Jim Smith

Jim Smith joined Travis in 2012. He and Beverly are members of the PraiseSingers and are involved in the Community Ministries and Mercy Clinic, where Jim’s fluency in Spanish is of great value as a translator, witness, and sometimes-preacher. Jim also teaches the Sanctuary class on Sunday mornings and serves as a deacon.

Jim is from Oklahoma City, where he was saved at age 8. He studied psychology at the University of Central Oklahoma, where he met Beverly, and earned a Master of Divinity Degree from Golden Gate Seminary. While in school, he began preaching at the Union Gospel Mission in San Francisco, then served as pastor at First Baptist, Keyes, California, before being called as a teaching elder at the Church of the Open Door in San Rafael. After six years there, the Smiths planted a Church of the Open Door congregation in Mexico City. But their daughter’s serious illness and a traumatic event forced them to return to the U.S. after only a year. They moved to Fort Worth, and Jim transitioned to the business world where he was an owner and officer of his family’s oil industry services company, Alpha Oil Tools. For many years, the Smiths were members of Retta Baptist Church, where they taught young adults, and Jim served as a deacon and on various committees. They later moved to Celebration Fellowship in Fort Worth, a unique Baptist church focused on aiding those recovering from addictions, where Jim again served as an elder.