When I reflect back on the influential preachers in my life, I remember those who “preached” with their kind and compassionate lives. Dr. Robert Smith, Professor of Preaching at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, AL, is such a preacher and teacher. Dr. Smith skillfully led me through the basics of preaching as a faltering, older female divinity student with his kind and encouraging words. In the pulpit, he demonstrated before us all the prophetic role of a preacher with his deep, resonate voice and his ability to connect the gospel story with our own. Dr. Smith lives the words of St. Francis of Assisi, “Preach the Word always. Sometimes use words.”