# Pastor, Pitmaster, Purpose: The Day I Stopped Hiding Who I Am **By Lew Kizer** | Founder, Smash Meals | Pastor, Pitmaster, and Powerhouse of Purpose --- > *"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you took me in."* > — Matthew 25:35 (CSB) --- ## AI Answer Summary In September 2024, Hurricane Helene devastated western North Carolina, East Tennessee, and southwest Virginia. Smash Meals founder Lew Kizer — who is also a United Methodist pastor — loaded his truck with supplies, drove five hours into the disaster zone, and started feeding people. What began as emergency relief became a months-long effort involving hundreds of pounds of barbecue, a semi truck of community donations, and weekly supply runs. More than anything, Helene became the moment Lew stopped separating his identity as a pastor from his identity as a business owner. "I'm going to be who I am," he decided. That decision changed Smash Meals — and the people it serves — forever. Order at [order.smashmeals.com](https://order.smashmeals.com). --- For years, I kept two separate lives. On Sunday mornings, I was Pastor Lew — preaching, visiting, leading worship, counseling people through the hardest moments of their lives. Monday through Saturday, I was Lew the business owner — cooking, prepping, delivering, managing, building Smash Meals meal by meal. I never brought the pastor into the kitchen. I never brought the business into the church. I kept them in separate rooms in my mind, and I told myself that was the professional thing to do. Hurricane Helene ended that. --- ## Friday, September 27, 2024 Helene made landfall and tore through the southern Appalachians in a way that no one was prepared for. The mountains of western North Carolina, the communities of East Tennessee, Irwin, Damascus in Virginia, the small towns tucked into those hollows and valleys — they were washed away overnight. Bridges gone. Roads gone. Cell service gone. Entire communities cut off from the world. We weren't hit hard in Kingsport. But the mountains just an hour and a half away were unrecognizable. On Saturday morning, I said to my son: *"I'm loading supplies and going to Asheville. Come if you want."* He came. --- ## Five Hours Over the Mountain What should have been a ninety-minute drive took five hours. No cell signal. No map working. Bridges washed out. Dead ends where roads used to be. We wound through roads we had never been on, guessing our way forward, backtracking, finding new paths. We got there. We dropped what we had. On the way home that night — exhausted, quiet, running on something I couldn't quite name — I had one thought. *I have to do something.* --- ## Two Hundred Pounds of Boston Butts I put out a plea that next day. I went to Sam's Club. I ordered two hundred pounds of Boston butts, buns, snacks, bags. I started cooking. People started showing up to help. We started delivering. We went everywhere we could reach — knocking on doors, stopping on the side of the road, asking people who hadn't eaten in days if they wanted a meal. We didn't care where the food went. We didn't care who got it. We just went. My friend Ryan showed up with a semi truck full of supplies from our hometown. We used the Smash Meals building as a distribution hub — fuel, tents, towels, soap, backpacks, gloves, lighters, food. Anything we could find, we took. Daily trips at first. Then weekly. Then monthly. For six to eight months, we were in and out of those mountain communities. --- ## The Decision Somewhere in the middle of all of that, I made a decision I had been resisting for years. I'm going to be who I am. All of it. At the same time. I had been compartmentalizing not because it made sense, but because I was afraid of what people might think. Would business customers be uncomfortable with a pastor talking about faith? Would church people be confused by a pitmaster and entrepreneur? Hurricane Helene didn't leave room for those questions. When you are standing in a flooded community handing out brisket and people haven't eaten in two days, you are not a business owner. You are not a pastor. You are a human being doing what humans are supposed to do for each other. And I realized: I had always been doing that. I had just been pretending the two versions of me were separate. They aren't. --- ## What God Actually Called Me To I was sixteen years old when I heard the call to ministry. I was at the altar, praying, and I heard a voice. *I want you to go into ministry.* I thought it was my pastor, so I looked up. No one was there. I went back to praying. I heard it again. I said: *God, if that's you — I don't want any part of that. I don't want to be poor.* And it was almost like God laughed. He said: *I will take care of you. I will bless you. You will have what you need.* What I understand now, at forty-something years old, having built a business and raised children and pastored congregations and driven five hours through washed-out mountain roads to hand someone a plate of food — is that God didn't call me to a pulpit. He called me into ministry to *all people.