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It will change your life


What is an English-speaking Caucasian doing pastoring in a Chinese Mennonite Brethren congregation? The answer has a lot to do with vision and mission.


Darryl and Nancy Crocker began service Aug. 19 as English ministry pastor couple at Burnaby (B.C.) Pacific Grace Chinese Church. Until this point, their ministry career had taken a rather typical path. They earned B.R.E. degrees from Briercrest Bible College in Caronport, Sask. and married at 21. Darryl had also studied part-time at Columbia Bible College and later earned an M.A. in biblical counselling from Providence College in Otterburne, Man. He served as youth pastor at Cedar Valley Mennonite Church in Mission, B.C. for six years, as associate pastor of youth at Rosenort (Man.) Fellowship Chapel for two-and-a-half years, as associate pastor of youth and Christian education at Emmanuel Baptist Church (Nancy’s home church) in Barrie, Ont. for four years and as pastor of Sunningdale Community Church in Moose Jaw, Sask. for eight-and-a-half years. The Crockers have four children: A.J., 18, Nadine, 16, Monica, 13, and Amanda, 11.

However, things took a radical shift beginning in 1999. Darryl had always had a desire to be involved in missions, but as he is an insulin-dependent diabetic, this had seemed impossible. In March 1999 he had an opportunity to go to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on a church partnership evangelism trip. This was similar to the trips sponsored by Church Partnership Evangelism and Discipleship, a Mennonite Brethren ministry now affiliated with MBMS International, but was run by another organization. There, in partnership with an African believer, Darryl witnessed door-to-door for two weeks, helping to plant two new churches.

Before going, Darryl had been told that the trip would change his life. It did. After he returned, he covenanted with God that when they turned 16, he would take each of his children on a missions trip to show each of them the power of the gospel in a cross-cultural setting. In 2000, he and his oldest son A.J. went on a missions trip to Ireland. Among other things, they were involved in street evangelism, and it thrilled him to see his son standing up for the gospel. A.J. has since gone on another missions trip to Mexico. In March 2003 Darryl and his daughter Nadine are planning a missions trip to Africa. Darryl says, “Don’t send your children to the mission field. Take them”

Darryl says he has learned that “God’s ways are higher than my ways” (Isaiah 55:9). Although he has never been able to become a full-time missionary, he now finds himself “doing foreign missions in my home country”. His missions trips opened his mind to consider coming to Burnaby Pacific Grace Chinese Church, which had been looking for an English ministry pastor for five years. Chinese Mennonite Brethren congregations have been growing rapidly in recent years. However, as the Canadian Chinese population has begun to be integrated into mainstream Canadian culture, the churches have been struggling to adapt to the change. Ten years ago, the churches primarily worshipped in Cantonese, with some English Sunday school and youth groups. Now many of the churches have rapidly growing English-language worship services, and they do not have enough Chinese pastors, particularly with a good enough command of English, to minister to them. The Crockers are one of several Caucasian couples hired as pastors by Chinese MB churches.

Darryl is busy learning Cantonese in order to build trust with the parents and grandparents of those he is ministering to. However, the church’s vision is much broader than that. The church leaders have established an intentional goal to see the English congregation become multi-ethnic and multicultural within five years. Thus, Darryl is trying to reach out to the Indo-Canadian owner of a local convenience store and the Persian who cuts his hair. There are already a Persian teenager and an Indo-Canadian young adult attending the church. (Ironically, while some MB churches are dropping “Mennonite Brethren” from their church names so that they won’t appear to be restricted to people from the “Mennonite” ethnic group, some Chinese MB congregations have begun using “Mennonite Brethren” rather than “Chinese” in their official church names so that they won’t appear to be restricted to people of Chinese ethnicity.)

 – jc

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Last modified February 20, 2003.

© 2003 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
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