Bishop Tim and Wendy Smith with their six grandchildren at St. John’s Lutheran Church earlier this year.

By Susan Shinn Turner

For the Salisbury Post

Lutherans in the North Carolina Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are choosing a new bishop this weekend at their annual assembly.

As Bishop Tim Smith contemplated his last 10 years of service, he used the word “relationships” many times in the conversation.

“The church is a vocational calling, but our relational callings are most important,” he said. “The folks we worked with on staff have been a joy.”

“When things get hard, this is our team. We’ve got a good team. As bishop, I often parachuted in when there was a really big problem. But we had relational capital invested.”

Smith noted that last year saw almost double the number of ordinations for pastors and deacons. Over 10 years, he estimates thaat he’s performed about 65 such rites.

Yet congregations continue to shrink. In the last two years, three Rowan County churches — Gloria Dei, Prince of Peace and Messiah — have had to close their doors.

However, bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better. Synod staff members have led workshops for “small and scrappy” congregations.

Smith said another challenge facing smaller congregations is that they don’t have the budget to call a full-time pastor. They could share a pastor.

And, the synod has begun an Advanced Lay Ministry program, which includes lay ministers and Synod Authorized Ministers (SAMs).

Smith added, “We can certainly use people who are bi-vocational.”

According to Smith, half-time pastors also have the professions of chaplains, nurses, bus drivers and substitute teachers among other titles.

“It is a real bonus if people can be sustained vocationally.”

Smith admitted, “We need to be more nimble and we need new models for church revitalization. It’s a different world and a different way of communicating.”

For Smith and his wife, Wendy, the timing was right a decade ago to return to Salisbury. Smith had moved to Salisbury in 1968, where his father became superintendent of Salisbury City Schools.

When the younger Smiths came to Salisbury, Dot and Marcus Smith were living at Trinity Oaks and neither was in good heath. Fortuitously, the synod office is adjacent to Trinity Oaks.

“I could eat meals regularly with them and pick up their prescriptions,” Smith said. “My two sisters were also very attentive to them. It was very good for me.”

Marcus Smith died in June 2017 and his beloved wife of 62 years died in January 2018.

But the bishop and his wife have also experienced much joy with the arrival of six grandchildren since 2016. They do a lot of babysitting because of their children’s chosen professions:

• Matt and Keri Smith live in Asheville with their children, Marcus and Hannah, where he is a pastor and she is an emergency department physician;

• Isaac and Lauren Smith live in Durham with their children, Nathaniel and Elliott, where he is a rheumatologist and she is a pediatric nurse manager;

• Ruth Smith and Tommy Ransdell live in Asheville with their twin sons, Theo and Tal, where Tommy and a CPA and Ruth helps with the business. They are moving to Portugal in June.

The Smiths want to spend more time with the grandchildren. Smith has battled prostate cancer since being in his role, led the church through the COVID pandemic, and coped with several instances of clergy misconduct. Smith has discerned that his time as bishop has come to a close two years early. Bishops typically serve six-year terms.

“I was the right person in my time, but I am not the right person moving forward,” he said.

Looking back, Smith said, “There were two distinct seasons of my ministry. From 2015 to 2020, we were clicking along. Then COVID changed so much for congregations. For a couple of years, it threw us off.”

Still, he said, “Our core values didn’t change. We gave away $1 million in equipment to congregations to help them broadcast their services,” continuing, “From 2021 to 2023, we had 37 rostered ministers resign. We usually have one or two per year. It was highly unusual.”

Those three years, he said, “were difficult and stressful.”

After his cancer diagnosis, Smith said, “I had a deep confidence that I would be fine. But lying on the table taking radiation, I thought, hey, I might want to do something different.”

Now 65, Smith said he feels “really good.”

The Morehead Scholar who played junior varsity basketball for Coach Dean Smith at UNC has given up that sport because of his knees. But he and his wife walk daily and he lifts weights at the Y. He also belongs to Planet Fitness because of its flexible hours when he comes back into town late at night.

He and his wife have several trips they’d like to take — including to Portugal — and he wouldn’t mind supply preaching or being an interim pastor at a small-to medium-sized congregation.

He’d also like to sing in a choir.

“It’s peaceful to sing with other people,” he said.

He’d like to do some writing, just for himself, and perhaps teach at Hood Theological Seminary, Catawba College or Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary (now housed at Lenoir-Rhyne University).

He does plan to “lie low for several months.”

“I don’t want to be in the new bishop’s way,” he said.

The new bishop will be elected by ecclesiastical ballot. That means that delegates receive a blank sheet of paper for the first ballot. All ELCA rostered ministers are eligible. There is space on the schedule for five ballots as the names are narrowed down. Smith, who was serving Redeemer Atlanta, was the second vote-getter in 2015 on the first ballot.

“That really shocked me,” Smith said.

He was re-elected on the first ballot in 2021.

Smith said that name recognition does play a factor in elections.

“Names of the assistants to the bishop usually come forward,” he said.

The Rev. Phil Tonnesen has been on the bishop’s staff for 28 years, serving with Bishop Emeritus Leonard Bolick for 18 years and with Smith for the past 10 years.

“The office of the bishop is not one person,” Tonnesen said. “Leonard and Tim are not micromanagers. We are very much a team.”

Tonnesen and Smith served on synod committees together before the latter became bishop.

“I’ve never been around a person who’s as dedicated as he is,” Tonnesen said.

The bishop’s wife speaks out

And now, a word from the bishop’s wife.

Wendy Smith had the opportunity to “roast” Tim, her husband of 41 years, at his retirement dinner.

The retired educator ticked off a list of “perks” of being bishop before asking, “Are you sure you want to retire?”

Then she listed items she would and would not miss before saying, “I am so ready for you to retire!”

“We can visit children and grandchildren intentionally, not because they live on the way to some event or in the town of your next meeting. That means more pickleball with Theo and Marcus, more swimming with Hannah and Tal, more playgrounds with Nathaniel and more long walks with Elliott. We can spend more time with your sisters, more time with my brothers. Heck, we might even take a trip or two to Portugal. I’ve heard it’s nice there.”

She added, “I think the very best part of retirement for me will be the opportunity to see you relax. I am not sure you can, but you can sure try. Tim, I have watched you work tirelessly, faithfully and with integrity for this synod, for the sake of the Gospel, for the sake of the world. I am proud of you, and I am so happy for us, so happy for you, to retire. It has been a privilege to serve with you in this ministry. I am grateful to the North Carolina Synod for this honor.”

Freelance writer Susan Shinn Turner lives in Raleigh.