In Memory of Dr. Steve Smith March 11, 1962–March 13, 2019
Written by Mission Frontiers Magazine
After decades of faithful service furthering the gospel across the world, Dr. Steve Smith, 57, died on March 13, 2019 after battling liver cancer which may have been caused by a parasite he contracted while on the mission field.
He and his wife Laura served with the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptists for 18 years and spent a great deal of that time in Asia. He began work with the IMB in East Asia, successfully fostering a Church Planting Movement. He also served as a supervisor and consultant for Church Planting Movements across the region.
A prolific writer, Steve developed a number of publications for training and use among organizations advancing the gospel through movements. Along with colleague Ying Kai and his wife Grace, he wrote T4T: A Discipleship Re-Revolution, a training guide in the biblical principles behind Church Planting Movements. T4T is short for “Training for Trainers” and is used around the world for purposes of leadership development, evangelism, discipleship and church planting. He also authored the No Place Left saga of two novels; Hastening and Rebirth. His most recently published book is Spirit Walk, The Extraordinary Power of Acts for Ordinary People, available on Amazon. Steve also wrote a regular column entitled Kingdom Kernels for Mission Frontiers magazine (http://www.missionfrontiers.org).
Upon his retirement from IMB, Steve served as the vice president of multiplication for East-West Ministries (http://www.eastwest.org), as a co-leader of the 24:14 Coalition (http://www.2414now.net) and with Beyond as a global movement catalyst (http://www.beyond.org).
Steve was born in California at Hamilton Air Force Base and grew up in Lafayette, Louisiana. He felt called to full-time Christian ministry shortly after high school and completed his undergraduate degree at Baylor University in Waco, Texas and his Master of Divinity at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He also received his master’s and doctorate of theology degrees at the University of South Africa.
While still in school, he served as a pastor at Vaughan Baptist Church in Vaughan, Texas, and taught Sunday school at the Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth while he was attending the university and seminary. After finishing seminary, he and his wife Laura planted and he pastored the North University Park Church in inner city Los Angeles for 10 years.
Smith is survived by his wife, Laura, and three grown sons: Cris, David, Josh and wife, Caroline, and twin grandsons.
