For 50 years, music ministers and worship pastors from all over the state have been gathering regularly as the Alabama Singing Men.
And for half of that time, Tom Smith has been the one conducting it all.
“He has been the pastor, mentor, facilitator bringing those men together in the same room and on the same page for 25 years,” said Steve Pace, ASM president and music pastor at Summerville Baptist Church in Phenix City. “That’s pretty much unheard of these days. I think it’s just exceptional.”
So as he retires from that role, ASM gathered Aug. 8 to celebrate the musical community that he has fostered over the past quarter century. They honored him in a variety of ways, starting with an appreciation concert at Providence Baptist Church in Opelika, where he serves as minister of music — and has for the past 50 years.
At the concert, they surprised him with a choral anthem commissioned in his honor. Heather Sorenson, an accomplished composer, had set the text of “Like a River Glorious,” one of Tom Smith’s favorite hymns, to an original tune called “River Glorious.” A number of speakers including Bryan Blass, Don Campbell, Charles Kowen, Tim Hall and Johnny Kilgore also gave testimonies about his impact and presented him with gifts, including a book containing letters of gratitude collected for him.
An ‘authentic’ model
Then later that day at First Baptist Church Opelika, ASM held a joint concert with Sons of Jubal, Georgia Baptists’ men’s chorus — the first time the two groups have ever sung together. The 200-member combined chorus and orchestra sang to a packed house of more than 800 people from Alabama and Georgia.
At the concert, Smith was presented with a certificate for his 50 years of music ministry from the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions by Karen Gosselin, SBOM coordinator of worship resources.
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This article was originally published at TheAlabamaBaptist.org.