On May 23, 1973, Gene Smith was having some fun playing piano duets with his cousin who was a musician for a traveling evangelist. Gene, a young married man with two children, was a gifted church organist, but in a church that did not make the gospel of Jesus Christ clear to its attenders. Gene was also a drunkard and an alcoholic. All of the sudden, during their playing session, his cousin turned to Gene, looked him in the eyes, and said, “Gene, you are going to hell!”
Gene replied, “I know, but I don’t know what to do about it.” Right there his cousin explained the gospel of Jesus Christ to Gene. Gene trusted in Jesus Christ as his Savior and his life changed in a vibrant way from being wayward to walking with his Savior.
His wife, Sara, had come to know the Lord shortly before Gene did at a neighborhood ladies’ Bible study. Sara realized the women had something in their lives that she did not. They shared the gospel with Sara and she became saved. The Bible study group started praying for Gene and was overjoyed to see him come to Jesus.
Soon after, Gene felt a call to pastoral ministry and went to Bible College and seminary. His ministry took him to several states over a period of years: pastoring churches and conducting week-long tent revival meetings through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maine. In 1991, God brought Gene back to Pennsylvania to pastor Catasauqua BFC. The church was struggling and Gene knew it needed to move out of a landlocked part of Catasauqua where there was very little parking and the church buildings needed constant repair. A year later, the church moved to Whitehall, PA where it remains today. Pastor Gene retired from full-time ministry in 2007 and while Whitehall BFC searched for a new senior pastor, Gene and Sara attended Calvary BFC in Walnutport to lend a helping hand to that congregation.
In 2010, after Timothy J. Schmoyer was established as the new senior pastor at Whitehall BFC, Gene and Sara requested to return to Whitehall, which the elders eagerly said yes to. In 2014, Gene became the pastor of visitation until he and Sara moved to Perkasie, PA in 2022 to be with their daughter. After moving to Perkasie, Gene and Sara attended Bethany BFC in Hatfield. Gene passed away on May 14, 2025 but leaves a legacy in the Bible Fellowship Church of understanding how evangelism and church planting go hand in hand and being bold enough to take initiative and leaps of faith in church planting and evangelism.
Bold Evangelism
Evangelical churches today largely talk about friendship evangelism which is slowly building a relationship with an unbeliever over time to the point where a person is comfortable with sharing the gospel with the unbelieving friend. While this is an effective method, sometimes one forgets that a direct method of sharing the gospel can also be effective. One time Gene and his church were One time Gene and his church were holding a weeklong tent meeting. Night after night he’d powerfully proclaim the Good News and invite people to trust Christ. Word got to him midweek that some men down at the local bar had threatened to kill him if he didn’t close down the meetings. After talking it through with Sara, his wife, Gene took two elders with him down to the bar to confront the posse. He told them he wasn’t going to stop preaching and that they should come and hear what he had to say. The next night, he held the services and many of those men showed up, giving their lives to Jesus at the altar, some even later became deacons in his church.
Gene had an urgency about sharing the gospel which sometimes resulted in in-your-face gospel presentations and invitations. He never forget what it was like to be lost and away from God and he knew the urgency of people coming to Jesus the Savior.
Church Planting and Evangelism
Gene not only felt an urgency to share the gospel but also an urgency to plant new churches. Director David Gundrum said, “Gene would often call me with places he thought needed a church. He was one of the visionaries for the church in Topton.” Topton PA was close to Gene’s heart. This is where Gene was born and raised in a Pennsylvania Dutch family. He spoke Pennsylvania Dutch at home and didn’t speak English until he went to kindergarten at the public school. He maintained a Pennsylvania Dutch accent his whole life. At the time of Gene’s suggestion, Gene was regularly visiting Topton to see his elderly mother at the Topton Home. Once David investigated the area and saw it was a good candidate for church planting, he gathered Gene and some others, including Pastor Randy Grossman who also grew up in Topton, PA, to gather monthly in the area for a praying and planning meeting. From those beginnings came Redeemer BFC in Topton which graduated in 2024 as a particular church. The first launched service was in September of 2021. It grew quickly and many came to faith in Christ. Others have come and grown significantly in Christ. At the time of this writing, the church just baptized eight more people last Sunday! They have also just called Shawn Rohrbach to lead their first daughter church.
Stepping Out in Faith
Throughout his Christian life, Gene had a heart and energy for Kingdom expansion and church planting. When the idea of sharing the gospel or suggesting a church planting area entered his mind, Gene followed through with boldness. Gene knew that it was his job to share the gospel; the Holy Spirit was the one who actually did the saving work! Gene knew that church planting and evangelism go hand in hand.
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