North Carolina pastor suffers heart attack, dies while driving wife home

A promotional photo for Friendly Avenue Baptist Church's Living Christmas Tree events. | Friendly Avenue Baptist Church official website

A long-time North Carolina pastor suddenly passed away on Sunday morning when he suffered a heart attack while driving his spouse home from the airport.

Dr. Pat Cronin, who had been serving the Friendly Avenue Baptist Church for 20 years, and his wife, Brenda, were on their way to their Oak Ridge home when he suffered the attack. He reportedly drove straight into a field after the ailment hit him. Fortunately, his wife was not injured.

Church members are devastated to hear about the loss of their beloved pastor.

"He's been a real good friend, I've lost a good friend and our church is obviously hurting right now, but what we find is that the Lord has given us strength to get through it and we feel like we will," Rob Miller, music and worship minister at the church, told FOX 8 Greensboro.

According to BRnow.org, the 65-year-old had been a pastor at Friendly Avenue Baptist Church since 1995. Prior to that, he also served the Sheridan Hills Baptist Church, where he was ordained in 1979, the Gardens Baptist Church in Florida, the Sunnyside Baptist Church in Kentucky, and the First Baptist Church of Deerfield Beach in Florida.

One of the legacies that Cronin has left with the church is the 14-year Living Christmas Tree tradition. Every year, church choir members form a "living tree" and sing Christmas songs while accompanied by an orchestra. This year, the Christmas tree is being moved to Four Seasons Town Centre upon Cronin's suggestion. Despite the church members deep in mourning, the Living Christmas Tree is set to perform as previously scheduled this weekend.

"Our goal is to share the love of Christ to people at the mall while they are shopping, and we think we can do that better through song than any other way," Miller said, adding, "It was his idea to come here. For us to not to, it in a sense it would be to dishonor him."

Performances will be held at 6:30, 7:15, and 8 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 9, and at 3, 3:45, and 4:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 10 and 11.