Smit ministered a congregation in Drenthe, Michigan in the mid-1800s, which led to a notable secession in the history of the Christian Reformed Church of North America.

[4] Albertus van Raalte was considered a theological opponent of Smit as they publicly disagreed with each other on a number of issues.

Michael Douma has written that "Van Raalte fought bitterly with Roelof Smit, a minister in Drenthe, Michigan, whose congregation voted to leave the Reformed Church for the United Presbyterians.

In Dutch Chicago: A History of Hollanders in the Windy City, Robert R. Swierenga describes Jan Schepers, the first pastor of First Christian Reformed Church of Chicago as an intellectual and theological descendent of Roelof Smit, explaining that Jan Scheper's father Harm Schepers worked in union with Smit: "in 1853, together with pastor Roelof Smit, Harm had led [the Drenthe church] congregation to secede from the Classis of Holland and join the Associate Reformed or 'Scottish' Church, a conservative, psalm-singing body that in 1858 entered into a merger that began the United Presbyterian Church.

The offspring of his brother Hendrik immigrated to Canada following World War II and the Dutch famine of 1944–1945.