Michael W Smith Takes a Stand
11-28-2006
by Brenten Gilbert

Michael W Smith really doesn't need any introduction. After nineteen albums and almost twenty-five years of recording, his career speaks volumes.

CMCentral.com was recently granted the opportunity sit down with Michael over the phone and the conversation included such topics as his role in The Second Chance, his latest album, Stand, and his ever-youthful appearance.

Needless to say, it was an honor to have him on the phone and we hope you enjoy the conversation even more than I did.

brenten gilbert: Hi Michael.

Michael W. Smith: Hey, how are you?

I'm doing alright, yourself?

I'm doing well, thank you.

That's good. Thank you for taking some time out to chat. I know you're a pretty busy guy. It's good to have you on the phone and talk a little bit.

No problem

So my first question is about your church, The New River Fellowship. How are things going at the church?

It's going extremely well. The best it's ever been. I'm grateful for that.

Do you get to attend there much? I know you travel a lot.

I do. When I did this acoustic tour, there was a spot there when I kind of missed - I think I missed three weeks in a row - which is very, very unusual for me. I'm trying to be there as much as I can.

Well that's very good. You preach there, correct?

I do, yes, from time to time.

Is that significantly different from leading worship?

Much, much different. But it's good, it's just something that I didn't think I would really ever do on a consistant basis, but I've discovered that I have more to say than I thought I did and it's been an interesting transition, but it's been good.

I'd think that you probably have a lot to share. . .

I feel like I do, yes.

So, you're a pastor of a church that meets in a movie theater. . . I suppose it wasn't too much of a stretch for you to be in a movie, playing a pastor. How was the experience of filming The Second Chance?

It was great. It was hard. The first week was tough but, you know, just the whole thing. . . I'm used to working with myself and the creativity comes whenever it comes. You don't ever force it. And all of a sudden, you're working for somebody else, you are up at 4:30 in the morning, and at the set at 5:30 - not quite the musician's hours that I'm used to. (laughs) It was just a totally different thing. I just had to get into the groove and understand the dynamics of that. But man, I'll tell you what, it took me four or five days to kind of get locked in, but after that, I was there. I was just settled all in. I'm glad I did it. It was great. I still believe in the story so much and I think it really did impact a lot of people and it made people think a lot, you know? About this whole racial thing. So it was good. I'm glad I did it.

Has that opened up the door for any other acting opportunities for you?

I think there is something else coming. I have a movie company with my son called Seaborne Pictures so I'll probably be involved with something with him on some level. We have scripts coming our way, but I can't do just anything. It's going to take something I really believe in, something that I feel would be very fitting for me to do. I'm not interested in being a movie star. I'm not just going to be in any movie.

Fair enough. So what was your favorite scene in the movie?

My favorite scene in the movie was the foot washing scene.

Yeah, that's pretty powerful.

It was a very, very emotional day. All of those tears were real. It was like thinking about my dog dying when I was a kid. All of that stuff was so real. It was really, really powerful stuff.

Yeah. On a slightly lighter note - probably the most popular question about your movie role - what is your age-defying secret?

What's my age defying. . . (laughs). Well, I probably look a little older than what most people think I do. You know what, I think it's two things. I exercise and I eat right, for the most part. I feel good about myself and when I say that, I say that with humility, it's completely a God thing. I'm secure in who I am, in terms of my faith. And I think there are some products I use - lotions and things like that - that I put on my face every day and they hydrate it. So, you know, it's just a little bit of all of those things put together. And maybe it's just part of my genes as well. I'm not sure how else to answer that question. They are not really secrets, but those are a few of the things that I do, that I think are very important. I think the whole health thing - your emotional state, what you are doing with your body physically, and eating the right foods - goes a long, long way.

Okay. Just thought I would throw that in there, because I realized at the end of the movie that your character is probably a lot younger than you are, but it was still very believable.

I was supposed to be a 38 year-old guy or something like that. . . but hey, I definitely wasn't that young, but I was supposed to be a young associate pastor who would take my dad's place in the future and you know the rest of the story. . .

Yep. Moving on. The movie promotes the idea of opening up your eyes to the world around you and taking action to make things better. Your new album is called Stand, which kind of builds on that a little bit. Can you talk a little bit about the concept behind the album?

Well there is nothing thematically that really holds the record together necessarily. For years, I've literally just written out of experience. Always have and I'm just going to continue to do that. But if you listen to the record, it does feel like it holds together. I think that for some reason, when you get to the end of the album and all of a sudden you start sequencing the record - especially the first eight or nine songs - and it all just seems to fit. At least for me, it seems like I had the whole thing planned out but, to be honest, I didn't. I think musically, the way it was produced was very. . . You know, there was no veneer. It's not slick. It's very personal and transparent. There's not a whole lot of reverb on the vocals. It is what it is and for some reason it holds together. I believe it does, anyway. Obviously, the last song ("Escape Your Love") feels like it probably doesn't belong on the record to a certain extent, but that is why we put it at the very end. I write about a lot of different things, obviously, but I would say that if there is one thing that I really wanted to write about, it's this whole grace thing. Maybe it stems from my association with the church, dealing with people who are extremely insecure and trying to find out who they are. So this grace. . . You really come to know that His grace is sufficient. That's the key. And once you really get that part, your life really does change for the better. Unfortunately, a lot of the church doesn't [understand] the grace thing. Everybody is kind of still trying to do all of the right things and having a legalistic approach, living by the law, and that's not how it works.

