A Pastor To Missionaries

What does a pastor to missionaries do?

“Pretty well what I’ve always done,” explains BCM Minister-at-Large for Member Care Don Crowder. “The difference is that I now have a congregation of almost nine hundred scattered over five continents and the Caribbean.”

Born and raised in Ontario, Canada, Don Crowder’s first experience with BCM began as an elementary student sitting under the teaching of a BCM Canada missionary in a school Bible class. Though he’d felt God’s calling to be a pastor in his teens, he was forty when he finally attended Bible college. During his studies, he served one summer as head counselor at BCM Canada’s Millstream Bible Camp and Retreat Centre.

For the next twenty-five years, Don pastored four different churches in southern Ontario. He and his wife Cherlyn maintained close connections with various BCM Canada missionaries, including those who taught their own twin sons at school and church. In 2012, Don was invited to join the BCM Canada board.

Don was approaching retirement when he began praying over what God might still have for him in the future. Though his call to be a pastor hadn’t changed, he’d long felt two other callings on his heart—to travel internationally and to teach national pastors in countries where few pastors had Bible college or seminary training. He also had a burden for pastors and missionaries. While they served others, who pastored them?

Sitting down with then-BCM president Dr. Marty Windle, Don asked bluntly, “Here is what is on my heart. Is there a place in BCM for someone like me and for this type of ministry?”

“Definitely,” Marty replied. “I’ve had just such a role in mind to provide member care for our personnel around the world. In other words, to be a pastor to our BCM missionaries and pastors around the world.”

In 2017, Don Crowder attended BCM candidate orientation and stepped from being a BCM Canada board member to fulltime missionary and pastor to the global BCM family. His new title “Minister-at-Large for Member Care.” As Don explains, his role entails basically being pastor and mentor to BCM missionaries and national pastors so they in turn can be healthy, happy, and productive in their ministries. Missionaries may be seen by many as Christian “super-heroes.” But they are also ordinary people who struggle with the same life issues as anyone else in addition to the unique challenges they may face in the cultures in which they serve.

“Marriage and family issues. Ministry team conflict. Cross-cultural misunderstandings. Temptation and sin. Persecution. Ill health, socio-political upheaval, and other crises. All these are no more foreign to missionaries and pastors than the average citizen,” Don elucidates. “Yet there is often no one who can walk with them as they navigate these stresses. The result is that they can’t thrive personally, infect those around them, and/or fall into temptation. In consequence, they can’t focus on their ministries and may end up leaving the ministry altogether with immense negative impact on God’s kingdom. This is not unique to BCM but is characteristic of missions in general.”

Don has been serving as pastor to the BCM global family for six years now. In that time, he has pastored, taught, and counseled at BCM regional conferences as well as one-on-one in Suriname, Panama, Spain, Germany, France, Poland, Netherlands, Ireland, Uganda and more. Thanks to modern technology, Don counsels and mentors BCM missionaries around the world from his own home office in Canada through Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, email, or phone call.

Don’s second calling of teaching and training national leadership has been realized as well. Workshops on teamwork and resisting sexual temptation in France. Spiritual development sessions for BCM candidate orientations in North America, Africa, South America, and Europe. Theology courses for students at Africa Renewal University, a Christian university in Uganda. All have given opportunity to exercise Don’s expository teaching gifts as well as pastoral.

Then in 2018, Don’s member care role expanded further. The International Academy of Suriname (IAS) is an English-language Christian school located in the Suriname capital of Paramaribo. Parents may be diplomats, United Nations personnel, employees of an international corporation, local government dignitaries, as well as a small percentage of missionaries. Most students are not from Christian homes, making IAS school a mission field in and of itself. BCM Suriname personnel have been involved with IAS over decades, enrolling their own children there and serving on the school board.