Beloved Pastor Suffers Heart Attack and Dies While Driving Wife Home
A beloved North Carolina pastor who suffered a heart attack and died in a crash while driving his wife home from a local airport early Sunday morning is now being mourned by his surviving spouse and church family.
Friendly Avenue Baptist Church in Greensboro announced in a short Facebook post on Monday that Pastor Pat Cronin had "suddenly passed away." He was 65.
Rob Miller, worship pastor at the church, told Fox 8 that Cronin drove off the road and into a field after the heart attack. His wife was uninjured.
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Church members who heard of the crash on Sunday morning were gutted.
"He's been a real good friend, I've lost a good friend and our church is obviously hurting right now, but what we find is that the Lord has given us strength to get through it and we feel like we will," Miller said.
According to the church, Cronin, who was affectionately known as "Pastor Pat" to everyone, has been pastor of Friendly Avenue Baptist Church since 1995. Before that he was pastor of First Baptist Church in Deerfield Beach, Florida, from 1984 to 1995.
He received his doctor of ministry degree in "pastoral studies: preaching and leadership management in the local church" from Denver Baptist Theological Seminary. He earned his master of divinity in pastoral studies from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and his bachelor of arts in religion from Palm Beach Atlantic University. He also received a bachelor of arts in biblical education from Florida Bible College.
Cronin made many marks on the church and the community, according to Fox 8. One of those marks, his 14-year-old "Living Christmas Tree" tradition, will be continued this weekend at Four Seasons Town Centre in North Carolina.
"As we still deeply mourn the unexpected loss of our beloved Pastor Pat Cronin, we remember his vision for our Christmas pageant this year, to take our 'Living Christmas Tree' beyond our walls to Four Seasons Town Centre. We hope you will come out as we carry out his vision and share the reason for the season and the love of Christ with the community around us," the church told their members on Tuesday in a Facebook announcement.
Under Cronin's leadership, the church had been hosting the Living Christmas Tree, in their church building for the last 14 years, according to Fox 8. The Living Christmas Tree is a tree made up of the church choir, accompanied by an orchestra, as they sing Christmas classics.
Cronin, said Miller, wanted to move the Living Christmas Tree to the mall in order to let more people enjoy the music this year.
Miller and other members of the church were at the mall setting up the tree when they heard their pastor had died.
"Our goal is to share the love of Christ to people at the mall while they are shopping and we think we can do that better through song than any other way," Miller explained. "It was his idea to come here. For us not to, in a sense, it would be to dishonor him."
A family visitation is scheduled for 4 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 7 at Friendly Avenue Baptist (all other Wednesday evening activities have been cancelled). Cronin's funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 8 at Friendly Avenue Baptist. The family requests in lieu of flowers that donations be made to the Friendly Avenue Baptist Church Building Fund.
