Spencer Smith first came to Asbury through a hot air balloon. One night as he and his then girlfriend, now wife Abby, were driving to 71st Street, they noticed some hot air balloons rising from a field just north of 71st on Mingo Road. There was some sort of hot air balloon festival in that empty field that night. After walking around and looking at the various booths and balloons they met Rev. Dick Read, who told them about the church that would be building on this empty field. “Dick invited me to a service they were starting up that week called the 11:00 Living Room Service.”

Seven years after attending that first service, Spencer is helping lead that same service that has progressed into the 11:00 Venue68 service. “The first week I attended the 11:00 Living Room Service, I couldn’t believe I was in a Methodist Church,” Spencer says. Spencer was baptized in a United Methodist Church as an infant, and had been around United Methodist Churches his whole life, but had not experienced anything like what Asbury was trying to do for young adults.

Spencer is passionate about ministry to young adults. He describes his calling in terms of communicating the gospel to those who are distanced from God, particularly those in his generation. He says, “In many places, churches have written off young adults from being a vital component of the church membership. We can’t ignore this generation thought because young adults bring a lot of energy and passion to ministry and the expansion of God’s Kingdom. The Venue68 is a great tool to help us connect with new people who normally would not have been interested in what Asbury is doing. Asbury’s MVO is very helpful in our ministry to young adults, because of the emphasis on community, missions, biblical application, and especially glorifying God. Being a member of Asbury means something. It means that you are making a difference in the world, because we expect people to be involved in ministries that are much bigger than any of us. We have opportunities here to spread the gospel in our neighborhood or across the world. Asbury is an exciting place.”

Asbury was Spencer’s home church while in college. He moved to Tulsa from Missouri to attend Oral Roberts University. He was as involved as he could be in Asbury at the time. Most of his time was invested in athletics. Spencer ran cross-country and track at ORU. Even though his schedule was full because of classes and track, he still made it a point to be involved at Asbury. He and Abby were active in the college ministry and even hosted College Bible Study in their apartment after they were married.

It was through track and field that Spencer met his wife, Abby. “We were both freshman on the track team and were able to connect immediately.” Spencer received his Bachelor’s degree in Biblical Literature from ORU in 2004. Abby works as a graphic designer and volunteers her skills at Asbury. “Abby’s creativity helps me immensely in ministry. She comes up with ideas that I would never have been able to think of.”

After taking a year off and working in youth ministry in Missouri, Spencer decided to go to seminary and so they moved down to Texas, Abby’s home state, for seminary in 2005. Spencer received his Master of Divinity degree from Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas in May 2008.