Pastor Lori
Pastor and music minister at FCC, and a daughter of this congregation. Pastor Lori Briscoe Smithey leads with faith, warmth, music, and a deep commitment to serving Chandler.
Pastor and music minister.
At FCC, preaching and music are not separate parts of Pastor Lori's ministry. Both are ways of helping people feel at home, hear the message clearly, and participate fully in worship.
Pastor
Pastor Lori leads worship, preaches, provides pastoral care, and helps guide the church's work in Chandler. She is also continuing her theological education through seminary while serving the congregation.
Music Minister
She directs the choir and worship team and helps shape a Sunday service that brings together familiar hymns, contemporary music, and the voices of the congregation.
She grew up in these pews.
Pastor Lori's story at First Christian Church began long before she stood in the pulpit. This is the church that helped form her faith, surrounded her family, and gave her some of her earliest experiences in worship, music, and service.
Her path eventually brought her back to Chandler and back to FCC, this time to lead the congregation that had once helped raise her.
At home on a red dirt road.
Pastor Lori grew up right here and graduated from Chandler High School. She is as comfortable on a red dirt road as she is in the pulpit, a wife and mother of three whose days are full of the ordinary, good things of home: goats and bees, a garden, a couple of Great Pyrenees, and the kind of everyday stories that make her easy to know.
That down-to-earth life is a big part of why she connects so easily with the families of FCC.
Education & training
A lifetime of music and ministry training shapes how Pastor Lori leads worship and cares for the church.
The encourager.
Pastor Lori has a gift for noticing what people can contribute and helping them find a place to use it. That spirit shapes FCC's volunteer work, community partnerships, benefit events, and the many ways members step forward to serve.
Her leadership is personal and practical. She invites people in, gives them room to participate, and keeps the church connected to the wider Chandler community.
Worship you can feel.
Music is one of the clearest expressions of life at FCC. Pastor Lori directs a choir and worship team that bring energy, tradition, and participation into the sanctuary each week.
Leading in service.
Pastor Lori's ministry reaches well beyond Sunday mornings. She organizes and serves as music director for the annual Community Gospel Concert, a regional gathering of churches from the Chandler area and the Oklahoma City metro. The concert brings in up-and-coming musicians from her wider music ministry, and all proceeds benefit a local charity each year.
About the Community Gospel Concert →Come worship with us.
The best way to meet Pastor Lori is on a Sunday. Plan a visit and introduce yourself. She would love to meet you.