Stanley Roland Smith Jr., 59, died at his home on May 3, with his wife, JoAnn, by his side. He suffered from brain cancer for two years before his death.
Smith was the only child of Stanley Roland Smith Sr. and Charlotte Hale Smith. His father was a musician who played the French horn under Toscanini and his mother is a well-regarded Christian writer.
The younger Smith graduated from Pinecrest Bible Training Center with a bachelor’s degree from Canada Christian College in Ontario. After graduating, he began his ministry at the Pinecrest Retreat Center. He was later a Bible teacher at Faith Haven in Woodstock, Ontario. He also served as a pastor in Adrian, Mich., and pioneered a church in Detroit where he served as a pastor for more than a decade.
Smith and his wife took mission trips overseas to places as various as India, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Latin America and England. When Smith was no longer able to travel he and his wife planted and pastored a church in Nipomo, Calif. called The Gathering. He also wrote books and tracts on practical Christianity and a memoir of his wife, telling of her conversion. In his later years, he taught many believers over the Internet through his website gospelsmith.com.
Smith was a man of the Spirit and yet he was very down-to-earth. He centered his life in Jesus Christ. He was a deep thinker and a capable and practical theologian. All who heard him preach and teach and prophesy were brought into fresh focus on the Lord Jesus. He was not perfect, he had his blind spots and he was deeply sensible of his faults, but the difference was that he freely admitted as much and had a disarming candor in confessing those things.
None of us will forget his infectious sense of the absurd and his kindly humor. He was a delightful conversationalist. He was a loyal friend. He coped gracefully with brain cancer for the last two years of his life. During those years the two paramount aims of his life came into clearer focus: He loved God and he loved people. He may have been the smartest man many of us have ever known, and yet—all of that was eclipsed by love, the love of Jesus.
Smith and his wife attended Agape Church, where Smith was often called upon to preach or minister prophetically. A memorial service will be held at Agape Christian Church on May 19, 2012 at 11 a.m.
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