Brian Croft

Brian Croft is senior pastor of Auburndale Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. He is also the author of "Visit the Sick: Ministering God’s Grace in Times of Illness (foreword by Mark Dever) and "Test, Train, Affirm, and Send Into Ministry: Recovering the Local Church’s Responsibility to the External Call" (foreword by R. Albert Mohler Jr.). Brian blogs regularly at Practical Shepherding.
 

Nov

30

2010

Brian Croft|9:08 AM CT

Why Pastors Should Embrace the Pleasant . . . Unpleasant Moments in Ministry
Why Pastors Should Embrace the Pleasant . . . Unpleasant Moments in Ministry avatar

I recently came home late one night having spent a few hours counseling a couple in our church whose husband had fallen into pornography. My wife was waiting patiently for me knowing what I was doing. She asked how my time went with this couple. I responded with this statement:

“That was one of the most pleasant . . . unpleasant conversations I have had in quite sometime.”

Before convincing you why we as pastors should embrace this paradox we experience in ministry, I suppose I should define what I mean by a “pleasant . . . unpleasant” conversation.

Unpleasant. After numerous counseling sessions with both single men and married couples who have been harmed by the snare of pornography, I can’t recall any conversation about pornography that was enjoyable in itself. Writing my most recent book on the subject affirmed there is...

 
 
 
 

Oct

27

2010

Brian Croft|4:20 PM CT

How Much Vacation Time Should a Pastor Take?
How Much Vacation Time Should a Pastor Take? avatar

You may begin reading this post with the idea that I will suggest how many weeks of vacation you should be given by your church, or how much you should advocate to give your pastor. Instead, I intend to answer this question a bit differently. My concern is not about how much vacation time a pastor is given, but how he uses (or doesn’t use) what he is given.

This is an appropriate time to pause for a confession. I thought you should know, I often fail at my own advice. I come to the conclusions I often write about on this blog because I have or are currently failing at them. Just thought I would acknowledge that in case you think I write this way because I have figured it all out. Far from it. The stewardship of my vacation time has become a recent glaring area of failure in my life that...

 
 
 
 

Sep

28

2010

Brian Croft|8:00 AM CT

Evaluating Whether Church Members Are Unconverted
Evaluating Whether Church Members Are Unconverted avatar

Sometime back, a pastor wrote me and asked that I address the issue of how to evaluate a church member I suspect is unconverted. Even though I have sadly dealt with this on more than one occasion, I tremble to communicate in any way that I have all the answers on this matter. Nevertheless, it is a reality, and it is especially so for anyone who goes to pastor an established church whose previous patterns of taking in members were less than healthy and biblical. So, here are a few suggestions as you wrestle with this all important and very difficult issue in your church.

Recognize you are not God. Make sure you start here. It is common to jump quickly to conclusions about a church member’s spiritual state based on his disapproval of you and your vision for the church. It is often not that simple. We are not all-wise and...

 
 
 
 

Sep

07

2010

Brian Croft|11:18 AM CT

Involving Church Members in Sermon Prep
Involving Church Members in Sermon Prep avatar

I am surprised how many pastors want to hide and close themselves off while preparing their sermon, when there are layers of benefits when we involve others in our preparation. Maybe this results from pastors who either don’t know the benefits or don’t know how to involve others in their church as they prepare. Here are four suggestions on how you can involve others.

Send out a simple outline: I send a basic outline of my sermon out to a group of men in my church early in the week. Some of these men have been asked to respond to my direction, while others use it to think through how to prepare a sermon or aid their family worship efforts throughout the week. Often I receive a comment or suggestion that helps bring to light a better direction I need to consider taking the sermon than I originally had planned.

Talk to others throughout the week about...

 
 
 
 

Aug

17

2010

Brian Croft|2:00 PM CT

The Pastor's Wife: Supportive But Unimpressed
The Pastor's Wife: Supportive But Unimpressed avatar



Regardless the pastor's temperament and the type of church he serves, most of us would agree that every church will have a wide spectrum of affection for their pastor. Every church to some degree has church members who view their pastor with rose-colored glasses, while others barely tolerate their existence and stay at the church despite him. Naturally, pastors often seek affirmation and encouragement by surrounding themselves with those who think they are the greatest preacher, most compassionate counselor, and strongest leader, while avoiding those who have less enduring thoughts of them.

