In Memoriam: Reverend Kenneth G. Smith
The late Reverend Kenneth G. Smith (August 29, 1927 - October 11, 2024) was a lifelong supporter of missions in the Reformed Presbyterian Church. He supported the work financially, supported workers on the field (especially myself), and was a field worker himself.
Of all the men who have mentored me, I am deeply grateful for Ken Smith’s commitment to pray regularly for me over the last 25 years in my pursuit of advancing missions. I only recently learned more details about his mission work during his short missionary service in Cyprus in the early 1970s.
In the spring of 1972, the Foreign Missions Board of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America adopted a “Projection for the Cyprus Church.” The RPCNA Cyprus Commission, chaired by Reverend Smith, submitted a working plan toward the goal of establishing an RP Church in Cyprus, that this church would be “Greek-speaking, self-governing, self-supporting, self-propagating, and in communion with RP Churches everywhere.”
This is similar to our goal at RP Global Missions: “To disciple the nations by establishing national Reformed Presbyterian churches that rely on Christ to train, govern, support and propagate themselves.”
It warmed my heart to read the Cyprus Commission’s plan for leadership development. I heard these principles from Ken and have imbued them in my own ministry of training men.
“The Scripture will be the basic standard for recruiting, training, and assigning all leadership. While every Christian will be trained for his service in the church, men with the character, gifts, and call for eldership, deaconship, and/or pastoring will be given particular training. The training will be carried out in the context of the life and work of the church under men who can both teach and demonstrate what the men need to learn. The trainees will be given opportunities to ministry as they are learning.”
I was also pleased to read in the Cyprus Commission working plan a kind of exit strategy for this “dream team” of workers (Edgars, Donnellys, Pipers, and others) that Ken was leading. Here is the timeline they aspired to and wrote down in faith:
Fall ’72 Establishment of Fellowship Groups
Spring ’73 Service of full-time Pastor
Spring ’73 Organization of congregation
Summer ’78 Phased withdrawal of all appointed “outside” personnel
As Ken acknowledged in this Mission News Feature of a 1972 Covenanter Witness issue, “…it should be understood that in making any such projections, persons are always conscious of the sovereign hand of God working in history.” Indeed, the sovereign hand of God was at work in changing these plans. While Ken was at the First International Congress on World Evangelization (ICOWE), also called the Lausanne Congress) in July 1974, Turkey invaded Cyprus in response to a Greek military coup, which aimed to unite the island with mainland Greece.
The mission work in Cyprus would be phased out earlier than planned because of the war. Learning of these plans, however, has given me a greater appreciation and honor for my mentor, who faced a challenging assignment with biblical fidelity in his planning and fullness of faith in his zeal.
Sources:
Edgar, William J. History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America 1920 - 1980. (Pittsburgh, PA: Crown & Covenant Publications, 2022).
Smith, Kenneth G. “Projection for the Cyprus Church: As God Leads…” Covenanter Witness, vol. XC, no. 7 (March 27, 1974): 16-17.