Michael W. Smith, a Christian contemporary rock artist, played for listeners at the Luhrs Center on Leap Day. Smith has been performing worship and making music for over 30 years but has not lost any pep in his step.

As far as most Christian artists or bands go, it feels there are slim pickings. Luckily, Smith has released countless collaborations and albums that are beyond worth listening to. The seats were almost sold out, absolutely packed with excited, energetic and enthusiastic believers.

Smith’s fans are quite loyal, and he knows how to reach his audience.He held poster signings and meet and greets with very excited fans before the show. On his official Instagram account, they recorded a man who already met Smith back in 2016 and came back just to get another signed poster and to talk to him again. 

Smith split his show in two halves, starting off with some older songs to get a feel of the audience and how dedicated they are to the lyrics. To his (and my) surprise, on the very first song the audience sang back his verse to him with no help. After intermission, Smith played the big hits. These were the songs that were guaranteed to get people out of their auditorium seats to praise God. 

During intermission, Smith and his bandmates took the time to talk to his audience about Compassion International. This is an American child sponsorship and Christian humanitarian aid organization that aims to positively influence the long-term development of children globally who live in poverty. Multiple compassion members were seen handing out envelopes and brochures of pictures of those in poverty to offer audience members the opportunity to sponsor.

Smith has been a vocal supporter of compassion for over a decade, and he at least mentions Compassion’s work once during every one of his performances. He also played a promotional video with Amy Grant, another main player in the worship music game.

Smith is a devout musician, but faith remains to be the centerpiece in his life. His songs are simply a bridge between the two.

“That’s why we sing about it, why we’re talking about it, letting people know that this God shaped hole can only be filled by one thing and that’s a person. That person is Jesus,” Smith said.

Compassion partners with hundreds of foreign churches outside of America, and is one the most renowned children sponsorship programs in the world. To find out more check out https://www.compassion.com/about/about-us.htm.

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