Barabbas Road Church in San Diego – Our Story (Part 1)

Pastor Matt Smith is the Senior Pastor of Barabbas Road Church in San Diego. Although Matt was born in San Diego, his story really began in Boston, Mass. In Boston, Matt was training for the 2000 Summer Olympic Games. One evening, Matt took a trip to New York City where he met a girl named Rebecca who was a Christian. The two exchanged numbers; however, Rebecca quickly made it clear that she was not interested in pursuing a relationship with him. Matt did not grow up as a Christian; however, the main issue that Rebecca had with Matt was that he had negative views in regards to Christianity which prevented him from taking it seriously.

Therefore, Rebecca encouraged Matt to reexamine his views on Christianity. Matt accepted her encouragement then began to read the Bible and research different views on Christianity. After a few weeks of studying and researching, Matt started to believe that Christianity might have substance. Later, Rebecca invited Matt to go to church with her at Redeemer Presbyterian church in New York City. During the service, Pastor Tim Keller preached on C.S. Lewis’ Trilemma argument. By the grace of God, Matt was saved at that church service.

What happened at church that day triggered a desire inside of Matt to study and read more about Christianity. Matt started to dig deeper into the Bible and started to read books from old-reformed authors. As Matt studied and read more, he was able to gain a deeper understating of the Bible and develop a stronger relationship with God. Ultimately, this all led Matt to pursue seminary. Matt then decided to end his rowing training and he moved back home to San Diego to pursue seminary and to also share the Gospel with his unsaved family members.

Once Matt moved back to San Diego he started going to seminary at Southern California Seminary. While pursuing his degree, Matt spent time witnessing to his family. Both of Matt’s parents and his sister were saved during this time. Matt also landed a job as a youth pastor at First Baptist Church of Clairemont. As a Youth Pastor, Matt got the opportunity to preach and teach the Bible to young people. As Matt pastored the youth, inside of him grew the desire to pastor a church. This led to the start of Barabbas Road Church in San Diego.

Matt ended up marrying Rebecca and they now have four kids. Matt’s passion and desire is to make and equip disciples with the teaching and preaching of the Bible, so they can go out and make disciples themselves. This has been the mission of Barabbas Road Church since the beginning.