Tribute to Pastor Ken Smith

I had heard from his son that it was coming a day or two prior. Yet the news of Ken Smith passing into glory on Friday, October 11, stilled me. I know for Ken, he was released from the valley of the shadow and into the full sunshine of the glory of the Savior he loved. Certainly we rejoice in that truth. Yet for many like me in the church, we have lost a loving father, a source of prayer, a comforting presence - a larger-than-life gift of God's Spirit to us that's hard to believe is gone.

Ken entered into my life in 1988. As Miriam and I, with a baby, journeyed eastward toward Pittsburgh from Indiana to attend the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, I was still so new to the church. Having been in the RP church for less than three years, we were sad leaving our family in Christ behind in West Lafayette. I was young and fearful about what lie ahead. I remembered Pastor Dave Long’s strong admonitions to me upon leaving:

Attend Covenant Fellowship.

Make sure you get as much time as you can with Ken Smith.

Get to know Ken and Floy – you will never regret it.

How right he was about that last one! Even in that first summer of 1988, I learned the value of being near them as we started attending church at Covenant Fellowship. When I suddenly had to leave Ted Donnelly's intensive summer Greek class to return to Michigan because my father died, Ken & Floy called to pray for us and then loved on us when we came back to Pittsburgh. Their ministry in our lives had only just begun.

Though I could share numerous memories and anecdotes, particular impressions were made on me during the years I sat under Ken’s ministry as a seminary student.

The first memory would have to be the power of Ken’s preaching. Those years were glory days at Covenant Fellowship. People were being converted and discipled. The sanctuary - which I enjoyed helping paint with Ken and others with the aid of Ken’s rigged “pew ladder” that had one extended leg to rest on the floor while the other sat on a pew - was filled. Joyful praises abounded. To me at least, what seemed to be the Lord’s means of producing such energy was, with much prayer assistance, Ken’s Biblically-sound, Spirit-filled, covenant-revealing, wall-echoing preaching. Phrases and lessons from those days still echo in my own heart and come out in my preaching. With a slight to no one, I believe I learned most of my homiletics not in a classroom but in the Covenant Fellowship sanctuary. Ken was my model. I always referred to him as my “sixth professor.”

Another impression during our seminary days was the warmth of Ken and Floy’s hospitality. On many occasions Miriam and I were invited either formally or at the spur of the moment to come and enjoy a meal. We loved being in their old house, tastefully decorated with Floy’s antiques and dishes. I still recall the feel of home it gave to us during those days, when we were living in an apartment and missing our family. 

Ken would often speak of how modern homes were built without front porches, and how people just needed time to sit and visit, which we loved to do there. One time I remember Elder Chris Hallstein, as he presided over the worship service, stressing the need for hospitality. He then asked the people in the congregation to raise their hands if they had been in Ken and Floy’s home.  I did not see anyone with a hand down. When we moved to Kokomo to church plant, we looked for an old house with a front porch, which we found and sought to use similarly. One of my favorite memories was a visit from Ken and Floy years ago, where Ken and I sat on my front porch swing and just talked.

Another impression Ken has made on my life is that of deliberate prayer.  During my days at Covenant Fellowship, I met with Ken and a few others on Friday mornings for prayer. The time was simple yet rich. A word or two from the Scriptures, a few moments of sharing, then the praying began. 

Ken’s warm-heartedness, heard in his trusting prayers, stripped away any pretentiousness I thought I might need in praying with him. Being with him before the throne of grace humbled me and taught me how to go like a child to my heavenly Father. So often, his prayers were passionate pleas for God to work in a sinner’s heart. I believe they are why the Lord has blessed Ken with such good evangelistic fruit over the years, most notably in the remarkable story of Rosaria Butterfield. Praying also marked his wife Floy, as Miriam also enjoyed praying with her, Maureen Wright, and others during those years.  

Ken was very deliberate about praying. I would call the church sometimes and be informed by the secretary that Ken was in the sanctuary praying for a specific time period. He knew that as he gave the Lord honor and priority that the Lord, in turn, would honor his praying, which the Lord has done. I think this quality highlights Ken’s faithfulness.

During my two decades plus of ministry out in Indiana, my interactions with Ken were separated by extended periods of time. Yet he would sometimes call me to ask how he could pray for me. He showed interest in my life, family, and ministry. Whenever I saw him, we would pick up right where we left off. His ease of manner always put you at ease in his loving presence.

When I returned to Pittsburgh to serve as an RPTS professor, especially when I became the president, Ken initiated times with me. He prefaced them by saying he prayed for me daily in my role. He then went on to stress with me that verse every good Navigator knows, 2 Timothy 2:2, which says, “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”  He asked me why we do not see more conversions and young Christians growing in the denomination. He believed it was because pastors were not trained to seek these things in fervent prayer that asks for conversions, in urgent preaching that calls for repentance and faith, and in pursuant discipleship that follows the praying and preaching with personal interaction between the shepherd and the sheep. His influence looms large over my own teaching of pastoral theology and homiletics.

How eternally grateful I am to God that He ordained Ken to be my pastor and my father in the faith. Though I rejoice that he has received his reward in the church triumphant, I cannot help but mourn the loss of his praying and loving presence in the church militant.