Pastor Crowder
For ten years, I served Highland Baptist Church in Vicksburg, MS, as the Student Minister and then as Family and Discipleship Pastor. In October 2022, I accepted the call to Pastor Dover Baptist Church in Manakin-Sabot, Virginia.
With a solid theological background cultivated at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, I preach both exegetical and topical sermons designed to share the Good News of Christ and equip the saints for the work of ministry.
If you would like to contact me, you can do so through my email: pastorcrowder@doverbc.org
My Testimony:
I was born into a loving Christian home that valued personal faith and regular church attendance. My parents ensured that I was active in our church’s children’s ministry and that prayer and personal devotion to God were a part of my daily family life. My mother and father are both firm believers to this day, and I am blessed to have had them as role models growing up.
I was seven years old when I decided to follow Jesus as my Savior and Lord. It was a Sunday night, and I was alone, thinking over the invitation my pastor had given that morning. Realizing that I had never made a public decision to follow Christ, I prayed for salvation. I then told my parents about my decision, and they prayed with me to make sure I understood what I was doing. That week my parents took me to visit my pastor. After confirming to the best of his ability that I understood the gospel and was ready to decide to follow Christ, I was baptized and became a member of Broadmoor Baptist Church.
I remained an active member of Broadmoor Baptist Church throughout high school and college, where I continued to wrestle with my faith and grow in spiritual maturity. While attending Mississippi College, I participated in a BSU (Baptist Student Union) event called Beach Reach over the spring break week of 2011. This event was where college students spent the week sharing their faith with spring breakers in Panama City, Florida. It was a challenging week for many reasons, but during that week, I felt God calling me to the ministry. When I returned to college, I changed my major to Christian Studies and began pursuing a career in full-time ministry.
Not long after that, in the autumn of 2012, I was called to serve as the Student Ministry Intern at Highland Baptist Church in Vicksburg, MS. It was at Highland Baptist Church where I was licensed and ordained as a minister of the Gospel. I eventually became the full-time Student Minister and then the Family and Discipleship Pastor. During that time, I met the woman who later became my wife, and after a few years of marital bliss, we welcomed our daughter into the world. In the spring of 2022, after ten years at Highland Baptist Church, I began to feel the Lord calling me to begin prayerfully seeking out a new place to serve Him.
In October of 2022, I accepted the call to become the Pastor of Dover Baptist Church in Manakin, Virginia. This is where I am currently serving, and it is my hope and prayer that the Lord will bless my family and me with many faithful and fruitful years in our current church home.
My Personal Statement of Faith:
I believe that the Bible is divinely inspired, entirely trustworthy, and accurate and is the primary means by which God reveals Himself to us today. The Bible is, therefore, man’s ultimate authority in all matters of life (especially in matters of religion, morality, judgement, and salvation).
I believe that there is only one God who has revealed Himself to us in three persons (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit). God is eternal, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, and infinite in holiness and all other perfections. The world and everything in it was created by His power and for His glory.
I believe that all of humankind was created in the image of God. Therefore, all human life is inherently sacred. I believe that God created man and woman in a state of sinlessness, but through an act of conscious rebellion on the part of the first man, we all entered into a state of sin. All human beings have since been born into a sinful nature.
I believe that God did not abandon us in our sinful state. Instead (through the gradual revelation of His grace and mercy as recorded in the scriptures), He revealed Himself to us and prepared His people for the coming of a savior who would free us from our sins. This savior would be the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
I believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man. He alone lived a perfectly sinless life and willingly chose to pay the penalty for our sins so that we could be redeemed through his atoning sacrifice. He was crucified, buried in a tomb, and rose again three days later, having defeated sin and death on our behalf. He is now seated at the right hand of God the Father and acts as the perfect mediator between God and man.
I believe that salvation in Christ is available to any who will repent of their sins and place their faith in Christ as their Savior and Lord.
When a person repents and places their faith in Christ, they are forgiven of all their sins, clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and receive the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. This is what it means to trust Christ as our Savior.
When people repent and place their faith in Christ, they are called to give their lives to him and to walk with Christ in obedience. This is what it means to trust Christ as our Lord.
The first act of obedience for the new believer is to be baptized and to join a local church body of believers for worship, service, discipleship, fellowship, and accountability. The church exists for the sake of worship and for the fulfillment of the great commission of Christ, recorded in Matthew 28:16-20.
I believe that one day Jesus will return to judge the world. The righteous will be raised to eternal life in him, and the wicked will be condemned to eternal judgment in hell. This will be the culmination of history and a great day of victory for the Lord.
I affirm The Apostle’s Creed, The Nicene Creed, The Chalcedonian Creed, The Athanasian Creed, and The Baptist Faith and Message 2000.