A scholar at Beeson Divinity College as soon as got here to Professor Robert Smith Jr. in tears. The younger man's fiancee returned the ring to him and referred to as off the engagement. Smith cried with him. He then had the scholar preach his deliberate sermon that day within the classroom.
“I informed him the ministry is like that,” Smith mentioned. “You may't cancel a sermon” and say, “I'm not going to evangelise at this time as a result of I'm heartbroken.”
It's a lesson Smith discovered nicely via his personal tragedies. He performed the funerals of 1 spouse and two sons, but he continues to evangelise.
Throughout his many years in ministry, the 74-year-old has educated class after class of budding pastors to evangelise the Phrase, incomes recognition for his highly effective instance. He preaches in a conventional African-American exhortation fashion with a wealthy array of theological and cultural references. His sermons all the time concentrate on the biblical textual content.
Beeson founding dean Timothy George mentioned Smith “as soon as wished to be an expert baseball participant and he preaches like an awesome shortstop: agile, athletic … musical and strategic, poetry in movement.” He recalled seeing him “cross your entire pulpit in an exuberant pulpit second.”
Smith serves as Beeson's Charles T. Carter Baptist Chair of Divinity, and the varsity named its preaching institute for him.
He has spoken at 135 faculties, universities, and seminaries worldwide, together with church buildings from many main American denominations. His guide Doctrine that dances was declared the Ecclesiastical E-book of the 12 months 2009 by CT Sermon at this time. Smith acquired the 2017 Dwelling Legend Award on the EK Bailey Expository Preaching Convention, a prestigious award amongst African-American pastors.
Dean Douglas A. Sweeney referred to as him “some of the influential preachers and lecturers of preaching on the earth,” however he’s additionally identified for investing in college students a lot that “a whole lot around the globe contemplate him a religious father.”
Upon his retirement on the finish of this semester, Smith will start a brand new chapter in his journey of service. But he stays a preferred preacher characterised by pleasure and formed by tragedy.
From Cincinnati to Louisville
4 many years in the past, it appeared unlikely that Smith would change into a preaching legend. He was pastor of New Mission Baptist Church in Cincinnati, father of three younger boys, headed again to highschool for a bachelor's diploma at Cincinnati Bible Faculty.
Smith was one of many solely African Individuals on the faculty, and the registrar as soon as prompt he “go to certainly one of your individual faculties.” However he persevered.
Then the underside fell out in early 1984. His spouse Gayle, who had lupus, caught a chilly and couldn't shake it. She ended up going to the College of Cincinnati Hospital, the place the physician mentioned she could be high-quality. Smith left the hospital to evangelise on Sunday morning earlier than returning with some garments for Gayle to put on at house.
That afternoon, her hospital room was empty. The nurse mentioned Gayle was taken to the ICU with seizures. She died per week later. Smith preached her funeral from Ezekiel 24 the place the prophet's spouse died and God informed him to proceed preaching.
Picture: Courtesy of Beeson Divinity College
The massive query was, “Are you able to go on and preach the message that God has given you despite the fact that your coronary heart is damaged? Smith mentioned.
May.
Smith graduated from faculty two months later, went on to pastor in Cincinnati, and 4 years later earned a Grasp of Divinity diploma from Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. In the course of his academic journey, he married his second spouse, Wanda, who stays by his facet 38 years later.
He earned a doctorate in homiletics from Southern in 1993 and was instantly promoted to affiliate professor of preaching by the administration of Albert Mohler, then within the controversial first yr of a presidency geared toward returning the seminary to its conservative roots.
For a yr and a half, Smith was a full-time pastor and full-time professor, driving the 254-mile spherical journey from Cincinnati to Louisville 100 instances. “I know how from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Louisville,” he mentioned. “I can drive it with my eyes closed.
