Warren Cole Smith

Warren Cole Smith
Born (1958-07-11) July 11, 1958 (age 66)
Memphis, Tennessee
EducationUniversity of Georgia (BA, MA)
OccupationPresident of MinistryWatch
SpouseMissy Smith
Children4

Warren Cole Smith (born July 11, 1958) is an American author and journalist. He is the president and editor-in-chief at MinistryWatch.[1][2] He is the author or co-author of more than a dozen books and more than 3000 magazine and newspaper articles, many of them for WORLD Magazine.[1]

Early life and education

Smith was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1958. His family moved to the Atlanta area in 1970. He graduated from Sprayberry High School in Marietta, Georgia, in 1976.[3] He attended the University of Georgia and graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1980.[1][4]

Career

Upon graduation, Smith worked for the Georgia House of Representatives as an attaché and the editor of the House Journal, an archive of the proceedings of the 1981 session. He then moved to Alaska to work for Wien Air Alaska, where he managed a fishing lodge, Brooks Lodge, owned by Wien.[5] Some of his earliest published writings are about his Alaska experiences, including a short story for Sports Afield magazine and a non-fiction article for Alaska Magazine.[6][7]

After three years in Alaska, he returned to the University of Georgia, where he completed a Master of Arts in English in 1985.[1][7][4] He then taught high school English for a year at Athens Academy, a private college preparatory school in Athens, Georgia. He then served as the editor of North Fulton Magazine, a lifestyle magazine serving the affluent Atlanta suburbs of Roswell and Alpharetta. He also served for seven years as a marketing manager for the global accounting and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.[6][1][7]

Smith left PwC in 2000 to serve as president of World Newspaper Publishing, a company that owned seven Christian newspapers, mostly in the Southeastern United States, as well as the Evangelical Press News Service,[8] which at the time was used by more than 100 Christian newspapers around the country.[1] He served as vice president and associate publisher for WORLD Magazine, an evangelical news magazine, from 2010 through 2015. He also served as the vice president of mission advancement for the Colson Center for Christian Worldview from 2015 until 2019.[1][9][2]

Smith has served as the president and editor-in-chief of MinistryWatch since 2019.[10]

Controversies

Mars Hill Church

While writing for WORLD Magazine, Smith was the first to report on significant aspects of the scandal at and ultimate demise of Mars Hill Church.[11][12][13]

Shepherds for Sale

Smith found himself at the center of a controversy regarding the book Shepherds for Sale, by Megan Basham. The book made The New York Times Best Seller list despite being criticized for inaccuracies. A number of people mentioned in the book have publicly contested its assertions. Smith, writing for The Dispatch, suggested that the book was not journalism but propaganda.[14]

Rick Pidcock of Baptist News Global cited Smith and said that Basham "resorts to lies and conspiracy theories to make her case."[15] According to Smith, the "fundamental flaw" of Basham's book is that "corrupting money is not on the evangelical left, as she claims, but on the populist right."[14] Smith went on to suggest that the book "has many villains, but it has only one true hero: Donald J. Trump. He is mentioned more than 30 times in the book, all positively or defensively." Smith argued that Shepherds for Sale "purports to fight for the Gospel against heretics, but Basham is waging a proxy war, defending Trump against his evangelical critics."[14]

Aslan International

MinistryWatch’s coverage of Aslan International Group became a national story, resulting in Smith being interviewed by NBC News.[16]

Personal life

Smith is married with four adult children.[7] He lives with his wife Missy in Charlotte, North Carolina.[1] He served for seven years on the staff of Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, New Mexico. He later served as president of the Philmont Staff Association, a 4,000-member alumni association. He is a past editor and is currently on the editorial advisory board of “High Country,” the magazine of the Philmont Staff Association.[17]

