Roy Jordan Smith: A North Carolina Missionary
By Bill Boatwright
Correspondent
Perhaps no state Baptist leader has witnessed and helped direct more mission and ministry projects in North Carolina than Roy Smith, retiring executive director-treasurer of the Baptist State Convention.
Roy Smith has been a part of N.C. Baptist life literally all of his life. His entire 43-year ministry has taken place within the state's boundaries.
Pearl and Sanford Smith, Roy Smith's parents |
It is believed that the Smith family did not visit the other educational opportunities along the way in Chapel Hill, Durham or Raleigh. Their goal was the Wake Forest campus, a place that would be Roy's educational and spiritual home for the next several years. He graduated from the college in 1953 and Southeastern Seminary in 1956. Roy's wife, Doris; brother, Johnny; and daughter, Ginger, are also Wake Forest graduates.
A rural minister
Roy Smith became pastor of the Union Hope Baptist Church, near Zebulon, in 1954 while studying at Southeastern. After graduating in 1957, he was called as pastor of the Jersey Baptist Church in Lexington. In 1962, he resigned the Jersey Church to join the state convention staff, where he would serve for the next 35 years.During his last year at Jersey, he was named "Rural Minister of the Year" by the Progressive Farmer magazine.
Roy Smith was first employed by the state convention as area missionary in Sylva. A major thrust of his new ministry was assisting small membership churches in western North Carolina. When asked recently how he would like to be best remembered at the state convention he listed "assisting small membership churches" as a major priority.
The move to Raleigh
Five years later, Roy, his wife Doris, and their three children moved from Sylva to Raleigh to work at the Baptist Building, continuing his ministry with small membership churches as secretary (director) of Town and Country Missions/Seminary Extension.During this time he developed an extensive resort missions program and expended Seminary Extension as a training program for ministers and lay people, especially for individuals in smaller communities and churches. Ten years later, in 1977, he became associate executive director of the Baptist State Convention, working with Cecil Ray, executive director-treasurer from 1977 to 1983. When Ray resigned his post in 1983, Smith was named interim executive director-treasurer, and a year later was elected executive director-treasurer.
A time of change
The 13-year Roy Smith administration has seen scores of changes and challenges in Baptist life, both within the state and in the larger Southern Baptist Convention. Virtually every national Baptist institution has changed leadership, and in some cases, re-focused the direction of its ministry. Most of the state institutions have also changed leadership during this time.
Smith with Billy Graham |
Strong foundation
Roy Smith is and has always been a missionary to North Carolina.His first love, helping local churches reach out into their communities, has been at the center of his ministry. His belief that north Carolina is a mission field and each Christian a potential missionary, has characterized his administration. His efforts to involve a wide variety of leadership in convention life has created a strong and diverse state denomination.
All of these emphases -- local church, state missions and diversity -- are hallmarks of the Smith administration, creating a strong foundation as N.C. Baptists move forward into the next century.
Roy Smith
Roy Smith has been a part of N.C. Baptist life literally all of his life. His entire 43-year ministry has taken place within the state's boundaries.
