First Baptist welcomes Pastor Al Smith

Pastor Al Smith and his wife, Connie, have traded the Rocky Mountains for the Colorado plains for a ministry opportunity at First Baptist Church in Holyoke.

Their hope is to impact the Holyoke community the best they can, said Al after his first official Sunday as pastor at First Baptist on Dec. 5.

His vision for the church is to continually focus on loving God, loving others, being God’s witnesses and making disciples. To put it simply, “I want to love people where they’re at and who they are,” said Al.

He was born in Chicago, Illinois, and was raised in its suburbs. Growing up in a Baptist church, Al fulfilled nearly every role in that church, from deacon to worship leader to choir director to adult Sunday school superintendent.

Al graduated high school in 1977 and was married in 1980 to Connie, a Chicago native, who he met at a church youth camp.

The couple had two sons. Clint was killed in an accident in 1995 at age 12, and Jake is now 34 years old and a sheriff’s deputy in El Paso County.

Among the variety of jobs Al pursued in Illinois, he greatly enjoyed his role as a bookstore manager and then a bookstore owner. When that opportunity was no longer available, he managed an OfficeMax, yet he knew that he needed to do something else.

Al started to look into colleges to boost his resume. One day after work, his wife said, “Don’t you think you should enroll at Moody Bible Institute?” Right after that conversation, he checked an email from a mentor that said, “You should be in full-time ministry.” Then a call came in from his wife’s sister, and she commented, “You’re supposed to be a pastor.”

All of those conversations happened within 10 minutes, and Al immediately started praying for clarity on his next steps. He enrolled at Moody and began working toward a Bible degree.

With no plans to move to Colorado, Al’s brother-in-law unexpectedly invited him to help at his church in Highlands Ranch. That same week, Connie’s boss offered her a job that would relocate her to Colorado. The couple took that as a call from God to move to Colorado.

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