Selected bibliography

Books

  • Smith, Warren Cole (2009). A Lover's Quarrel With The Evangelical Church. Authentic Books. ISBN 978-1606570289.
  • ———; Tschetter, Marty (2011). I Wanna Go Back: Stories of the Philmont Rangers. Philmont Staff Association Press. ISBN 978-0983049715.
  • ———; Olasky, Marvin (2013). Prodigal Press: Confronting the Anti-Christian Bias of American News Media. P&R Publishing. ISBN 978-1596385979.
  • ———; Stonestreet, John (2015). Restoring All Things: God's Audacious Plan To Change The World Through Everyday People. Baker Books. ISBN 978-0801000300.
  • ——— (2017). Print The Legend: The Previously Unpublished Memoir of Alison Stanton Bradshaw. Eagle Trail Press. ISBN 978-0997426731.
  • ——— (2021). Faith Based Fraud: Learning from the Great Religious Scandals of our Time. WildBlue Press. ISBN 978-1952225550.

Articles

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Leadership Team". MinistryWatch. Retrieved October 30, 2024.
  2. ^ a b "100 Influential Protestants You Ought to Know". Juicy Ecumenism. The Institute on Religion and Democracy. December 6, 2017.
  3. ^ Smith, Warren Cole [@WarrenColeSmith] (April 6, 2023). "Travis and I went to the same high school, Sprayberry High School in Marietta, Georgia, though I was about 10 years ahead of him. Great music program there. Glad to see he's still going strong. @Travistritt" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  4. ^ a b Reedy, Jackie; Varner, Paige (June 2010). "Class Notes". The University of Georgia Magazine. Vol. 89, no. 3. pp. 38–39. Retrieved November 8, 2024.
  5. ^ Smith, Warren Cole [@WarrenColeSmith] (July 1, 2020). "I was the manager of Brooks Lodge in Katmai National Park for 3 years back in the 1980s. Amazing experience. Saw these bears live and in person every day" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  6. ^ a b "Warren Smith". Amazon.com. Retrieved November 6, 2024.
  7. ^ a b c d "Warren Cole Smith". The Stream.
  8. ^ "World Newspaper Publishing Circa 2008". World Newspaper Publishing. April 11, 2008. Retrieved November 12, 2024. Warren Smith is the publisher of the Evangelical Press News Service.
  9. ^ "Author: Warren Cole Smith". The Gospel Coalition. Retrieved November 8, 2024.
  10. ^ "Warren Cole Smith to Lead MinistryWatch". MinistryWatch. October 16, 2019. Retrieved October 30, 2024.
  11. ^ Smith, Warren Cole (March 5, 2014). "Unreal sales for Driscoll's Real Marriage". World Magazine. Retrieved April 13, 2014. Seattle's Mars Hill Church paid a California-based marketing company at least $210,000 in 2011 and 2012 to ensure that Real Marriage ... made the New York Times best-seller list.
  12. ^ Smith, Warren Cole (August 8, 2014). "Acts 29 to Mark Driscoll: Resign and seek help: The church-planting network board calls on its co-founder to step down as pastor of Mars Hill Church". World magazine. Retrieved August 12, 2014.
  13. ^ Smith, Warren Cole (March 5, 2014). "Unreal sales for Driscoll's Real Marriage: Document suggests Mars Hill Church bought its pastor's spot on the New York Times best-seller list". WORLD Magazine. Retrieved November 6, 2024.
  14. ^ a b c Smith, Warren Cole (August 3, 2024). "Which Shepherds Are For Sale? A new book about evangelicalism is really about Donald Trump". The Dispatch. Retrieved November 6, 2024.
  15. ^ Pidcock, Rick (August 15, 2024). "Who are the billionaires and celebrity pastors supporting Megan Basham?". Baptist News Global. Retrieved November 6, 2024.
  16. ^ Strickler, Laura; Gosk, Stephanie; Schapiro, Rich (July 1, 2022). "Pastor and family stole $8M from taxpayers in Covid scam, feds say. Why haven't they been charged?". NBC News. Retrieved November 6, 2024.
  17. ^ Smith, Warren Cole (October 3, 2020). "What A Ranger Is". Medium. Retrieved November 6, 2024. Warren Smith spent seven years on the staff of Philmont Scout Ranch, including three in the Ranger department. He also served as president of the Philmont Staff Association.