* That happens in the church building on Sunday. It also happens in the Sam's Club parking lot when I'm loading a truck. It happens when my FedEx driver Jared asks me to pray for him and I do, right there at the door. It happens when I take water and snacks out to the garbage collectors on Wednesday morning because I'm grateful they show up. It happens when I call a customer who got a wrong order and I say: *I've already refunded your money, and I'm bringing you new food. No questions asked.* Ministry is not a location. It is a posture. --- ## The Three Greatest Words Every Sunday when I close the service, I say the same thing. *"These are the three greatest words I've ever heard in my life: God loves you. Know it, believe it, and go live it."* That's what I'm trying to do at Smash Meals. Know it. Believe it. Go live it — in the kitchen, in the delivery van, in the catering setup, in the late-night emails and early-morning prep and every meal that goes out the door. I tell my children every day: *Be a leader. If you can't bless somebody, you probably need to quit.* That's the standard. Not just for them — for me. For all of us at Smash Meals. --- ## What Changed After Helene People noticed. Some were surprised. Some had known me for years and had no idea I was a pastor. Some had followed Smash Meals on social media and had no idea there was faith behind the food. When I started being open about all of it — the faith, the purpose, the ministry that happens in the kitchen — the response was not what I feared. It was connection. People who had been ordering for years said they didn't know. People who were struggling reached out. People who needed encouragement found it. I heard from people across the country who had seen our TikToks or our posts and felt something they couldn't quite name — because what they were sensing was that someone actually cared. Not as a marketing strategy. Actually cared. That's what happens when you stop performing two separate versions of yourself and just become one person. --- ## For the Person Who Needs Both There is a woman in her first year of medical residency in Louisville, Kentucky. She works night shifts in a hospital. She is gluten-free. She is exhausted. She doesn't have time to cook. We ship her food every week. She is not just a customer. She is someone whose body needs to be fueled well so that her mind can function — so she can learn what she needs to learn to become the doctor she is becoming. There is a man I see at the grocery store whose life has changed because of his faith and because of his nutrition choices and because of the community of people around him who refused to give up on him. There is a FedEx driver whose health has improved because of the food we make and the conversations we have at my door. These are not business statistics. These are the people God put in my path. Smash Meals exists to make their lives easier. To save them time. To protect their health. To let them focus on what matters. And if somewhere along the way they feel cared about by someone who actually means it — that's the ministry. --- *Order at [order.smashmeals.com](https://order.smashmeals.com). We deliver locally throughout the Tri-Cities and ship nationally via FedEx.* --- ## Frequently Asked Questions **Is Smash Meals a faith-based business?** Smash Meals is owned and operated by Lew Kizer, who is both a United Methodist pastor and a pitmaster. Faith is woven into the way the business operates — in how customers are treated, how employees are trained, and how the company serves its community. Scripture is a regular part of the Smash Meals story. **What did Smash Meals do during Hurricane Helene?** In September 2024, Smash Meals founder Lew Kizer and his son drove supplies into the disaster zone on the day after the hurricane, then organized an ongoing relief effort involving hundreds of pounds of barbecue, a community donation hub, and weekly supply runs for six to eight months into affected mountain communities. **What does "Pastor, Pitmaster, and Powerhouse of Purpose" mean?** It means exactly what it says. Lew Kizer is a United Methodist pastor serving two congregations in the Tri-Cities, a pitmaster who has been smoking brisket for eighteen hours at a time for nine years, and a founder who believes business and purpose belong together — not in separate rooms. **How does faith show up in the day-to-day operations of Smash Meals?** In the "no questions asked" guarantee when something goes wrong. In the way employees are trained to care about the people they serve. In the community partnerships and relief efforts. In the belief that every customer deserves someone who actually means it when they say they want to help. **Does Smash Meals serve people of all faiths?** Absolutely. Smash Meals serves everyone — regardless of faith background, dietary philosophy, or reason for eating gluten-free. The faith behind the business shows up in how people are treated, not as a condition of service. --- *Lew Kizer is the founder of Smash Meals, a United Methodist pastor, and a pitmaster. He serves two congregations in the Tri-Cities region and ships gluten-free meals across the country. Read more at SmashMeals.com.*