Cutting his teeth in a small Sunday school room, Bill Smith’s earliest memories are of playing with little colored pegs that would probably be completely banned today as dangerous for anyone under 30! Though he fondly remembers the good and godly people that trained him in the faith, his childhood church experiences left him more with a fearfulness of God than a deep understanding of His love and grace.

A really important turning point for him came when he went to college. With a longing to use his time away from home as an opportunity to learn and grow as a Christian, Bill was led to people who loved the Lord in ways qualitatively different from his own. While being exposed to believers who worshipped and read the Scriptures knowing that they were communicating with God, Bill made an honest commitment to know and discover God in the same way.

After college, Bill wound up teaching high school to put food on his table while beginning his studies at seminary. He soon afterward became a business manager for a ministry in the heart of West Philadelphia where he spent good, but hard, years that demonstrated he was not called to be an inner-city pastor. It was during this time that he met his wife Sally and they were married in 1991.

In 1996, Bill received a Master’s of Divinity degree from Westminster Theological Seminary and began attending Rutgers immediately afterward in the fall. While pursuing his studies at Rutgers, he started teaching classes for the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF) at Westminster and Biblical Theological Seminaries. He received his Master’s of Arts and a Ph.D. in Sociology from Rutgers University in 2001.

With a goal “to make visible the invisible” by helping others see elements of the gospel they’ve never seen before, Dr. Bill Smith is now a counselor and faculty member of the School of Biblical Counseling at CCEF and a lecturer in practical theology at Westminster Theological Seminary. Dr. Smith has been the associate editor and is a frequent contributor to The Journal of Biblical Counseling. He also oversees the distance education arm of CCEF and serves as the director of counseling ministries at Chelten Church where he and his family attend.

Bill and his wife Sally have two sons and a daughter. In his spare time Bill enjoys working with his hands, reading, watching movies, talking with his wife and playing with his children.

Books by William P. Smith, M.Div., Ph.D.

Caught off Guard

by William P. Smith, M.Div., Ph.D. - Christian, Inspirational