Sam Crabtree

Board member

What is your vocational calling? Executive Minister at Bethlehem Baptist Church since 1997.

Place of birth: Dixon, Illinois.

Some favorite (extra-biblical) dead guys/gals: C.S. Lewis, Francis Schaeffer, John Holt, Jim Elliot, Sir William Blackstone, Bill Bright, John Wycliffe, Peter Tchaikovsky, Felix Mendelssohn, Amy Carmichael, Gladys Aylward, Sam Crabtree (my father), Sam Crabtree (my grandfather, a preacher), Alva Crabtree (my great grandfather, a preacher), Sam Crabtree (my great great grandfather who supplied my name), and many many others to whom he owes a great deal, whose influence in his life is larger than he is able to calculate.

Some favorites still among the living: R.C. Sproul, J.I. Packer, David Thiessen, and John Piper.

A Favorite Piper quote:
”I love this high calling and weighty work of ‘rightly handling the word of truth'. Pray for me.” (from an email December 23, 1998)

Family information:
Wife: Vicki (married in 1973)
Children: Dawn [& Andy] 1978, Mandi 1980, Aryn (deceased), Jordan (deceased)

On living in Minneapolis, Minnesota: There is beauty to be found anywhere one lives. It is both a glad discipline and a grace to find that beauty and exult in God in it.

What do you enjoy most for refreshment? Full court basketball (made 87 consecutive free throws on January 30, 2004 ), classical music (especially the romantic period), naps, dates with Vicki, writing, old friends, new friends, and it encourages me to think that I may have been an encouragement to somebody.

Ministry involvement other than DG: Currently Executive Minister at Bethlehem Baptist Church, board member of The Bethlehem Institute, and friend of the Edgren Fellowship.