Many years ago now I remember sitting in a parking spot talking with Doc on the phone. He described an accident where he thought he was going to die. As he described to me what happened, what he was thinking, and what he expected to happen, I found myself crying. He asked me why I was crying. I told him that it saddened me to hear him talk of his death. He explained to me that death was simply God’s transportation system to take one from this life to the next. On March 27th, Doc got on that bus and rode from this life to the next. This article is in memory of Dr. Bob Smith – the Dean of Biblical Counseling.
Days before Doc Smith died, I had the privilege to sit with him just over one hour and talk with him. By this point, he was not talking much. He said a few things over our time together and laughed often. Before I left when we were saying, “See you later,” and communicating our love to each other, I told him to enjoy his ride soon because I saw the bus pulling up. As he began to go back to rest that day and I slipped out of the room, I imagined what that ride was going to be like, how amazing it would be to meet His Savior, be reunited with his sweet wife Leona of over 60 years, greet his ministry partner Pastor Bill Goode, and see his friend Jay Adams. I selfishly gave him a message or two to share there as well.
The Dean of Biblical Counseling
In God’s providence, Doc and Leona could not fulfill their plans to become medical missionaries. God kept them stateside where he practiced medicine in Indiana. As a medical doctor, Doc was surprised the response to the news of impending death to many of his Christian patients was no different than the response to many of his non-Christian patients. This began to stimulate his curiosity as to why this was true. God used this curiosity to lead him to meet with Jay Adams where he was introduced formally to biblical counseling.
Although Doc desired to leave the medical profession in order to learn biblical counseling so that he could help people through this special ministry, Jay convinced him to stay in medical practice, learn biblical counseling, and marry the two together in his own ministry. Through this conversation and others, Pastor Goode and Doc began to learn biblical counseling from Jay and primarily John Bettler before John eventually left to become the executive director of CCEF.
Eventually Pastor Goode moved to Lafayette, Indiana and talked Doc into going with him in order to start a biblical counseling ministry at Faith Baptist Church where Goode began to pastor. In 1977, Doc Smith joined his pastor in establishing the Faith Biblical Counseling Ministry. Since that time, Doc Smith has taught biblical counseling to literally thousands and thousands of people around the world.
Along the way, Doc Smith traveled and taught biblical counseling primarily in local churches and through local biblical counseling conferences through Faith. However, God used him to dramatically shape seminary education as well. In 1991, Dr. John MacArthur invited Doc to start the biblical counseling program at Master’s University. He and Leona took a couple of years to establish that program before turning everything over to Dr. Wayne Mack. When I was in the process of establishing the biblical counseling program at Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary in Springfield, Doc graciously accepted my offer to teach for us annually as well. He also taught for years at Faith’s own seminary too.
Doc Smith is the author of The Christian Counselor’s Medical Desk Reference; Authority Issues; Fibromyalgia; Biblical Principles of Sex; Deacon Training Workbook and Leader’s Guide; Life After Divorce Workbook and Leader Guide as well as other works.
As a member of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (formerly NANC), Doc served as a member of the Board of Trustees and a Fellow. He trained Randy Patton who served for years as the executive director of NANC. Over the years, he trained many Fellows in the organization. He was made a Member of the Academy of ACBC for his significant contributions to biblical counseling.
When God providentially kept Doc and Leona from becoming medical missionaries to one country, one location, and one ministry, they had no idea God’s plan was much larger. Instead of serving God’s people in one location through primarily medical mercy ministry, God used Doc Smith and Leona to serve the family of God globally.
Life Lessons from Doctor Bob
Two Bible passages speak to Dr. Bob Smith’s influence in my life and the lives of so many others. Solomon describes the high value of one’s reputation and one’s death as better than the day of one’s birth (Eccl 7:1-5). Doc Smith died a rich man. His reputation speaks to his years of faithfulness as a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Further, the Apostle Paul describes for Timothy the four generation model of leadership (2 Tim 2:1-7). Paul explains to Timothy that faithful men (generation two), who were taught by faithful men (generation one), teach other faithful men (generation three), who will teach other faithful men (generation four). Doc Smith played an important role in this process for biblical counseling.
The following are some of those lessons that Doc Smith taught in his living and in his lectures. Some of these lessons he reiterated many times as a guest-lecturer over the past decade in my Spiritual Formation and Self-Counsel class I teach at Faith Seminary in Lafayette.
Lifelong Learner
More than from any other man, Doc taught me the necessity of being a lifelong learner. He continued learning long after retirement. However, let me nuance this a bit. He learned intellectually, but also expected God to allow him to learn from those who disagreed with him. Usually when someone writes a book, the author is not open to engage critics with a sweet spirit. However, Doc Smith was not like that. He would tell me about those that contacted him with specific questions or disagreement. Doc looked forward to those moments because he saw those interactions as God helping him learn even from the critique of others.
