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Rev. Ted Smith - Director of Spiritual Care and Education
The Methodist Hospital

Rev. Ted Smith (courtesy photo)

By Brant Mills, Web Content Manager

This article is part of a series offering a snapshot of extension ministries of the Texas Annual Conference. Please watch the conference website and Cross Connection for future articles.

There wasn’t a specific event that led Rev. Dr. Ted Smith toward pastoral care ministry, but he said a “cluster of things” guided him to “shift from parish-based ministry with an emphasis on preaching” to work “more focused on emphasis on hospital-patient ministry.”  

After earning degrees from Southwestern University in Georgetown and Perkins School of Theology, he was appointed as an associate pastor for two years at First UMC in Houston. He decided to move into Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), and began a 2-year residency in 1977 at MD Anderson followed by 2 years of supervisory training. There he learned to be an educator in CPE.

Smith went on to work at what was then Harris Hospital Methodist as a chaplain and headed up their CPE program. He moved back to Houston in 1986 and became the Director of CPE at St Luke’s Episcopal Hospital. Smith served here for 13 years before taking on his current position. He has now served as the Director of Spiritual Care and Education at The Methodist Hospital for 10 years.

He described the transition as a “shift from a generalist to educator” and noted that clinically based theological education is central to his work and the reason he has been involved in it for as long as he has.

“Now, much of my time is spent in administration, but I do have some patient contact,” Smith said. “What I try to do is help provide a vision for the department and facilitate the work of the staff toward that vision.” He has a team which consists of 10 staff chaplains, 6 chaplain residents, a lay ministry and bereavement manager, an administrative assistant and 45 trained lay ministers.

“In order to provide the best pastoral care they can to the patients and their families… we work closely with community clergy. Not only Christian denominations, but we work closely with community clergy from both Christian and non-Christian traditions. If patients want to see a Muslim Imam or Buddhist priest we know who to call,” Smith said. They work frequently with Catholic chaplains who are assigned by the diocese, a Presbyterian group, as well as Jewish groups and a Mormon group, among others to meet patient needs.

“What I try to do is to think about different ministries and programs that can be helpful to the department and [Annual] Conference as a whole. The conference we are sponsoring in February, [Celebrating a call to Lay Ministry], is one example of a contribution of our ministry,” Smith said.

The Methodist Hospital’s Lay Ministry program is a large part of his focus. “[We] help train lay people to become more skilled in spiritual care,” he continued, saying they work to “increase identity and clarity about lay ministry, and increase knowledge about grief and the universal experience of human beings as well as skills in empathic listening.”

Their programs include the Lay Ministry Institute, which is a three-month introduction to spiritual care, and the Lay Ministry College, which he described as “an in-depth, year-long experience.” It is more involved and requires 3 hours per week, plus a Saturday session monthly. “We meet with folks week after week and see their growth and development,” Smith said.

The Spiritual Care and Education department’s mission statement says it exists to “provide effective, comprehensive Christian spiritual care to patients, families, and staff, through certified chaplains, lay chaplains, CPE participants, and lay ministers; to provide quality education for pastors, seminarians, and lay persons; and to facilitate ministry to persons who seek their own faith representatives. The department also includes a bereavement ministry for grieving families and a “compassionate care” principal that says “no one dies alone.”

For more information on their programs or ministries, you can find them online at http://www.methodisthealth.com or contact Rev. Ted Smith by e-mail at TMSmith@tmhs.org  or by phone at: 713-441-2381

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