This has led to what I think is a good, helpful, and healthy role for our wives to play in our lives as pastors while facing such a wide variety of affection to sift through among our people. A pastor’s wife should always be . . .

Supportive, but unimpressed. Comntinue Reading
...

 
 
 
 

Jul

26

2010

Brian Croft|10:44 AM CT

What should be a pastor’s motto for his local church ministry?
What should be a pastor’s motto for his local church ministry? avatar

When I first came to pastor Auburndale Baptist Church and saw a struggling church on its last leg, I began to investigate maybe why it had slowly declined over the course of 4 decades. As you can imagine I found many answers, but one that particularly intrigued me was how it appeared many of the pastors came, stayed 2-3 years, and left the church worse off than the way they found it. This, among other reasons, has led to my “motto” for pastoral ministry that I encourage you to adopt in some form:

“Expendable, But Appreciated”

Expendable: I realized that I must pastor this church in such a way that allows this church to both flourish while I’m here and continue to do so once I’m gone (Lord willing, I hope a long time from now). This requires me to delegate responsibilities, share the pulpit, share my authority (plurality of pastors/elders), raise up and train...

 
 
 
 

Jul

21

2010

Brian Croft|10:00 AM CT

How can I make sure I am individually shepherding my children?
How can I make sure I am individually shepherding my children? avatar

Most pastors would affirm our priority is first to shepherd our family, then to shepherd the church. Yet, I fear many pastors are laboring hard to shepherd the church to the neglect of their family. The Lord in His kind providence challenged me several years ago about this as my neglect in this area had become known. However, it was not another pastor that challenged me. It was through an out-of-town friend who is a pharmacist and faithfully serves as a deacon in his local church that exposed my neglect. His effort and model to shepherd his seven children both individually and regularly in addition to their regular family worship challenged me, convicted me, inspired me, and put my pathetic efforts I had made thus far to shame.

This faithful father shepherded his seven children by taking one morning a week to meet individually with each of his children. Seven days in a week–each of the seven...

 
 
 
 

Jul

08

2010

Brian Croft|11:13 PM CT

What is one of the best ways for a pastor to gain evangelistic opportunities?
What is one of the best ways for a pastor to gain evangelistic opportunities? avatar

I was emailed recently about how the pastor can better engage in evangelism. After all, we can easily remain in our “bubble” as we shepherd the sheep. The pastor must be arguably more deliberate than anyone to engage non-Christians throughout the week to share the gospel with them. Deliberate spiritual conversation with your neighbors, frequenting the same stores and restaurants, walking the streets knocking on doors, and meeting with the non-Christians that are visiting your church are all good and fruitful ways to increase evangelism in the pastor’s life. There is, however, a very fruitful and unique way for a pastor to do evangelism that can only be provided to the pastor:

Offer your services to a local funeral home to do funerals for those families who use their services and don’t have a pastor.

Not long after I came to pastor Auburndale Baptist Church, a local funeral home a block from the church approached me and...

 
 
 
 

Jun

30

2010

Brian Croft|9:05 AM CT

How do I apply the most important elements to a funeral?
How do I apply the most important elements to a funeral? avatar

In a previous post, I highlighted the four most important elements to any funeral service. Though those four elements are clear, it can still be a challenge to know how to apply those four elements into a funeral service. Thus, here is one of the ways I try to accomplish this task by using the account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead from John 11. A narrative text about Jesus seems to be most effective as it is easy to follow and your hearers can plainly tell what Jesus’ direct words are about Himself and eternal life.

The unchanging character of God: Though this element can be pulled from the eternal existence of Jesus portrayed in John 11 (I am the resurrection and the life…) I typically like to establish this element from the beginning. As mentioned earlier, I often read Psalm 145:17-21 for...

 
 
 
 

Jun

25

2010

Brian Croft|6:06 PM CT

Funeral Service Essentials
Funeral Service Essentials avatar

[Editor's note: We are grateful for Brian's permission to repost the following from his blog Practical Shepherding. We look forward to featuring more of Brian's work at TGC in the near future.]



Recently I was asked to do a Q & A with the pastoral interns and some of the staff at Clifton Baptist Church in Louisville, KY to discuss the logistics of funerals. As many of you know, there are all kinds of details that we would list as important and essential. Yet, in our conversation, I narrowed those down to four areas that must be proclaimed:

The Unchanging character of God: You have all kinds of people who come to a funeral who are evaluating this death (and God’s role in it)  in all sorts of ways. We must...