By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

FOR more than four decades, Joseph “Joe Mo” Smith has been known for his expertise in volleyball that has led to his elevation from a player to a coach and an executive to president.

He feels his experience in sports has enabled him to transcend to the religious realm where he has moved up from being a youth pastor to senior pastor and bishop to the newest role as the Oversee of the Church of God.

On Sunday at the Church of God Auditorium on Joe Farrington Road at 4pm, Smith will be installed in that role as he will become the fifth Oversee to govern about 72 churches for the next four years.

Coming from the island of Long Island, Smith said he was pleased to be able to serve in every capacity that he did to get to this point in his life.

But he admitted that it wasn’t something that he envisioned, although he gladly embraces the opportunity presented to him. 

“It’s been a long road, being in the world of sports and doing what I did best then,” Smith said. “I got started in the gospel ministry in 1990 when I became the youth pastor under Bishop Teuton Stubbs at Southland Cathedral Church of God.

“A lot of my training came from the sporting world. In actuality, it was like God was training me and I didn’t know. I was still representing the country as a player and even a coach in volleyball. But it wasn’t until 2010 that I actually became an ordained minister, serving under Senior Donnie Stuart at Southwest Cathedral.”

A year later, he was sent back to Southland Cathedral and he realised that his