He told me (and my classes) many times, “Criticism is my best source of learning.” He continued, “I’ve learned to see this as an opportunity for a sovereign God to help me rethink my position. Possibly God wants me to reexamine something, become more committed to what I initially thought, or change my position. God used my critics to help me.” He explained that often his critics were surprised at his willingness to engage them.
He explained that he did not want to become rigid in his positions; but instead, he wanted to keep learning. We would often discuss current issues within biblical counseling. I highly value these conversations as he would push me, ask hard questions, and force me to defend my position or the position of someone else that I was representing. In the process, we both learned.
Once in a tense conversation about an issue on which we had a small disagreement, I asked him a question. He glanced over at me with a half-grin and said, “Kevin Carson I see where you are going. You got me.”
One of the highest honors for my blog writing over the years is when he told me that he read them every day. He kept a file on his computer where he would keep the emails to go back and read them. As his sight became bad, he hired someone to come and read to him. He would have the person read him my blog posts. When I would visit with him, he would bring up what he had heard to discuss it with me. For these moments, I am so humbled and grateful.
Doc’s first selfie! We took this one day while discussing various issues through which I was trying to think.
Loving Husband
Doc called one day to explain to me that he was transitioning in his ministry. In the difficulty of some of Leona’s medical complications, she developed short-term memory issues. As he recognized her condition, he transitioned his ministry from a public ministry to thousands to a private ministry to one. He chose to cancel all outside ministry except for a few things he could do while simultaneously taking care of her. Over the years I heard him discuss this many times. He explained how God moved him from a good ministry to a better ministry.
When I would ask him if he missed his travel and public ministry, he would often tell me that a sovereign God knew and gave him what was best. He would usually pat Leona’s hand or touch her arm and look at her with a glimmer in his eyes when he said it.
I observed this over the years. When I would visit with them in their home and later in two other places they lived as they aged, he would sit next to Leona, usually with a small table and tall lamp between their chairs. As my visits would usually last a lengthy time, he would notice that she would begin to get uneasy. Without much disruption in the conversation, he would reach over and place his hand on her arm. Occasionally, he would ask her is he could get her anything. She would decline and thank him for the offer. The conversation would continue. As she sat there comfortable again, usually after a couple of minutes, she would look at him and say, “I love you.” He would respond back to her. I sat and sought to learn.
Doc Smith’s advice to men is simple. He would say, “Live as a young man in a way that your wife will trust you as an older man.” He told a few stories related to how this had worked in their lives. Again, I’m trying to learn.
Loyal Member
Doc Smith never pastored a church. In fact, over the past fifty years, he only had two pastors. Pastors Bill Goode and Steve Viars have pastored Doc since the 1970s. His father also served as his pastor. Under their spiritual care, Doc Smith demonstrated incredible care and loyalty to them. This is an area where we all can learn.
He did not necessarily agree with them all the time. At times, his disagreement was great. From his time as a member, he wrote his material on responding godly to imperfect leadership.
However, I have never been under a man who understood how to love, serve, and care for a pastor any greater than Doc (except Bill Piatt who unfortunately has the same problem with his pastor!). He would occasionally tell me stories of where he disagreed. As the counseling ministry transitioned to new leadership after Doc, he occasionally didn’t appreciate all the changes. Yet, he did not gossip, did not criticize, but instead chose to support those under whose leadership he followed.
Longsuffering Listener
The Doc Smith I knew was 70 years old when I met him. The seventy-year-old Doc was different than the much younger Doc Smith. If you were to ask me to describe him, I would describe him as a gracious, humble, loving friend. It was not uncommon for him to tell me that he loved me. As I talk to others though, he was not always the man that I knew.
He practiced self-counsel over the years. As he aged, God continued to use his personal study, prayer, and conversations to develop his own character. God helped him learn to listen to others.
In class, he would tell my students about the “Young Bob Smith” versus the “Senior Bob Smith.” The difference between these two men primarily related to learning the humility of Philippians 2. As he aged, he learned to place the concerns of the other person as greater than his own. He learned to listen to what the other person had to say. Doc became more interested in hearing the other person more than winning the argument. Doc accepted the other person’s opinion as part of the process God continued to use to sanctify him. He knew that through the conversation both of them could grow.
Leader Developer
Early in his local church ministry, Doc Smith became the leader of the board of deacons. This position availed him the opportunity to train men to serve the local church well. He developed a great passion for developing leaders. His material on deacon development remains helpful although a bit dated.
He practiced training men until most recently when his own eye issues and the pandemic stopped him from building into others. As a ABF leader, he trained multiple men. As a medical doctor biblical counselor, he trained multiple medical doctors. I’m sure that was part of his motivation in spending so much time for me – he had a big job to do there. Dr. Jim Halla was a fellow medical doctor and friend in the early years. Dr. Charlie Hodges provided Doc hours and hours of fellowship most recently. Dr. Hodges continues Doc’s work even as he works on a major edit of the Christian Counselor’s Medical Desk Reference.
