JANUARY 21, 2010 ISSUE
High Country Says Goodbye To “Pastor Tim”
“Pastor Tim is leaving!” That was the subject line of the email sent to High Country Press, among other media contacts, countless residents of the High Country and second-homeowners and vacationers who live here part-time. For many, these four words were all they needed to hear—`nuff said!
Pastor Tim Smith, the senior pastor at Boone’s Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, is among the best-known and most-loved clergy in the region. It would be an understatement to say he will be missed.
“It is with sadness and mixed emotions that I have to announce to you that Pastor Tim Smith has submitted his resignation as senior pastor of our congregation, effective February 10, 2010,” explained George Sox, president of the Grace Lutheran Church Council, in a letter to parishioners. “He has accepted a call to the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Atlanta, Ga. The decision to go to Redeemer, where he is desperately needed, was inspired by God, and he goes with the prayers and blessings of the council.”
Smith didn’t have to travel far from home to begin his 17-years of service at Grace Lutheran. He was born in Lenoir, raised in Salisbury, attended the University of North Carolina on a Morehead Scholarship, where he majored in religion, and then attended the Lutheran Seminary in Gettysburg, Penn. He did an internship at the American Church, in Berlin, Germany prior to serving his first parish in Startown, a small community near Hickory. Ultimately, it was on to Boone.
“I am sad to leave Boone and the dear people of Grace. I think I will miss the beauty of the mountains and the small-town sense of knowing a good bit about the community,” Smith said. “It’s also difficult to leave a community where all of your children grew up and graduated from high school. So many of our connections were through their activities in the community. It’s hard to go to a place where nobody remembers you or knows your children.”
And how might the man from Boone take to the Atlanta experience, where the beltway teams with bumper-to-bumper near-insanity and high-rise towers stand in stark contrast to the High Country skyline?
“Yes, Atlanta will be a huge adjustment. God must have a sense of humor, because I’ve always said that if I ever lose my religion, it will definitely be in traffic,” he noted. “Well, we shall see! The church is downtown, and we hope to live not far from it.”
According to Smith, “Wendy,” his wife, “is in her sixteenth year of being a middle school science and math teacher at Blowing Rock School. She will be staying behind at least through the 2009-10 school year (and perhaps beyond, depending on retirement implications) and to get our house ready to sell,” he added.
His three children include Matthew, Isaac, and Ruth.
“Matthew is 23 and is a first-year student at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Columbia, S.C.; Isaac is 21 and a senior biology and Spanish major at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory; Ruth is 18 and is a freshman at UNC-Chapel Hill,” shared Smith.
During his tenure, Grace Lutheran Church has grown to more than 800 members, although this figure is somewhat misleading in that far more people attend without the benefit of membership, most especially in the seasonal months when all of the High Country in inundated with vacationers.
Under the pastorship of Smith, Grace Lutheran has thrived, with Boone and surrounding Watauga County the better for his having lived among us.
“Probably our biggest accomplishment in Boone is the rearing of our three wonderful children, but we of course didn’t do that alone. The whole community of Watauga County is the village that raised our children, and we can’t think of a better place to have done that,” he explained. “As far as the church is concerned, we were instrumental in getting WeCAN, a faith-based crisis assistance ministry, started, and we were able to avert being squeezed out of the downtown area by being able to purchase two adjacent pieces of property which have doubled our footprint. We have become a congregation with a very intentional ‘Affirmation of Welcome’ for everyone, and we have grown in our care for others both inside and outside of the congregation.”
The congregation of Grace Lutheran Church will formally say farewell to Pastor Tim and his family this Sunday, January 24, at the following events, with the pastor preaching at both worship services:
8:30 a.m.—Worship service with communion in the Sanctuary
9:30 to 10:00 a.m.—Reception in the Fellowship Hall
11:00 a.m.—Worship service with communion in the Sanctuary
1:00 to 2:00 p.m.—Reception in the Fellowship Hall
2:00 to 3:00 p.m.—Sending service in the Sanctuary
3:00 p.m.—Final reception in the Fellowship Hall
A prayer Pastor Tim shared with his congregation concerning his departure well sums-up his call: “O God you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
For more information on events surrounding Pastor Tim Smith’s final day at Grace Evangelical Church, call 828-264-2206.
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