Gustavo A. Crocker, Eurasia regional director, was elected the 41st general superintendent of the Church of the Nazarene Wednesday night. He was elected on the 53rd ballot at the 28th General Assembly in Indianapolis, Indiana.

“Your vote is a demonstration that grace exists,” Crocker said after arriving at the podium.

A native of San Jeronimo, Guatemala, Crocker is the second general superintendent elected while residing outside the USA/Canada Region, following Eugenio R. Duarte (Cape Verde, Africa) in 2009.

“It’s an expression of our being global and the values that we have in the Church of the Nazarene in the world,” Duarte said following Crocker’s election. “In this way the church has acknowledged the fact that those values are great and that we should use the blessings that God has given us. He has equipped the church with people like Dr. Crocker who love God and love the church and have been in the church and with the church in good and bad times.

“I think the church has done the right thing.”

If good things come to those who wait, the church has received a good thing.

The 53 ballots it took to elect Crocker is a record in the Church of the Nazarene, surpassing the 51 ballots it took to elect Stan Toler in 2009.

After Ballot 46, Olivet Nazarene University President John Bowling suggested that delegates do three things: 1. Step across aisle to get to know someone to help promote unity, which he felt was fading, 2. Kneel in prayer, 3. Hit the “re-start button” on voting intentions, trying to re-establish authenticity if it was missing. The chair agreed and after the prayer, a feeling of Spirit-given peace filled the room.

Before the next ballot was taken, Trevecca Nazarene University President Dan Boone, who was surging in votes at the time, announced that he was withdrawing his name as he felt peace and purpose staying at Trevecca.

Prayer was not limited to the Indiana Convention Center as many following the proceedings on Twitter and 1,900 watching on nazarene.org/galive knelt in prayer, too. Tweets began pouring in with Nazarenes saying what state or country they were from and that they were praying.

Crocker was elected shortly thereafter.

In his speech, Crocker said his mother considered an abortion when she was pregnant with him, but thanks to the teachings of the Church of the Nazarene and her respect for the sanctity of life, she chose to have her eighth child.

He said he talked to God like Gideon did, asking him what he, “the youngest of this poor family of the weakest clan of Guatemala,” can do for the Kingdom?

Crocker continued: “And He said, ‘You can do nothing.. unless I am with you.'”

After asking the assembly to pray for him, he confessed that earlier he thought about what his answer would be if he was elected.

“It was not until tonight as we went on our knees that both my wife and I – sitting in different sides of this auditorium – received the very same message from the Lord: ‘Give it all and serve all for me.’

“I don’t want to ask you to go through the night with the agony of what I’m going to say tomorrow, for I promised the Lord on my knees that whatever the church was going to say, I would say ‘yes,’ for I am a churchman.”

The assembly erupted in applause.

“I am Nazarene by choice, Guatemalan by birth, global by ministry,” Crocker said. “May the Lord be with you.”

Crocker will take a seat on the Board of General Superintendents after serving as Eurasia regional director since 2004. He previously served as senior vice-president of World Relief Corporation, an entity of the National Association of Evangelicals, of which the Church of the Nazarene is a member. He also served as program coordinator of the Stockholm, Sweden-based Global Alliance of Christian Ministries. From 1999 to 2001, Crocker served as field manager for Nazarene Compassionate Ministries Inc. and from 1994 to 1999 as director of Nazarene Compassionate Ministries under the World Mission Department.

He is a graduate of Mariano Galvez University (Bachelor of Arts in architecture), University of Cincinnati (Fulbright Scholar, master’s degree in clinical psychology), Regent University (Doctorate of Philosophy in organizational leadership), and Harvard Kennedy School.

Crocker speaks English, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. He and his wife, Rachel, have two daughters, Raquel and Elizabeth.