One of the key leadership development lessons he sought to teach was the importance of Bible memory and consistent prayer. Doc memorized hundreds of verses throughout his life. As his sight deteriorated, his children provided the means for him to listen to his memory verses in order to keep them fresh in his mind. Doc did not want to lose his focus on sanctification in old age. He understood the importance of renewing his mind.
In addition to his dedicated memory work and Bible listening, he had an extensive prayer list. For the past nearly two decades, I am grateful that he had me, my family, our church, our seminary, my brother’s family, many Sonrise members, and even some of my past counselees on his prayer list. He would ask about them by name. He understood that spiritual leadership included a vibrant prayer life, the kind that he demonstrated in living.
Laughing Friend
One thing he would often do with me is laugh. For years he and Leona would spend Memorial Day weekend with us in Ozark/Springfield. They enjoyed games with the children, cooking out, making homemade ice cream, and a bunch of laughter. We went out to eat with the Piatts and others; we laughed with them. In fact, no matter where or what, we laughed a lot.
The week of his death, we enjoyed laughing together. I reminded him of the time that Bill Piatt, he and I all taught together in the Dallas area at a conference. That Friday night, I was feeling very sick, but also was the last speaker of the evening. Doc sat in on my session as I taught about forgiveness. I mentioned forgiving self but did not have time to discuss it completely. When the session was over, I had probably a group of ten ladies come up with questions and frustrations. I was so sick. He stood in for me and faced all the questions so I could go get sick in the restroom. We laughed about me making them all mad and he having to rescue the session and face the agitated group.
In a conversation in the recent past he told the hilarious story: “When I’m talking about me, I’m like Garfield when he was talking to Odie. Garfield said, ‘Odie, I’ve been talking about me this whole time, why don’t you talk about me for a while?'”
I tear up as I think about all the laughter I’ll miss with him until we get to talk again in heaven.
Longing Disciple
Doc Smith was ready to go to heaven. He longed in life to live a God-honoring life and in death to see His Savior (cf., 2 Cor 5:9). I do not know how many times I heard him say, “My goal is to please God.” Or, when I would ask him a question, he would reply, “What is a good God doing to allow you to go through that circumstance?” His point of course was for me to focus on God’s desire to grow me into Christlikeness and for my goal to be to please God in the midst of it. He would explain to me that it is easy to become issue-oriented rather than goal-oriented. “And, what is the goal, Kevin?” Yes Doc, yes. The goal is to become like Christ and please Him.
When we talked about heaven, Doc often pointed in one simple direction: the wrath-bearing, sacrificial, substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ. He reveled in the mercy of the Lord. He would tell me that “God won’t give up on me. No matter how much I sin – God’s grace is greater.” In one recent conversation, he said, “When I get to heaven and am asked why I should be let in, I’ll say, ‘Christ has paid my debt. His sacrifice covers all my sin.'”
Friends, that is exactly what happened on March 27th when Doc’s bus arrived to take him from this life to the next.
My Mentor and Counselor
As a young man very green, with so much to learn, and without much experience, Doc Smith graciously became a mentor to me, along with Bill Piatt, David Powlison, Randy Patton, and a few others. Over the years, our acquaintance became a close friendship. I’ll never forget the day I arrived in Lafayette and Leona came around the welcome desk to give me a hug. I went around the corner and called Kelly to tell her that I had finally arrived. “Leona Smith just hugged me.” She and Doc did a bunch more than that. He gave parenting advice, marriage advice, pastoring advice, counseling advice, and teaching advice – all with a laugh and heart full of love. Now to only apply it all!
As my good friend Dale Davidson always said, “I’ll miss my 1-800-DR-BOB” when facing touch situations. His kindness, gentle spirit, and willingness to teach me touched me deeply. The meals, sacrificial service, and example speaks volumes. His passion for so many things like his underground house still make me smile – I did look through all the picture books of the project.
During our final conversation before his death, I reminded him of his own lecture that I heard him give so many times. He demonstrated God’s faithfulness to him as he lived in victory through trials and victory in trials. I told him he was getting ready to experience God’s faithfulness to him as well in victory from trials.
I had the privilege to tell him “Thank you” the week of his death. For that, I am grateful. As a biblical counseling movement, we can be grateful for the Dean of Biblical Counseling.
You can read Dr. Bob’s advice to fathers here.
KevinCarson.com | Wisdom for Life in Christ Together
Amazing recap of Dr. Bob’s life. So touching and encouraging to me, especially in my personal and difficult health journey. First person accounts alway are more meaningful to me. Thanks for sharing.
I’m praying regularly for you as well my friend.
A great testimony, Kevin! Thanks for writing.