Yeah. That seems to be kind of tough concept to get.

Well I got it and it's changed my life. I think that is why, going back to your question about the secret to [my] looks, I think it's all of that. I'm just confident in who I am. You dig into the scriptures and. . . As a matter of fact, yesterday I was reading Martin Luther and how he discovered the righteousness of God. And, Wow! Suddenly he finally got it. And he realized it wasn't what he thought it was. That this righteousness of God can only be obtained by faith. Obviously, I think the devil more than anything wants to deceive you and put you down and ridicule you and accuse you. That is just what we battle with every day. We battle with denial. All that sort of stuff. I'll tell you what, I found the secret and it's in the Word of God. It's right there and it's set me free. When it happens to you, if you see people who don't have it, you just yearn and long for those people to get it. Then you start seeing people get it and you'll say, "You know what? I'll preach this message for the rest of my entire life." And that is what I plan on doing.

I think that is actually the mark of actually getting it. You'll want to share it with others.

Yep, absolutely.

So, I thought it was pretty interesting that you included a Keith Green cover.

Yeah, I've been singing that song for a long time and I had a wild idea to kind of do something different. We thought about going back and taking an older song and for some reason I just threw out the name, Keith Green. Then I immediately went to the piano and started playing that song. I got a bit creative and tried to do something in a minor key and, all of a sudden, we got a little excited in the studio realizing that this might work.

I was. Actually I saw him. He played at my high school in 1977, the year after I graduated from high school. Me and a few other people somehow found a way to get in touch with him and he agreed to an afternoon assembly at my public high school. It was unbelievable. I'll never forget it.

Wow. That's pretty powerful to have someone like him come. It'd be a tough sell to a public school these days.

Yeah. That probably wouldn't happen today.

So kind of going back to some topics that the church may be not comfortable discussing - we've mentioned grace, and the movie obviously talks about the racial issues and tensions. What issues do you find yourself taking a stand more for than anything else?

The poor. Justice. You know, you can have revivals all day long, and you can talk about the fear of God moving and being blessed by God, but you know what, I'm not sure that God digs that too much, if you're not feeding the poor or if you're not standing up for justice. So those are things that I think I'm pretty passionate about these days. Africa, obviously. I'm involved to a degree with Bono and the AIDS crisis. And just feeding the poor and looking after the orphans. We have thousands and hundreds of thousands of orphans all around the world. You have to speak up for those [issues], at least I do. So maybe that is one of my goals. It's to make the church, and really anybody - America or people around the world - aware of the people who are really hurting. We just can't turn a deaf ear to it. We have to stand up and do something about it.

It seems to be one of the premises of the Gospel message.

Absolutely.

In a nutshell, basically: feed the poor and help those in need.

Yep.

Why do you think churches are so sluggish to embrace this mission?

Because they've gotten tired and comfortable and complacent, which I think is an attack. You start believing a lie. You know, the whole Christian life is all about dying to yourself and a lot of people don't want to die, that's the bottom line. Because to die, you have to completely forget about what you want to do. You have to let God completely take control of you and every facet of your life. Some people like living in a big house and they like doing this or that. . . I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with living in a big house, I'm just saying that it's comfortable Christianity and that's not the way it works. But the bottom line is dying to yourself. I think the church to a certain degree, has grown up with this whole [comfortable lifestyle]. They don't want to stir it up. They like it the way it is and it's all about control, a little bit of power, all of that kind of plays into it. That's why it has to be shaken up.

What do you see as some practical steps that we can take to "shake things up" or encourage the church to come out of their comfort zone?

Probably the number one I would say is just prayer. A real serious, serious heart cry for God to change your city, for God to change your town. You see these great revivals that happened. . . It was lead by some great leaders, but hundreds and sometimes thousands of people were literally crying out for God to come and make something happen. So I think there has to be that sort of crying out for change. I think that's what it's going to take. Then hopefully God will say, "Okay, that's enough. Time to answer them."

I guess we will wrap this up pretty quickly. I had a fun question. What song or album do you think your fans would be most surprised to find on your iPod?

Hmmm. . . on my iPod?

Yeah, music that you kind of dig, that would surprise some people.

Oh wow, that's a tough one. I'll have to think about that for a sec. I'm trying to think of something that is so wacky and out there, but I'm not sure I have something that is that. . . You know, something that would be a huge surprise. You know what? Probably, the weirdest thing I have on my iPod would be Jim Carrey singing something from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

That works.

That's on my iPod. I still love that because he was so great in that role and so every once in a while, I'll throw that on just to get a laugh.

All right, thanks a lot. Is there anything else about the album that you wanted to tell the listeners?

Yeah, thanks for asking about it. I'm pretty excited about the record. Appreciate your time, thank you.

Find out more about Stand and Michael W Smith at MichaelWSmith.com, listen to previews of each track on the album on the new music player on the CMCentral.com homepage, or buy the album at FreshReleases.com