Robert Smith Jr. served as a professor of Christian preaching at Beeson for more than 25 years and held the Charles T. Carter Baptist Chair of Divinity. Previously he served as the Carl E. Bates Associate Professor of Christian Preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Smith is the 2017 E. K. Bailey Expository Preaching Conference Living Legend. A popular teacher and preacher, he received Southern’s 1996 Findley B. Edge Award for Teaching Excellence. An ordained Baptist minister, he served as pastor of the New Mission Missionary Baptist Church in Cincinnati, OH for twenty years. He earned his PhD while serving as a pastor. He is a contributing editor for a study of Christian ministry in the African American church,
Preparing for Christian Ministry, and is co-editor of
A Mighty Long Journey. Additionally, he has served as an editor of
Our Sufficiency Is of God: Essays on Preaching in Honor of Gardner C. Taylor (Mercer University Press, Macon Georgia: 2010) and
Worship, Tradition, and Engagement: Essays in Honor of Timothy George (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2018). He has written the book,
Doctrine That Dances: Bringing Doctrinal Preaching and Teaching to Life (B&H Publishing Group, Nashville: 2008), which was selected as the winner of the 2008 Preaching Book of the Year Award by
Preaching magazine and the 2009 Preaching Book of the Year Award by
Christianity Today’s preaching.com. In 2010,
Preaching magazine named
Doctrine That Dances one of the 25 most influential books in preaching for the last 25 years. He also has written,
The Oasis of God: From Mourning to Morning—Biblical Insights from Psalms 42 and 43, and has a forthcoming book called,
Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary: Exalting Jesus in Joshua (B&H Publishing Group, Nashville). Smith has spoken at more than 135 universities, colleges, and seminaries in the United States, Great Britain, the Middle East, Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the Caribbean. He has taught congregations in several countries including Greece, Turkey, Rome, the Holy Land, and Switzerland. Smith brought the closing message of the 22nd Baptist World Congress/Baptist World Alliance, which was scheduled to be held in 2020 in Rio de Janeiro and transformed into a fully virtual event held on July 7-10, 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. His research interests include the place of passion in preaching, the literary history of African American preaching, Christological preaching, and theologies of preaching. Smith has contributed essays and articles to various books, magazines, and commentaries. He received Beeson Divinity School’s “Teacher of the Year Award” in 2005. He and his wife, Wanda Taylor-Smith, PhD, are the parents of four adult children (two in heaven).
