith is an ordained Baptist minister with a BA from Carson Newman University in Religion in Jefferson City, TN. and a Masters of Divinity from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. He is a World-Renowned Master Carver and a Blue Ribbon Award Winner from Wildfowl Carving Shows that are held all over US and Canada. He is married to his wife Karen Castle of 33 years and has two children, Jonathan, age 26 and Allie, age 24 and one goofy chocolate lab named Mack who is his side kick in his carving shop.