JohnEric Smith

I am originally from LaGrange, Georgia, where I was baptized into the church on May 6th, 1986. I went to Auburn University where I met the most amazing woman (Kim) whom I married in 2000. During my doctoral studies in Exercise Science, I took a job with the Gatorade company in 2004 in the suburbs of Chicago where my two children were born, and where we found a church home with the Westside Church of Christ in Elgin. We left Chicago due to a role shift to lead a Gatorade research facility in Bradenton, Florida, where we were members at the 53rd Avenue Church of Christ. In 2013, we relocated to Starkville, Mississippi, when I took a job within the Department of Kinesiology at Mississippi State University. In Starkville, we were blessed to find an amazing church family in the Starkville Church of Christ where I became a deacon in 2014, elder in 2023, and had the immense pleasure of baptizing both of my children.
Favorite Bible verses:
“I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”  Philippians 4:10-13 ESV

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”  1 Corinthians 9:24-27 ESV