Barry Smith

Metanoia Prison Ministries exists to make disciples of the nations in prison — proclaiming Christ, discipling prisoners, and equipping the church to minister to prisoners and their families through mentoring, discipleship and reintegration. Because following Christ includes baptism and church membership, it works to connect believing prisoners with the church. Metanoia is a ministry of Mission to North America, the PCA's home missions agency.

Metanoia began in 1996 as a reintegration home, closed in 2000, and was restored in 2005 with a new focus on discipleship during incarceration. It partnered with Mission to North America in 2009 and with Ligonier Ministries in 2010 to bring more resources to inmates, began its mentoring program at Walker State Prison in 2012, hired its first regional director in 2016, and in 2024 became fully a ministry of the visible church through MNA.

Barry is Metanoia's Regional Director for the Tennessee Valley Presbytery region, covering Tennessee and northwest Georgia, and a Regional Coordinator and professor for MINTS International Seminary's Seminary-in-Prison. He represents Metanoia in churches across the region; recruits, trains and encourages mentors for incarcerated believers at Walker State Prison and Bledsoe County Correctional Complex; and writes devotionals and curricula. He also coordinates instructors and teaches classes for the Seminary-in-Prison at Walker State Prison and Rutledge State Prison, and he preaches at monthly worship services inside Walker State Prison. In 2026 he and a committee from two Chattanooga-area churches prepared the first Metanoia House, transitional housing where women leaving incarceration in Tennessee receive discipleship, community, life-skills education and job placement support.

Before Metanoia, Barry led prison ministry development for MINTS, taught Bible at a Christian school, and served in youth, student and pastoral ministry in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Miami, where he directed student ministries at Kendall Presbyterian Church. He and his wife, Gail, have eight children and eight grandchildren, and he serves as a ruling elder at North Shore Fellowship in Chattanooga.