I am Aaron Lee Smith, your web publisher for this site. I was born Dec. 30 1961 in Livingston, Tennessee, where I have lived for most of my life. I am the younger of two kids (my sister is six years ahead of me). My father was Charlie Lee Smith and Joyce Ogletree my mother.

Spiritually, I was raised up in the Church of Christ (Campbellite). My father exerted no spiritual authority in our house, so it was through my Mom that I came into this system. I remember Dad coming to Walnut Grove C. of C. only a handful of times. He stayed home on Sundays and watched George Vanderman's TV broadcast It Is Written. However, I have it on authority of a brother at Bible Baptist that my Father was a saved man. Carl remembers that Dad was at a small meeting one time, and he may have gotten saved there. Dad also often wrote Bro D. H. Swafford, a Baptist preacher who was on WLIV-AM for a long time. I heard him when I was young, and eventually I met Bro Swafford when he held a couple of meetings at Bible Baptist. Imagine how delighted I was to learn this!

Anyway, all that Campbellite preaching eventually took on me, and in the Summer of 1977, I was "baptized into Christ" by Brother Randy Stephens, a young man who I saw grow up in Walnut Grove church. He is now a Campbellite preacher in Paris, TN. And what a wonderful change in my life had been wrought since in the watery grave of baptism I made contact with the blood of Jesus….. well, not so fast! I became, like so many of the people around me in Livingston Academy, a foul-mouthed, silly, and eventually a tobacco chewing little nitwit! Christian young person, here it is in the flesh: the manifestation of 1Corinthians 15:33: " Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners!" If all the people you "hang out" with cuss and do wrong, eventually, YOU WILL TOO! Do yourself a big favor and find some that don't! I got very little thrill over gospel songs (it was Van Halen thrilling my soul, along with Robin Trower, Pink Floyd, KISS, and on and on). There was no thrill over the preaching at church (despite the fact we had Bobby Gore, a young bright guy who preached in a more interesting manner than many other Campbellite country preachers). In short, I had no care for the things of God. All that thrilled my soul was cars, chicks, Sci-Fi, and tunes.

I graduated in 1980 from old LA in the top third of my class. Off I went to Tennessee Technological University, where I studied Business Management. I was still the same old silly, dirty-mouthed geek that I was in High School. I had no goal, no clear direction for my life. I was just adrift. I figured that I would go into the insurance business with Dad. That option was eliminated in 1984 with his death. While in college, I began to let the spiritual things slide. I went to church a little, but eventually started missing while I was at Tech. And after a while, missing church really didn't bug me at all! While at TTU, I pledged Alpha Phi Omega, National Service Fraternity. Like so many others, I felt good about pledging APO, because they weren't just a bunch of drunks (and by the way, most of them were!), but they went out and did good things for the community! In fact, unlike the Social frats who just did a few social works for show, APO's middle name WAS service, so we did many more good social deeds! I was just like so many of the people in the world. I was trying to WORK my way into favor with God!

The best thing that ever happened to me at TTU was meeting James Ledbetter. He was a Campbellite at one time (along with a lot of other things too!). When I met him, he was going to Grace Baptist Church in Alpine, TN. Grace is a good Fundamental Independent Baptist church. Spiritually, we started off on good footing: belief that the King James Bible is the Word of God. He later began showing me some stuff in the Bible about the "Church of Christ", starting off with "The Audience of Acts 2", where he pointed out to me that all those in attendance were Jews or Jewish proselytes. From there he showed the varied dispensation of the Holy Ghost to believers from Acts 2-10. Eventually, I saw the truths of the Words of God. However, I didn't get saved just then. It must have been the rock music, which still had a grip on me, that kept me from trusting Christ.

After struggling to compress four years of higher education into five, I graduated in Spring Quarter of 1985 from TTU with my degree in Business. I graduated with a 2.4 QPA (both in my major and overall) out of a possible 4.0, a full point lower than my high school QPA. So now here I was, out to collect the living I had coming from the world; after all I was a COLLEGE GRADUATE (please show your reverence and bow! Ha Ha!)!!! Over the next two years, I got a reality check as the world responded: "living? What living do we owe you punk?" I wound up working in radio thanks to the JTPA (Job Training Partnerships Act). They were able to get me into WWRT-AM, also known as Life 16, then an all-Christian station. I was trying to sell advertising and work a board shift. The board part was fun, but the sales end was frustrating to me, for out of over 100 sales calls, I was only able to sell three people. I know that's pretty good for a greenhorn sales rep, but it's not good for one's self esteem (sheesh!). During the Christmas rush time, I wound up doing board work totally as Bill Penn, the main On-Air guy was busy in production and getting another car to replace the one that died on him. A Christian drama team came to the station on one of their visits to the Assembly of God church across the street from the station. One of the drama guys started dealing with me about my soul, and it was then, about 8:45, October 14, 1987, that I trusted Jesus Christ to save my soul. It was something that should have been done sooner, but the thing that matters is that it was DONE! Done because it is finished I guess you could say.

I still continued to go to Walnut Grove C. of C. But then I heard about this new place called Bible Baptist Church in Rickman, TN. I had heard the pastor, Bro. Ron Lister on the radio and liked what I heard. I went one Saturday night to a meeting to hear Dr. Herbert Noe. I still continued to go to the Campbellite church because I didn't want to make waves, but eventually, I broke away. And I believe God has blessed me for that.

Since Jesus came into my life, it has been different! My employment history was sketchy before I got saved, but since then, I have been out of work for only about a month and a half. I have had my physical needs (and a few wants) met. I have had safety on the highways as well, for I have traveled up to 80 miles per day commuting to work. In college it seemed that every spring, something would happen to the car I was driving, be it a wreck or major mechanical trouble. Since then, no problems except for running over a deer in 1996! Plus, I've grown in many ways under the preaching and teaching of Bro. Ron and also Bro. Tim. It's great to be saved! How about you; are you saved?