In 1997, Smith ended his 20-year pastorate at New Mission Baptist and felt free to depart as soon as the congregation's mortgage was paid off. Now totally centered on instructing, he started to build up awards, honors and talking engagements. He headed Southern's preaching division, wrote the curriculum for African-American physician of ministry college students, and was nicely on his strategy to gaining tenure.
Smith even deliberate to be buried in Louisville's Cave Hill Cemetery, house to Southern Seminary legends James P. Boyce, John Broadus and AT Robertson (together with these of KFC founder Col. Harland Sanders and boxing legend Muhammad Ali).
“My college students turned my parishioners”
However God didn’t enable Smith to reside out the remainder of his tutorial profession. In 1997, he acquired a name from Beeson, the Samford College Divinity College in Birmingham. Based in 1988, Beeson was lower than a decade previous and its success was not assured. When Wanda suggested him to offer Beeson a resume in case God was as much as one thing, he replied, “I don't need God as much as something.
Nonetheless, Smith mentioned, he was. Smith accepted the problem and taught there for 27 years—all of the whereas commuting between Birmingham and Cincinnati. Smith's important legacy at Beeson was scholar care. Every semester he meets individually with every of his college students. He wears them typically. Generally he buries them.
“I requested the Lord to let me be a pastor once more,” he mentioned. However “the Lord mentioned no” and “my college students turned my parishioners”.
Beeson's cross-denominational environment suits nicely with Smith's theological affinities. The varsity's professors and college students are Baptist, Methodist, Anglican, and Presbyterian, together with many different denominations. Smith says he doesn’t compromise on doctrinal foundations, however he’s at house in numerous theological camps.
He has pals with completely different views on pastors, baptism, church propriety, and social service (although “I don't intrude with the woke stuff,” he says).
“Folks have issues which can be completely different from me which can be minor, and that's okay,” Smith mentioned. “I baptize individuals by immersion. Presbyterians don’t. From a neighborhood perspective, we're not going to separate up over this. It's not essential. Whether or not you’re baptizing within the Pacific Ocean or pouring a little bit water over their heads,” in “all issues there have to be love.”
Uncharted waters
Tragedy continued to hang-out Smith on his journey at Beeson. His son Tony was murdered in 2010 in a botched theft on the restaurant the place he labored. Tony's demise helped encourage Smith's 2014 guide God's oasis: From unhappiness to morning, biblical insights from Psalms 42 and 43. His son Bobby succumbed to most cancers final yr after a 15-year battle. Smith preached at each funerals.
George mentioned Smith's preaching was formed by tragedy.
“Robert lived within the deep,” mentioned George, “and he preaches from the deep.”
Perpetual tragedy isn’t a badge of private honor, in keeping with Smith. He sees it as a badge of honor for Christ alone.
“It wasn't about attempting to be heroic and attempting to point out individuals how robust I used to be,” he mentioned. “I wasn't robust they usually knew it. However they got the chance to see God show His energy via a weak vessel.”
Smith's religious endurance via tragedy is no less than partly on account of what George calls his “written soul.” Smith is thought for quoting lengthy Bible passages from reminiscence throughout his sermons. Lengthy automobile rides collectively gave George a entrance row seat to Smith's information of the Bible.
“Generally we'll be driving collectively and he'll simply begin singing the Scriptures,” George mentioned. “As we journey possibly 40-50 miles, he'll simply sing the Scriptures time and again. I feel it's within the deepest degree of his soul.'
In Beeson, Smith brings a tray filled with papers with an inventory of difficult Bible passages to the preaching class. College students every draw a passage after which preach concerning the textual content they draw.
In retirement, Smith plans to do one thing comparable: settle for no matter new challenges come his manner and proceed to evangelise the Bible.
“I'm crusing in uncharted waters,” he mentioned. “It's actually thrilling to see what God is doing. I’m extra enthusiastic and passionate than I’ve ever been in ministry.”
David Roach is a contract reporter for CT and pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church in Saraland, Alabama.
