On this weeks’s episode Mark and Andy were recently able to talk with Brian Croft, Senior Pastor of Auburndale Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, and Founder of Practical Shepherding. Brian is also the Senior Fellow of the Methena Center for Church Revitalization at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has also written several books for pastors and church leaders. Listen to today’s episode, as Brian speaks about his experience as a pastor, and as he shares his heart about practical ministry.
“Biblical Church Revitalization” “Visit the Sick” and other helpful books by Brian Croft can be found here http://practicalshepherding.
Quotes from our conversation with Brian:
- I was mentored outside of my churches by some really faithful men, who taught me what a pastor really is, who taught me what the local church is supposed to be, and I am in these churches seeing the opposite.
- I hit sixteen years, Lord willing, next month, and we have seventy-five members in our church. But we are multi-generational, we are multi-ethnic, and we have sent out thirty-five former members into the ministry, either missionaries or pastors that we’ve raised up.
- All those pastors that I worked with that I wanted to mentor me said “no,” and it created this zeal in me that when I became a pastor to say, “I’m gonna do all that I can to make sure that I mentor guys.”
- The Word is the center of how to build the Church, how to breath life into the Church, through the Spirit, through discipleship, through shepherding, through evangelism. And it’s a longer, harder work, but I think it’s a longer sustaining work.
- So, the core of Practical Shepherding is the holistic care of a pastor. You care for his soul, you care for his family, and you help him with his ministry.
- Most guys want to see things in two or three years, and that’s just not enough time. So, stick it out long enough win people and win their trust, and then see if they will follow you where you want to go.
“Most guys want to see things in two or three years, and that’s just not enough time. So, stick it out long enough win people and win their trust, and then see if they will follow you where you want to go.” Brian Croft on the Church Leadership Podcast
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- If you want to have a thirty or forty year ministry, figure out how to have a good quality of life for your wife and your kids where you are.