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But one of his friends, convinced of his spiritual talents, encouraged Crowley to apply for the open pastorate at Myrtle Baptist — less than 10 miles from the divinity school.

Erickson said that experience led many of his friends into the pastorate or other Christian work.

He increased the Zion Baptist Church membership from 250 to 3,500 during his pastorate, friends said in a death announcement.

His pastorates traversed Minnesota, Montana and North Dakota before he settled in Spokane, where he was renowned for inspiring sermons, a plummy voice and palpable charisma.

The group says it was the first mainline Protestant denomination to ordain a woman as a minister and the first to ordain an openly gay man to the pastorate.