The text first, then the room

Dr. Smith’s preparation begins with exegesis and stays there until the passage has done its own work. He reads a text in its own context and questions it in its original language before any homiletical shaping begins. Only then does he ask what it asks of us.

He also holds that faithful preaching is not the same as inaccessible preaching. The congregation is not a seminary classroom. The aim is to carry the weight of serious study into language a person can hold onto through the week.

Preaching emphasizes expository work across both testaments, with attention to narrative texts and to the pastoral questions congregations actually carry. Recent preparation has included extended exegetical treatment of the foot-washing narratives of John 12 and 13 with an accompanying congregational study guide; a comparative study of Daniel 10 and Jacob’s wrestling at the Jabbok in Genesis 32, on the difference between trusting and contending persistence in prayer; the parable sequence of Luke 15, developed for a fifteenth anniversary service; and a message weaving Exodus 33, Jeremiah 29, and John the Baptist’s question from prison around the assurance that God has not changed his mind about his people.

Teaching ministry spans adult Sunday School and small-group settings, including lesson development on the genealogy of Mary for Mother’s Day and a self-study guide preparing Sunday School faculty to use artificial intelligence tools responsibly in lesson preparation.