Rev. Bob Smith, FORT WAYNE SCHOOL OF URBAN MINISTRY

                                    I had the privilege and joy of                                     being brought up in a Christian

                                    home. I can remember my                                     parents taking our family to

                                    church every Sunday to                        worship God. Christ and His Word were talked about freely and regularly in our family. Therefore, at the age of seven it seemed natural for me to accept Christ as my Savior. Though I did understand all the facts about salvation, I did, with a child like faith, receive Jesus in my heart, and was “Born Again”.

 

Even though I accepted Christ as my Savior at the age of seven it made little impact as to how I lived my life as an early teen. You see, even though I had made Christ my Savior I had not made Him Lord. Therefore, in my last year at high school, through the ministry of High School Evangelism Fellowship, Inc. I consciously rededicated my life to Jesus Christ, making Him my Savior and LORD!

 

From that point on in my life began to change. Before that point I was considering an occupation in field of business and finance. This goal continued until December 31, 1970 when I

began to sense a special prompting from the Lord towards “full-time” Christian service. At first

I had some serious doubts and questions about exactly what God had in store for me. I did know

that whatever plans included the need for some formal Bible education. So in the fall of 1972 I enrolled in Nyack College as a Theology Major. It was during my four years at Nyack that I had the opportunities to preach, do evangelism and youth work. It was through these and other experiences that I became convinced of my call to the pastoral ministry. It was also during that time that I met my wife, Belinda, and we were married in June 1977.

 

At first I desired a Youth Pastor position somewhere in the NYC area. Then in August of

1978 a door opened for me at Astoria Baptist Church to be their full-time senior pastor. I served as pastor of Astoria Baptist Church until September 1978 when I began sensing the Spirit's prompting to change the direction of my ministry. During those years at Astoria I had enjoyed continued growth and expansion of my ministry (there is really no reason for me to leave). Yet, I began to feel the desire for a different, more challenging personal ministry.

Therefore, while serving on the Board of Conservative Baptist Home Missions Society (CBHMS, now called Mission to The Americas), and reading the reports of God's work with other missionaries, I began to see how I could fit into the work of CBHMS. The more I thought about CBHMS the more I could find no reason not to apply with CBHMS as a Senior Minister.

So in December 1987 I spoke with the Administrative Staff about the possibility of service with CBHMS. Those and subsequent discussions have convinced me to apply with

CBHMS. I was appointed with CBHMS as the Central Director of Ministries at the end of June

1988. While working with CBHMS I had the responsibility of overseeing the ministries of

CBHMS in Chicago and Cleveland. I also acted as a resource person for area churches in the

area of ethnic ministry, discipleship and leadership development.

 

After serving with CBHMS for almost six years the opportunity developed for me to

teach at the Moody Bible Institute in the Department of World Missions and Evangelism. So in the fall semester of 1995 I joined the faculty of Moody Bible Institute as an Assistant Professor. At Moody I teach Personal Evangelism, Introduction Sociology and most of the Urban Ministries classes; where I coordinated the Urban Ministries Major for the Missions Department. In January of 2000 I became the chair of the Department of World Missions and Evangelism.

 

In 2003 I left the Moody Bible Institute. In 2004 I took a position at the Outreach Community

Center in Carol Stream, IL where I served as the Youth Services Director and oversaw

the programming for at-risk children from middle school age and up. In 2008 I left the Outreach Community Center and took a teaching position at Taylor University Fort Wayne where I serve as an Associate Professor in the Pastoral Ministries department.

In that role was able to redesign the curriculum to reflect to needs of urban Fort Wayne.