Has Justin Bieber lost his faith?
Pastor Judah Smith on faith in young Hollywood and new book 'Life Is ___'
Judah Smith may be a seventh-generation pastor with the lead pastorate position at one of the fastest growing churches in the country, but that doesn't mean the City Church leader can't learn from one of his most famous clergy members: Justin Bieber.
The father-of-three writes about the meaning of life in his new book "Life is ___," a question he says Bieber has helped him answer.
"I'm very proud of Justin," Smith told FOX411. "What's amazing about Justin and many young men today [is] it's not easy to be a man of faith. It's not easy to make good decisions."
Smith, who works in communities in Seattle, Los Angeles and Guadalajara, explained that the struggles those in Hollywood experience are the same as everybody else's.
"I think people would be surprised to discover that their challenges and struggles are not too dissimilar to us, average ordinary people," Smith said. "We're all looking for essentially the same thing and I think that's faith and hope and love and meaning and of course satisfaction, peace, joy."
Smith added that those life challenges are amplified for celebrities because of all that is afforded to them. Fame and fortune can be a distracter from what's really important in life, he said.
"There's great challenges as well when you're someone in the public eye," Smith added. "You can come to some conclusions even quicker and I would say that... I think some of my friends [like Justin] have helped me be able to sit in the front row and watch them do what they do and really, really watch them come to some pretty awesome conclusions about what this [life] is all about."
Smith first met the 21-year-old pop star after Bieber's mom, Pattie Mallette, discovered his sermons and met him at a conference. She told Smith that his tapes put her son to sleep and asked for the two to meet. While Smith didn't take that as a compliment at first, his relationship with the star has developed over the years.
"Justin certainly loves God and is passionate about being... the man that he wants to be," Smith told us.
Faith & Fame is a regular column exploring how a strong belief system helps some performers navigate the pitfalls of the entertainment industry.
Trending
