The Rev. Charles R. Smith was 12 years old when he felt the call to become a preacher. Sixty-five years later, the spirit remains strong in him.
On a snowy winter day in 1947, he went to a revival on Richmond's Church Hill to play guitar and sing a few songs. It turned out to be much more than that.
"I got saved and gave my heart to the Lord," Smith recalled. "I'm not going to tell you I heard a voice speak from the sky … but God laid it on my heart: 'This is your calling, to preach the Gospel.'"
A month later, Smith began preaching and never stopped. Even today, microphone in hand at The Full Gospel Tabernacle in Chesterfield County, the 77-year-old Smith preaches as fervently as he did when he was not yet a teenager.
On Sunday, he built a crescendo as he preached — not behind the pulpit, but in front of it — a message about Jesus Christ being the one to calm life's troubles, whatever they may be and whenever they may arise.
"When it seems like everybody has forsaken you, and you don't know where you're going to go, you can hear the voice of Jesus … through the echo of the ages — 'Peace, be still,'" Smith preached, eliciting amens from the congregation. "He speaks it in our lives today."
It was a special Sunday for Smith, who celebrated his 65th anniversary as a preacher. He stood at the front of the church for much of the 100-minute, music-filled service, strumming his Fender Stratocaster and singing with the congregation.
His energy never waned, and rarely did he sit down. He sang a duet with his wife of 44 years, Judy, and also sang solo.
Church member J.D. Burge said it's important to celebrate "all the years (Smith) has given to the Lord." Burge travels 24 miles from Hanover County to attend The Full Gospel Tabernacle each week because, he said, "the spirit of God fills the church."
Much of that can be attributed to Smith, who is the son of a Blackfoot Indian father and an Irish mother. He grew up on Oregon Hill and as a 15-year-old led worship services in Monroe Park and headlined a two-week revival at Calvary Pentecostal Tabernacle on Hull Street that lasted a full year.
"You have to either learn how to preach under those circumstances or forget it," he said.
Smith's career in ministry led him to preach in 16 foreign countries, most extensively in the Philippines. Twenty years after he joined the ministry, his father, the Rev. Mark S. Smith, became a preacher, too.
They joined together to preach revivals at schoolhouses across West Virginia, where the elder Smith once was a moonshine bootlegger and left as a vagrant only to return as a minister.
The elder Smith later founded The Full Gospel Tabernacle. Fourteen years ago, as he was dying of lung cancer, he asked his son to succeed him there.
"He asked me if I would take over his congregation, because he didn't want just anybody to do it," Smith said. "Being a young man like I was (63 years old), I was happy to do it."
Retirement is not even an option for Smith. He said his second 65 years of preaching begins with the service next Sunday.
"I don't know if I'll be able to see all that or not, but as long as I'm able to preach, pick a guitar and sing, I'm going to preach the gospel message of Jesus Christ," he said.
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