Tonight, a good-sized group gathered at First Baptist Church Richardson to celebrate our Learn Pastor Candy Smith and her upcoming retirement from leadership at our church.
When I accepted the call to come to First Baptist Richardson two and a half years ago, I knew virtually no one at the church. I was impressed with what I had heard of and from Pastor Ellis, and I had friends who knew certain people at this church and spoke very highly of them. But none received consistently higher praise than Candy Smith. Several of my seminary professors in particular, when they found out I was coming to Richardson, said, “Oh, you’ll get to work with Candy. She’s one of my favorite people in the world.” One of them, my mentor in Waco, said Candy was one of the most important influences on his life at a critical point in his life. So you can believe I was going to pay attention to this lady.
I’ve had the privilege of knowing and working alongside Candy for these past two and a half years now. It’s not a long time in this church in which I’ve found myself. People here stick around for long periods of time. Candy herself has been here for 24 years. There are plenty of people here who have known her for 24 years. There’s a good handful here who have known her far longer than that. Many people have known her better than me and have lived without remembering a time before Candy was there. But for me, these two and a half years have been profoundly marked by the presence of Candy Smith.
Candy has led our church with a beautiful combination of gentleness and strength. She’s performed just about every pastoral function there is to perform here: few people have had as wide an influence at FBCR as has Candy. Candy is the consummate pastor: she is fully present to our community here, having held its hand through very dark days and cried with joy in its moments of elation; she’s welcomed babies—including my own—with arms ready to hold and gently watched over others as they passed from this life to the next. She is such a great minister, giving tremendous care and attention to every person she’s with. She listens and remembers and helps and speaks. And she works hard: really, really hard.
Candy graduated from Howard Payne University over 40 years ago and began working for the Baptist General Convention of Texas as a youth specialist. She then served on staff at Shiloh Terrace Baptist Church in Dallas, Westbury Baptist Church in Houston, and then at First Baptist Richardson for these past 24 years.
Candy is a pioneer, a trailblazer. She is a woman, she is a Baptist, and she is a pastor. For her generation, it is rare to find someone who can wear all three of those distinctions. As Brian Harbour said tonight, “You meet Baptists occasionally who say, ‘A woman can’t be a minister.’ But all you have to do in response is introduce them to Candy Smith.” I’m proud to serve in a church that believes God can and does call and equip any follower of Jesus—male or female—to lead and shepherd God’s people. But it’s still unfortunately rare within the Baptist world—especially in the American South—to find women in pastoral positions in churches.
I’m the husband of a wife whom I believe is specially equipped by God with gifts traditionally assigned to men. I’m the father of two daughters whom I hope will see any—absolutely any—vocational option as that: an option for them. I’m so grateful to be a part of a community that nurtures those gifts in our girls and in our boys and that has women like Candy who lead with wisdom and kindness and grace and strength. Candy has trusted God’s call on her life and in the process has been a true example of a female pastor to so many.
But Candy is, of course, more than a symbol to my family. She is our friend, our mentor, our mother, our sister. She is Candy. And we love her. Thanks be to God for Candy Smith.
The Jesus Way 