‘I want to get the people involved, not to be just an audience’
By Noel Smith
Trent Smith just moved to Santa Cruz County from Paradise … California that is … with his wife and two children where he, at the age of 34, has taken the position at the largest church in Santa Cruz County as the new Worship Pastor at Twin Lakes Church in Aptos.
Trent has been married to his wife Deborah for 14 years and they have a son 9 and a daughter 7 years old. He feels blessed to have been called to Twin Lakes Church. “I first visited here six years ago and felt such a positive experience and that this was a place to put your musical energy into.”
But this is a journey that started in Homer Alaska. This town of 5,000 people is known as the “Halibut Fishing Capitol of the World” but is also know as “The end of the road,” the road being Alaska Highway 1 winding 220 miles up the Kenai Peninsula to the state capitol of Anchorage.
Trent’s journey started there in the snows of Homer, then wound through the corn fields of De Moines Iowa where he went to college at the age of 17, then to the Sierra Nevada foothills of Paradise as a Worship Pastor, and now is on the beaches and in the redwood forests of Santa Cruz where he is already learning to surf.
That is his physical journey, but Trent’s personal journey has been much more challenging. He is a very accomplished musician and singer who began learning the violin (his favorite instrument) at the age of seven and is a skilled musician as well on the piano and guitar. Trent is also is a talented composer and arranger. If you look in iTunes, you will find five albums of his songs and music.
There is another part to his journey that was not of his choosing. Trent has Multiple Sclerosis. “I believe I started feeling its effects when I was 18-19 years old,” said Trent, “But it wasn’t diagnosed until I was 25 when I had lost strength and couldn’t control my left side.”
As you can imagine, for a gifted musician finding out you have MS was a real shock. “I’m on medication and I keep physically active, such as playing tennis, woodworking, hiking and now surfing, in order to keep it under control.”
Asked about his composing, Trent said, “As a writer of songs I want to translate human emotion and experience to music and to connect these with hope both emotionally and intellectually. I wrote the song “Molly’s Hope” for a young girl I knew who was dying from cancer. I find myself writing about life, its challenges and the hope that is available to all no matter their situation.”
His challenge as a Worship Pastor is to encourage ‘participation worship.’ “I want to get the people involved, not to be just an audience,” said Trent, “My job is to be a tour guide to the beauty of God.”
Photo: The Smith Family