Click here for a comprehensive description and list of topics about which Bro. Crownover is available to speak/teach.

Please contact Marjorie Truman (mtruman@ugst.org or 314-921-9290 x7107) for more information on scheduling Bro. Crownover. Continue reading the description below to find out more about him. 

 

 

Welcome!

The Crownover Family

Raymond Crownover with (clockwise) his wife Kathy, daughter Suzanna,

mother-in-law Helen Stewart, and daughter Elizabeth. 

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Welcome to the classes I teach at Urshan Graduate School of Theology. It is a privilege to be a part of the UGST family. I served on the planning committee that launched UGST and have been a member of the faculty since its inception. I believe strongly in the mission and goals of the seminary and hope that these classes will help meet those goals in your life.

My Background

Prof. Crownover teaching while in the Phillipines

I am third generation Oneness Pentecostal. My mother's mother, Virgie Petty, was an evangelist who held revivals throughout the Midwest. She led many people to Christ, including my dad, Lowell F. Crownover. She and my dad team-preached revivals for several years, until he married her daughter, Velma. My family were founding members of the Pentecostal Church of University City (now New Life Center of Bridgeton, MO). My dad served as Assistant Pastor under Rev. Guy E. Roam until becoming a full-time evangelist and then a pastor. He pastored in Missouri for about fifty-five years.

I received the Holy Ghost at the age of 13 and received the call to preach shortly thereafter. I began teaching Sunday school when I was just 14, and have been busy in His Kingdom ever since. God prepared the way so that I could become the first person in my family to graduate from high school. He also arranged for a full scholarship so that I could attend the University of Missouri.

My wife, Kathy, is also a preacher's kid. We met when our dads both attended a Bible conference in Wisconsin. We were married August 19, 1978, one week after I graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in history and education. The next January, I enrolled as a student at Gateway College of Evangelism and shortly after that, I became assistant pastor for my dad.

From St. Louis, I went to Pensacola Theological Seminary, a division of Pensacola Christian College. While at Pensacola, I was greatly influenced by the scholarship, humility, love of God, and love of the Word exhibited by Dr. Robert L. Hughes, one of the translators of the New King James Bible.

Less than one semester short of graduating from seminary, I was called back to St. Louis to become a teacher at Gateway College of Evangelism and Associate Pastor of Calvary Tabernacle of Overland.

While at Gateway, God blessed our home with two wonderful daughters, Suzanna and Elizabeth. Shortly after Elizabeth's birth, we moved to Columbia, Missouri where I served as Assistant Pastor to Rev. Robert Bentley. While in Columbia I finished an M.Ed. in Educational Administration (superintendent's track) and Community Education. I also taught at the Christian school and the university while earning my doctorate. While in Columbia, my dad went to be with the Lord and two weeks later, Kathy's dad joined him. My mother-in-law moved in with us and continues to live in our home.

Those were super-busy years. When I look back on them, I do not know how I was able to fulfill all my responsibilities. Besides my duties to the church and the courses I taught, I was a lab technician for the microcomputer lab, a statistical consultant for the School of Education, a special assistant to the Chancellor of the University of Missouri system, a researcher and programmer with the Artificial Intelligence Research Group, and I operated my own educational software design company. 

Shortly after earning a Ph.D. in Higher Education and Adult Education, I became an Assistant Professor of Educational Studies at the University of Missouri. While there I received a call from Dr. Dan Segraves requesting that I consider coming to Stockton, California to teach at Christian Life College .

While in Stockton I served as Director of Distance Learning, and then Academic Dean. I was also called to pastor the Upper Room which began as a sister work of the Korean Baptist Church and a daughter work of Christian Life Center and eventually became a United Pentecostal Church. For a while, I thought I was the only UPCI preacher to pastor a Southern Baptist Church, but then I found out there were two of us in that unique situation.

Bro. Crownover with his brother, Jerry and sister, Carolyn.

 

I am thankful to God that my daughters received a Christian education from pre-school through graduation. They both received the Holy Ghost as young girls, and have been a true joy for their mother and me. Suzanna attended Stockton Christian Life College and they both attended Gateway College of Evangelism. Elizabeth now attends the University of Phoenix online and lives with us. Suzanna recently married Matthew Rudder (June 10, 2006).  Matthew brought to the marriage a daughter, Madeline, our first grandchild! The Rudders live in St. Charles, Missouri, so I get to see them often. 

The Crownovers and Rudders attend Bethel Pentecostal Church in St. Peters, Missouri where Rev. Jonathan Urshan is the pastor. 

I am never quite as happy and alive as when God is using me to teach or preach His word. Thank you and thank UGST for providing an outlet for this ministry.