Derek Crawford serves as the director of missions in the Enon Association, which is an association of 36 Southern Baptist churches in south central Oklahoma. He lives in Ardmore with his wife, Charli, and their three sons, Braiden, Scout and Sawyer.
Derek’s associational work often involves bringing churches within the association together to coordinate events and conferences and to serve together in ministries, such as Disaster Relief. This takes a lot of cooperation and unity of purpose between various churches.
“I love seeing Southern Baptists come together to serve Jesus Christ,” he said. “There is something special about witnessing autonomous churches cooperate to advance the Gospel.”
Derek’s role also involves assisting churches in finding pastors. He finds this to be especially challenging. “We simply do not have enough pastors for our churches,” he said.
To be proactive in the identifying and training of potential pastors, Enon Association offers seminary scholarships to qualified candidates who are recommended by their pastors. Pastor conferences are also offered to nurture and provide for the well-being of the pastors in the association. Much prayer is required to fulfill this all-important need.
Missions work is also near and dear to Derek’s heart. Derek works diligently to connect church congregations with missions opportunities. Through the association, scholarships are available for mission trips.
Partnerships are important as well. Currently the association is in three international missions partnerships and is pursuing three more. Derek asks prayer that God will provide the missions partnerships being pursued by Enon Association.
Pray that God would call more men to serve as pastors in Oklahoma churches. Pray God would give Derek wisdom as he leads Enon Association. Pray Derek’s sons would grow spiritually, especially the youngest two as they travel with Derek to various churches and are often away from their home church.
Because of the generous giving of Oklahoma Baptists through the Cooperative Program, an amazing array of ministries are supported. This unified giving encourages fellowship with other believers all over the world. Collectively, Oklahoma Baptists are advancing the Gospel together.
Derek Crawford is featured in the 2023 Missionary Prayer Guide for Oklahoma Baptists. For more information about the Cooperative Program, visit oklahomabaptists.org/cp.
