At 100, he’s still preaching and teaching

He celebrated his 100th birthday July 1, but Duncan Smith, a long-time pastor in West Kentucky is still sharing God’s Word with others.

Just last week, Smith was guest speaker for Homecoming services at West Providence Baptist Church in Centertown, where he had served as pastor. Using James 4:13-16 and Jeremiah 1:4-7 as texts, Smith’s message was titled, “What is your life?”

“A person lives six lives,” he explained. “What the world knows of you, what your friends know of you, what the family knows of you, what your church knows of you, and what you know about you; but the greatest is what God knows about you.

“Are you satisfied with your life?” he asked, challenging those in attendance to be more like Christ.

Smith continues to be involved in ministry by teaching a Sunday school class for men at Masonville Baptist Church, where he now is a member. Previously, he had taught a class at Hartford Baptist Church before moving to Masonville a little more than two years ago to live with his daughter, Beth, and her family. His son-in-law, Kimbrough Simmons, is pastor of Masonville Baptist.

Born July 1, 1910, in Nuckols, Ky., Smith—who began preaching at age 18—has been a Baptist minister for more than 78 years. Many of his pastorates were in Ohio County. Licensed to preach by Woodwards Valley Baptist Church in Livermore on Sept. 2, 1932, he was ordained by Hartford Baptist Church in 1941. For the first five years of his ministry, he preached in the Johnson Schoolhouse and was paid a gallon of sorghum, he recalled.

Among the many congregations that he has served in Ohio County are McGrady Creek, West Providence, Walton’s Creek, Narrows, Bells Run, Woodwards Valley, Rockport and Second, Hartford. He has also served at Liberty in Grayson County, Bandana in Ballard County, New Harmony in Muhlenburg County, Nortonville in Hopkins County, and Salem in Christian County, and he did Eastern Kentucky Mountain Missions work in Floyd County.

Smith was asked to return a second time as pastor by three churches: Salem Baptist in Pembroke, Pleasant Grove Baptist in Owensboro, and Bandana Baptist. He even served three times at West Providence Baptist Church in Centertown.

On the state convention level, Smith played an important role on a committee that secured the land for what later would become Jonathan Creek Baptist Assembly, while he was pastor at Bandana. He then served as the first pastor for a Girls in Action camp.

At 78—when many would be tempted to take it easy in their retirement years—Smith went on a week-long mission trip to Kenya, where he walked five miles each day to preach and then walked back to a missionary’s home.

Even though he had both knees replaced when he was in his mid-90s, Smith still enjoys raising a vegetable garden. He is usually in his garden by 6:30 a.m., and he generously shares a bountiful harvest with friends.

Smith’s love for preaching and teaching others about the Lord is still evident and an inspiration to those around him. “He’s a first-class preacher, and the people just love him and talk about him all the time,” said Tom Shelton, director of missions for Ohio County Association for the past 27 years. “He’s in relatively good health, and if he was still going well, he’d be out there preaching somewhere.”

Western Recorder issue date: August 10, 2010