Prattmont Baptist Church, Prattville, honored Howard L. “Chip” Smith Jr. on Feb. 10 for his 50 years in preaching ministry.
Randall Tucker, pastor of Prattmont Baptist, presented Smith with a commemorative plaque with Romans 1:16 engraved on it.
Smith, who said he accepted Christ at the age of 8, felt the Lord “speaking to his heart” when he was 12 and shared this ministry calling with his pastor, Henry L. Lyon, at Highland Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery. Lyon encouraged Smith to participate in the jail ministry Highland Avenue Baptist was involved in at the Montgomery City Jail, and Smith gave his first sermon to the “black section” of the jail, since it was still segregated at the time, he explained. It was 1963 and Smith was 13 years old.
After a few years of sharing at the jail and also at a local nursing home, Smith publicly shared his desire to become a pastor when he was 16.
He attended Samford University in Birmingham and began to lead Cubahatchie Baptist Church, Shorter.
Smith and his wife, Elise, became Home Mission Board (now North American Mission Board) missionaries in Vacherie and Labadieville, La., while Smith attended New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary to earn his master of divinity degree.
After graduation in 1975, Smith became the pastor of Sweet Water Baptist Church, his first full-time pastorate. He later served Catoma Baptist Church, Montgomery; First Baptist Church, Midfield; First Baptist Church, Geneva; and Glynwood Baptist Church, Prattville.
In 2007, Smith became a state missionary in the LeaderCare and church administration office of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM) under the leadership of director Dale Huff.
Huff said Smith “brings decades of the wisdom of experience to assist churches all over the state.”
“One of [Chips’s] areas of specialization is church policies, especially incorporation laws and procedures. His heart is with bivocational churches and pastors,” Huff said. “We are thankful for a half-century (of sharing through preaching) and trust he will add a couple of additional decades.”
Smith said after 50 years of preaching he is surprised to see a reversal in his thought processes.
“When I first started (preaching) I wondered how I would have enough (material) to preach and how I would come up with all the sermons. Now after 50 years I wonder how I will have enough time to share all that I want to preach,” he said jokingly.
Although Smith’s been serving with SBOM for six years he still preaches at churches when they need a supply preacher, he said.
He and his wife are members of Prattmont Baptist and have two children and three grandchildren.
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