Church Leaders

We believe that the leadership of the local church should be formed by the Scriptures rather than the world. For us, this means that LFDC is led by a plurality (Acts 20:17) of pastor/elders (Titus 1:5), qualified for leadership by the grace of Jesus Christ and in accordance with the requirements given by the Apostles (1 Timothy 3:1–13).

Therefore all of our leaders are not just in authority, but under it as well. Jesus Christ is the Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4) of LFDC,
to whom all of our leaders will give an account (Hebrews 13:17).

** Due to church size, we currently are under what many know as "Elder-Led Congregationalism" **


Jesse Smout

Lead Pastor of Preaching & Vision 

Hi. I'm Jesse. I love the Good News of Christ and I love to talk about it. God has graciously called me to serve this amazing congregation. I am blessed to have an amazing wife, two wonderful boys, I teach Art at a Catholic High School, while I also enjoy theology, traveling, and most all sports. As for my theology? I'm pretty much a continuationist 1689 Baptist. (think D. Martyn Lloyd Jones, Spurgeon, Schreiner, John Piper... etc). If you like to know more about specific topics, you can check out my podcast: The Rambling Preacher. However, more importantly - I hope you stop in and check out Living Faith! God is doing something here.  

Rachel salcido-cowley

Our Spiritual Grandma 

Grandma is not really a title - but it is her pride and joy. She is both a grandma to Jesse's sons and a grandma to the church. She has served for over 20 years in the church setting. She has been involved in leading prayer ministries, children's ministries, youth ministries, foundation classes, hermeneutic courses and so much more! We are blessed to have this "Grandma" in our church - as she currently serves over our youth and wants to help wives and moms who need discipleship (think Titus 2:4-6).