Growing up, Smith lived not far from Cup Foods, the shop near where George Floyd died, and he has fond memories of visiting the drug store that used to occupy the same space that Cup Foods now stands.

He later became a church planter and served as founding pastor of Sanctuary Covenant Church, a multiethnic congregation in North Minneapolis.

Author of The Post-Black and Post-White Church: Becoming the Beloved Community in a Multi-Ethnic World, he is now co-pastor of Bayside Church Midtown, an intentionally diverse congregation of 3,500 in Sacramento.