Angel Smythe Parisi on Starting Over at 56, Writing Nevertheless Faith, and Having Photos That Looked Like Her
Angel Smythe Parisi has led worship for almost forty years. She taught elementary school for twenty-three. She has stood on stages next to Rick Warren and Skip Heitzig.
And when I asked her what she actually wanted to talk about, she said: starting over.
That’s the part I keep coming back to.
Because we tend to hand the reinvention stories to twenty-somethings, like there’s a cutoff. Angel moved from California to Texas three years ago, knew almost nobody, and had to introduce herself from scratch in her fifties. She’s now writing her first book, teaching her first Bible study this fall, and booking speaking engagements into 2027.
I photographed Angel before her website launched. When I asked if I could share her story here, she said yes, and then she answered my questions like a writer, which is to say she answered them better than I asked them.
So I’m going to mostly get out of the way.
Meet Angel
“Hello, I am Angel Smythe Parisi. My name means messenger of God, and I have always known it was an assignment. I am a worship leader, writer, and speaker. I spent most of my life in California, teaching elementary school for twenty-three years while leading worship for nearly forty. I hosted women’s conferences and led worship alongside pastors Chuck Smith, Rick Warren, and Skip Heitzig. It was a full and beautiful life.
Three years ago my husband and I moved to Texas. I had to introduce myself all over again in my fifties, which was humbling. I am further along now, teaching a Bible study class this fall at Prestonwood Baptist Church, with a devotion recently published by Proverbs 31 Ministries. But the starting over is what I actually want to talk about, because it is why I am writing Nevertheless Faith: A Foundation for the Woman Who Can’t Hold It All Together, for the woman whose life is changing faster than she can hold on to it, which is to say for the woman I was.
These days you will find me at home in Texas with my husband, his mother, and our chihuahua mix Pookie, who is convinced she runs the household.”
The book she's writing from inside the hard part
Most people wait until they’re on the other side of a hard season to write about it. Angel isn’t doing that, and she’s very deliberate about why.
“This first book is written for the woman in midlife, when life starts asking her to let go of things she has held for decades, her children, her health, her work, the way she has always done it. Somewhere along the way, we are taught that the answer is to hold on tighter. I am not offering another way to hold on.
Nevertheless is a small word doing enormous work! It lets a woman tell the truth about what is happening to her and still refuse to hand over her hope. Though everything is changing, nevertheless the Lord never changes.
The book is built on Psalm 37 and walks a woman through six practices: trust, delight, commit, be still, wait, and flourish. They are postures of the heart, the kind she can practice on her worst day, when all she has left to bring is open hands.
I am not writing this book from the far side of the hard part. I am writing from inside it, and I think that is what makes it honest.”
Who she's writing for
This is the sharpest audience description I’ve gotten back from a client, and I want you to notice what she’s doing in it. She isn’t describing a demographic. She’s describing one woman, in specifics, down to a habit she has stopped noticing about herself. That’s the level of clarity that makes everything downstream easier: the book, the website, the photos, all of it.
“The woman everyone leans on. She organizes the meal train, checks on her parents, keeps her family steady, and responds that she is fine so automatically that she has stopped hearing herself say it. She is capable, and her capability has become the thing that hides her, because nobody thinks to worry about her.
She is weary from holding it all together, and she is starting to understand that she was never meant to. She learned how to say I trust God a long time ago, and what she wants now is to live like she means it.
What I offer her is not a better answer. It is permission to tell the truth about how hard it is and to keep trusting God in the same breath. That is nevertheless faith.”
The moment it started
“I always thought I would write a book someday. I retired after twenty-three years of teaching, my husband nearly died, and we moved to Texas, where I knew almost no one. So, someday stayed where I left it.
Then I flew alone to a conference for authors and speakers on my fifty-sixth birthday. By the closing session I was tired, and what I felt rising up in me was how much easier it would be to simply go home, live out my retirement years with my husband and my puppy, and call it a day. That is not scary. That is the opposite of scary.
In that moment the Lord lovingly convicted and corrected me. Angel, your delayed obedience is disobedience. I knew instantly He was right, and that He had not called me to live an easy life. He asked me to live a yielded one.
I flew home determined. Everything I am building now started in that room.”
What she'd tell you if you were sitting across from her
I asked Angel four different versions of “what worked,” and her answers kept circling the same idea: she stopped trying to do it alone, and she stopped waiting to feel ready.
