Dr. Malcolm Cronk was my pastor. He encouraged me as a young seminary student. He counseled and supported my wife and me as we prepared to leave for our years of missionary service in France. He chaired my ordination examination with Phoenix-area pastors and led my ordination service in 1980. He wrote faithfully to us when we were on the mission field. For many years we would receive a padded envelope every month, containing four cassettes of his recent messages at church. And during those early years, we were frequently sustained in our faith and work by his kind and powerful words, bringing God’s Word to bear on our lives and on our world. What a blessing for us!
Those cassettes are long gone, but we recently uncovered dusty stacks of storage cases in the church basement, containing master copies of years of messages. It’s been a delight to discover that their quality is still fairly good. And now it’s a privilege to make available to friends, both old and new, the voice and ministry of our beloved Pastor Cronk. Thank you to the leadership of Camelback Bible Church and to the family of Dr. Cronk, for their permission to freely distribute these Christ-honoring messages. If you, too, are blessed, then please pass on the link to others.
- Tom Blanchard, Feb 13, 2023
MALCOLM CRONK
Born in Fillmore, New York on September 7, 1914, Dr. Cronk began preaching at the age of 16, and continued holding forth God's Word to the age of 98, including pastorates at Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Wheaton Bible Church in Wheaton, Illinois, Winnetka Bible Church in Winnetka, Illinois, Church of the Open Door in Los Angeles, California, and Camelback Bible Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona. He was well-known from the east coast to the west coast as a Bible Conference speaker. He would often say that he was called to "preach the Word, love the people, live the life!" During the later years of his ministry he was known as a pastor to pastors.
Dr. Cronk married his sweetheart, Edna Bartelson, on June 15, 1938. They shared 60 years of life and love together until Edna went home to be with her Lord in April of 1999, after a 3 year battle with cancer.
After that time, Dr. Cronk resided in Freeport, Illinois, and was a member of Zion Church. Until he was physically unable to continue, he would fill the pulpit in several churches in the greater Freeport area.
On November 2, 2015, Dr. Malcolm R. Cronk went home to be with his Lord. "I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation...." Romans 1:16. This verse captures the life and passion of Dr. Cronk.
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Tom Blanchard
Tom is a pastor-missionary-teacher, ordained under Dr. Cronk at Camelback Bible Church. He and his wife, Lucy, served as missionaries in France under TEAM (The Evangelical Alliance Mission) from 1980 to 1995, and again from 2001 to 2018. From 1996 to 2001, Tom was on staff at Camelback Bible Church as Teleios Pastor, in charge of leadership training. He and Lucy are now retired, living in Phoenix, and still serving at Camelback.
Why subscribe?
We hope to distribute new messages twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays, as long as we can find the original cassettes. Subscribers will receive an email when a new podcast message is published. Whether you are subscribed or not, all messages will be available from the Podcast page or the Sermon Index page. And remember, “freely you received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8). So please pass it on to others.
Subscribe to The Heritage of Pastor Malcolm Cronk
Biblical sermons by Pastor Malcolm Cronk, from the years of his ministry at Camelback Bible Church, Paradise Valley, Arizona.
