By Staff, Baptist Press
NEW ORLEANS (BP) -- A Father's Day theme marked the opening session of the 2012 Southern Baptist Convention Pastors' Conference June 18, with speakers being introduced by either their fathers or their sons.
JOSH SMITH
Former SBC president and evangelist Bailey Smith introduced the first speaker of the conference, his son Josh. Bailey praised God for all three of his sons, each of whom are serving the Lord in Baptist institutions and churches, and gave most of the credit to his godly wife. He described his son Josh as a child as an energetic grasshopper on roller-skates, but he watched God "take his life early and really mold him into something wonderful."
"I realized the first time I heard Josh preach that I wasn't hearing my son, I was hearing a man of God," Bailey Smith said. Turning to his son, he said, "Josh, I love you and I'm proud of you, not because you're a good preacher but because you're a man who loves the Lord and preaches His book."The full content of this page is available to Baptist Message subscribers only.