On getting help before she’d earned it back:
“I stopped trying to figure it out alone. I took courses to learn the things I didn’t know, and I paid people to handle my branding, my website, my email list, my social media, and my photographs. I did all of that before having a book deal or any guarantee of one. It’s not a small thing to spend money on a dream that hasn’t yet paid you back. But I was starting over in my fifties, and I didn’t have twenty years to learn everything slowly. Getting help was not an admission that I couldn’t do it. It’s how I’m getting it done.”
On the year she lost:
“I would have started sooner. When I first felt called to write, someone I trusted said something discouraging, and I let it stop me for a whole year. I’ve thought a lot about why I handed over that much authority to one person’s opinion, and the truth is that it gave me a reason not to risk anything. God has worked it all for good, and I wouldn’t trade the road that brought me here. If I could tell a woman one thing, it would be this: be careful whose voice you let drown out the One that called you.”
On the best business advice she’s ever gotten:
“My mom used to say, ‘God can’t steer a parked car.’ I’ve quoted that line to myself more times than I can count, usually right before doing something I didn’t feel ready to do. When it came to writing this book, I didn’t wait for certainty. I got moving and took a step of faith in full surrender.”
On the resource that actually changed something:
“Tracie Miles’ course, The Writer’s Blueprint, is where this actually started. I wanted to write a book for years without knowing what that entailed, and that course showed me exactly where to begin. I have taken several of her classes since, and she taught me how to build a book proposal. I learned how to identify my ideal reader, name her felt needs, and explain my book’s message with clarity. Somewhere in those classes, she stopped being a concept and became Sarah. I could see her life and her needs clearly, and I have been writing to her ever since.
Goose + Gravy built my website, my brand, and my email list. The first time a woman I had never met signed up to hear from me was the moment this stopped being a private hope and became something real.”
That detail about Sarah is the whole thing, honestly. Angel didn’t get clearer by writing more. She got clearer by naming exactly one person and refusing to write for anyone else.
The numbers she’s proud of
“I launched my website on July 13, and that was the real milestone. Everything before it was groundwork nobody could see, the learning, the framework, the proposal, and none of it had anywhere to land. I couldn’t gain any traction until there was a place to send people. Now I get to grow it.
Engagement across my social media accounts runs between seven and eleven percent against an industry benchmark of one to three, and my posts were seen about 35,000 times last month. Those percentages tell me I am reaching the women who need to hear my message.
I also had a devotion published on July 20 with Proverbs 31 Ministries, which went out to nearly 560,000 readers around the world.”
On the photos, in her words
“Once I found Art of Her and had a discovery call, I knew instantly she was not just a great photographer, but someone who was partnering with me in the vision for my brand. Jess understood exactly what I was going for, and as a result she chose the perfect location for the shoot. It was like a dream coming to life. Her communication was outstanding through the entire process. She texted me the morning of the shoot to encourage me, kept an eye on the weather, and made me feel completely at ease.
The day itself was a blast. I was comfortable the whole time, I felt confident and carry great memories from it. Jess made that possible.
Everything I had been waiting on, I could finally build. My website launched with those images, and they are on my one sheet, in my book proposal, and across my social media. But the real change was that I saw my personality in these photos. Even Goose + Gravy marveled at the difference the images made on my website. It became a warm invitation, drawing in the women who need to hear my message. This was more than I had hoped for.
My new email list has an open rate above seventy percent. My social media engagement is running several times the industry benchmark. I can’t credit all of that to the photographs, but I can tell you I post more now, and I hesitate far less than I used to. When you have images that actually look like you, putting yourself out there stops feeling like a risk.
I would tell a woman on the fence what I wish someone had told me: the photographer matters more than the pictures. Book the person who wants to understand your vision, and know that the money is not really for photographs. It’s for being able to show up as yourself everywhere your work goes.
I believe people can sense that these aren’t just photos. They are me offering all that I can to serve the people God brings to me. I have no doubt I’ll keep growing, because everything is now aligned.”
Where to find Angel
She’s building the Nevertheless Faith community alongside the book instead of waiting until it’s finished, which I think is the smartest thing an unpublished author can do.
In her words:
“When you sign up for my email list, I will send you a free six-day devotional series rooted in Psalm 37, written as encouragement for the woman whose load is heavier than she expected. The women in this community are not simply waiting on a book. They get early access to the manuscript, a real hand in shaping it, and the chance to help me put it into the hands of women who need it. If that sounds like you, I would love for you to join us at angelsmytheparisi.com.”
- Website: angelsmytheparisi.com
- Instagram: @AngelSmytheParisi
- Facebook: facebook.com/AngelSmytheParisiWrites
- Speaking: She’s at the Deep in the Heart Conference this October and booking engagements for 2027.
Angel Smythe Parisi was photographed by Art of Her in Dallas. Personal branding sessions.
