Meet James Crockett, Diocesan Evangelist
I have been married to my wife Adele for 15 years and we have 3 beautiful daughters aged 14, 12 and 2. I am the leader of Braniel Community Church.
I was brought up in the church although not Church of Ireland. My home church is Carnmoney Presbyterian and as a young person I did it all – Sunday School, the BB, Christian Endeavour. I always knew about God and as a young kid would often find myself getting emotional in church on a Sunday. On several occasions during my childhood I would find myself alone in the church building during church clean up days and I would just sit in this atmosphere not really knowing what it was, but being so drawn to it.
My teenage years were turbulent, although I loved the BB and spent about 3 or 4 nights a week doing something there, my outside church life was spent on the streets with my mates, causing all sort of havoc and doing all the things we weren’t supposed to. When my parents decided I was old enough to make my own mind up about church I left at about 16 and had no intention of ever returning. I even got quite angry with God at the time and that resentment towards God and Christians grew over the next few years.
When I met my wife we would sit and talk about life and the meaning of it, and being brought up in the church I was able to explain some things that I was taught as a child regarding God. This increased Adele’s appetite and so we found ourselves on Carnmoney’s Alpha Course. After an encounter with God one weekend I gave my life to Jesus at Alpha and Adele did the same the next day.
I consequently became part of the team at Alpha and eventually led that team for some years before another encounter with God. It led me to start to seek out this call I had on my life that everyone kept telling me about but I was dubious about. My minister John told me about the evangelism training course and so I signed up to see where that would lead me.
I really enjoyed the course and the other people who were on the course with me. Learning with and from other people has been a real encouragement. Then a chance meeting with Geroge Newell and Bishop David McClay led to me being offered the post at BCC which we prayed about and really felt God was leading us to. I will continue in that post after my commissioning service.