zac smithLet me introduce you to the newest member of my team, Zac Smith. Zac will be filling the role of IT Director here at NewSpring. He’ll be joining us after moving his family from the Denver area to the Upstate region. Here’s a brief interview I did with him to help you get to know him.

TONY: Tell us a little bit our your spiritual journey.

ZAC: I grew up in Ecuador as the son of Baptist missionary parents. I believed in Jesus and trusted Him for salvation at an early age. During my college years, I was relatively unchurched and though I challenged my beliefs, I always came back to a solid belief in God. I met Mandy (his wife) in college. She was a believer, though we both acknowledge we were not living as we should. Our path led us to Los Angeles area where we decided we should regularly attend church. God worked on our hearts and we saw a need for a young-married group — so we started one. Through the friendships that blossomed in that group, I found myself deeply involved in the college ministry — eventually becoming the lay college pastor. I enrolled in Talbot Seminary and began pursuing a Master’s in Philosophy of Religion. A few months later, Mandy and I decided to move to Colorado. There I attended both Fuller and Denver Seminaries and my increasing knowledge about the church increased my frustration with the way I saw church being done. Our struggles have led us to the point we are at now: to a church where less is more; a church we are simply excited to attend.

TONY: Share with folks about your previous jobs and how they’ve prepared you for the IT Director role at NewSpring.

ZAC: I have been in a variety of IT jobs throughout my career — each of which has given me value for the IT Director role at NewSpring. I worked as a sysadmin in both first-level and then third-level mission critical for MCI’s call centers. There I learned the basics of making people happy, solving problems quickly and efficiently, and understanding how to support a large dynamic system of systems. Next I worked in, and then managed, a team of System/Network Administrators at Northrop Grumman. This was a complete operation in a DoD Classified environment where we were responsible for servers, desktops, switches, cabling, storage appliances, and user support, while also looking to future architecture needs. I then came back to MCI, which then became Verizon, and worked as an Enterprise Architect for a few years. The focus was on standardization, consolidation, and right-sizing. We worked with hundreds of internal customers to architect the right solution for their projects. Most recently, I worked as a Sales Engineer/Enterprise Architect for Sun Microsystems. This job was a blend of real-world sales with consulting. I did both pre-sales engineering and post-sales consulting for many large corporations, most notably the largest company on earth: WalMart. In the end, I see a variety of skills that collectively form a unique blend that fits perfectly with the path NewSpring is taking: solving problems, customer service, leadership, and architecture of future solutions.

TONY: It’s a huge jump from the marketplace to ministry. How has God prepared you for that transition?

ZAC: Since our time in LA, the option of working for a church/ministry has always been there. We just have never found the right balance of [Shane Duffey's formula] burden and opportunity. From a job standpoint the fit seems right and — perhaps I am being ignorant — I am not worried. I am curious about the intermingling of our church life with my job life, but I sense that will only result in a crazy level of community. From a financial standpoint, I see now that God has been preparing us for this. Earlier this year, at Denver Seminary, I worked with some mentors on developing a plan for financial dependence. My thesis was that we are not ever to be financially independent; we should always depend on God no matter how much money we may have. I felt like I really learned that lesson then, but now I see that we are only beginning to learn that lesson! The cool part is that we are prepared for it.

TONY: What are you most excited about as you prepare start your role at NewSpring?

ZAC: The most exciting thing about starting at NewSpring is to be able to bump into (or trip) Tony Morgan in the hallway. But seriously, there is a great deal of excitement related to being surrounded by so many cool people. There are two things I see that excite me. First, I am so pumped about the Internet campus concept and coming up with a way to make that happen. Second, I am stoked to be instantly involved in NewSpring. I am on board and fully committed to the mission and vision — I just can’t wait to be part of that worship experience every week.

TONY: Why do you think technology is so important to our mission as a church?

ZAC: Technology is going to be the way that NewSpring is able to reach 100,000 (or more) for Christ. I share the opinion of senior leadership that only with an aggressive reliance on cutting [bleeding] edge technology. I am also deeply impressed with NewSpring’s willingness to fail. The fact that failure is an option does not allow for mediocrity, but rather increases the risk/reward continuum.

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