DUBACH – Pastor Connie Smith may be confined to a wheelchair, but his congregation has never considered his disability a hindrance to their leader’s ministry.
By Brian Blackwell
Staff Writer
DUBACH – Pastor Connie Smith may be confined to a
wheelchair, but his congregation has never considered his disability a
hindrance to their leader’s ministry.
“Since Brother Connie has been here, we don’t even
notice that he has a limitation,” Deacon William Green said of their
pastor, who was called to Fellowship Baptist Church in Dubach last
month. “His good qualities outweigh that.”
Before Smith became pastor at Fellowship
Baptist, Connie Ward said the congregation was struggling with
transition. Since then, Fellowship Baptist and Smith have been the
perfect fit for one another.
“The people’s attitude toward Connie (Smith) is what
Fellowship Baptist is all about,” Ward, pastor of Zion Hill Baptist
Church in Farmerville, explained. “To see God bring these two together
has been a joy to my heart.”
Smith’s journey to Fellowship Baptist is an amazing
story indeed. If not for an accident on July 11, 1971, Smith may never
have entered into the ministry.
A former draft pick of the San Francisco Giants,
Smith was spending that afternoon in 1971 with some friends at an East
Texas lake before he was scheduled to report to camp in a
week-and-a-half to play for the baseball team’s A farm club.
But in the blink of an eye, the Spearsville native’s life changed.
Smith attempted to skim just beneath the top of the
water. However, in what Smith calls a “freakish accident,” his forehead
hit the bottom of the lake, three feet deep, leaving him paralyzed.
Smith’s next one-and-a-half years were spent in Denver and New Orleans hospitals and rehabilitation centers.
Soonafter he completed his rehabilitation in 1973,
Smith married his high school sweetheart, Linda, and entered the
workforce.
“I couldn’t have made it without Linda,” Smith said.
“She has been such a help to me as a spouse and pastor.”
After working as a dispatcher at the Union Parish
Sherriff’s Office, he moved to the Lincoln Parish Detention Center to
become the control room operator. By the time he retired from the
detention center, Smith had worked himself to the position of assistant
warden.
Since he was retired, Smith devoted more time to
service at Zion Hill Baptist. It was there that Smith discovered his
need for Christ and, in 1995, he made a profession of faith.
For the next eight years, Smith was an active member
of the church, serving as a deacon. Eventually, his heart for Christian
service led to a call to full-time ministry in 2004.
“I had been feeling God dealing with me for some
time,” Smith said. “For years I had run from salvation. But I told
Connie Ward that I wasn’t going to run from this call to preach.”
One year later, Zion Hill Baptist called Smith as its associate pastor.
To support his call to preach, Zion Hill Baptist
allowed Smith to preach monthly one Sunday there and two Sundays at
other area churches. One church he preached at, Fellowship Baptist,
extended a call to serve as its interim pastor in August 2005.
For three months, Smith struggled with the decision.
“Each day my family, which now included a God-given
15-year-old daughter, Heather Elizabeth Meredith, and I passed by Zion
Hill as I was on my way to preach at Fellowship,” Smith said. “It hit
me that the Lord was leading me away from Zion Hill to be the pastor of
Fellowship. We felt like if it was God’s will, I wanted to be at the
center of His will.”
In December 2005, Smith accepted the call as interim
pastor. Six months later, the church called Smith as its pastor by
unanimous secret ballot votes.
“I had struggled with the possibility of ‘no’
votes,” Smith recalled. “For my assurance that this was God’s leading,
I wanted there to be unity among the members.
“When I found that 100 percent of the congregation
voted to call me as pastor, it reassured me that this was the place for
me to serve.”
For Smith, Fellowship Baptist has been like a second family.
“God couldn’t place me in a better situation and
church,” Smith said. “From the first time I was here, I felt at home
immediately.”