Pastor Smith Veteran TV weatherman Steve McKay communicates an unclouded message as a Methodist preacher Down East

To thousands of television viewers in northern and eastern Maine, he’s weatherman Steve McKay. But to the 75 or so members of two United Methodist congregations in Washington County, he’s simply Pastor Smith.

Steve Smith spends his Sunday mornings, rain or shine, in snow flurries and gale force winds, in the pulpits of Milbridge-Wyman United Methodist Church and Faith United Methodist Church in Columbia as a part-time minister.

Smith, 47, of Orono has no plans to quit his day job at WLBZ 2 when he earns his master’s degree next year from Bangor Theological Seminary and is ordained. He is a licensed pastor with the New England Conference of the United Methodist Church, which allows him to serve the congregations while completing his education.

To some, being a TV weatherman and a minister may look like divergent careers, but Smith sees similarities.

“Communication is my job on TV,” he said in a recent interview. “I communicate information about the weather. As a pastor my job also is to communicate – to communicate how the message in God’s word applies to our lives.”

Smith, whose family roots are in Maine, was born in Aurora, Ill. His family moved to Orono, where his mother was the organist at Orono United Methodist Church, when he was a child. It was as an adult at the Federated Church of Stillwater, which is yoked with Old Town United Methodist Church, that he first felt called to the ministry.

He served on the Stillwater church’s board of trustees and was head deacon, which meant he filled in for the pastor, the Rev.

Phillip “Ron” Chaffee. Chaffee was pastor of both churches for 12 years.

“Other churches found I had an interest in preaching and they asked me to fill in for their pastors,” he said. “The more I did it, the more I felt called.

“I also found that through sharing my faith with my co-workers, friends and family and seeing that God had a real impact in their lives, the call to ministry became more pronounced” he said. “It wasn’t a lightning bolt but every step was assuring and affirming that I was on the right path.”

Chaffee, 59, now pastor of Wesley United Methodist Church in Salem, Mass., said Smith’s path to the ministry was similar to his own. A former high school science teacher and coach in Calais and Eastport, Chaffee joined the ministry in the early 1980s.

“He’s a people person,” Chaffee said when asked to describe the personality traits that make Smith a good minister. “He’s compassionate, understanding, patient and he knows the Lord is calling him into the pastoral life.

“He’s also not afraid to accept a challenge,” Chaffee said.

Two years ago, Smith accepted the challenge of serving as the part-time pastor for the Milbridge-Wyman congregation.

Since then, the congregation has grown, the facilities have been improved, and members as well as non-members see the church as a vital contributor to the lives of the community, according to Smith. When he began, there were no children in the church. Now there are a dozen.

“Connecting them in a real sense with God’s hope and God’s grace by making the Gospel applicable to their lives is what made the difference,” he said of the congregation’s growth.

His first sermon as pastor of the Columbia church was on July 1.

The congregations are about 15 miles apart, so services are at 9 a.m. at Milbridge-Wyman and at 10:45 a.m. at Faith UMC. He keeps in touch with his flocks through weekly newsletters.

In addition to preaching on Sundays, Smith makes pastoral visits to congregants who are hospitalized, often in Bangor at Eastern Maine Medical Center.

“I’m fortunate that I have several passions in my life – Channel 2 and working with the church,” Smith said. “I’m fortunate that my schedule allows me to do both. My full-time job is a gift to these small churches since neither could afford a full-time pastor.”

Smith works as a weatherman from 2 to 10 p.m., which leaves his days free for seminary classes, studying and sermon writing.

While his experience and education have prepared him for ministry, it’s Smith’s nature that he feels makes him well suited for a pastor’s life.

“I have a pastor’s heart – a real empathy for people,” he said. “On the practical side of things, I’m very task oriented, which is an important ingredient. If I wasn’t organized and disciplined, I’d have a hard time juggling my full-time job with writing a term paper and writing a sermon.”