Hi friends,
The big news currently is the formation of our Wednesday Koinonia group – 2nd and 4th Wednesdays each month (except January) commencing February 8th, 10 am to lunch, at East Doncaster Baptist Church in Melbourne. It will be inclusive, focussed on Bible study, sharing our stories, praying for one another, and with a missional project (probably lifting a third-world village above the poverty-line). You’re welcome: contact me for more details.
I’m available for counseling and preaching and one to one retreats – email me on rcroucher@gmail.com for more, or roam around the Ministry Information drop-down menu at the bottom of this page.
Shalom! Rowland Croucher
JOHN MARK MINISTRIES serves Christian denominations and churches around Australia, and elsewhere, via seminars, counselling, consulting, mentoring, preaching and writing. We have three full-time staff-members – Les Scarborough (N.S.W.; currently in process of retiring), Tim Dyer (Tasmania), and myself, based in Melbourne. To summarize our philosophy/ theology: we are seeking to facilitate within ourselves, and with/for others, what Jesus called ‘the key of knowledge/understanding’ (Luke 11:52), which he taught was all about ‘justice and love’ (Luke 11:42). In other words, how do individuals and churches get to know and love God better, relate to one another in love and justice, and serve the world in terms of justice, compassion and preaching the Christian Good News (Matthew 23:23)?
THIS WEBSITE experienced a ‘makeover’ during 2010. Thanks to Lawrence Meckan (Absalom Media) for his excellent work. (And to Matt, Bradley, Dave, Martin and others who helped with earlier versions). To find your way around use the Google Search facility at the top of this page; to navigate elsewhere on the Web, try the Search drop-down menu at the bottom. The most popular articles are here; the best articles I feel I’ve written are listed below. New Christians – or if you’re wanting to know the ‘Christian basics’ – should start here. . To help with your devotions, we have 2000+ articles here. My Blogs on various subjects are here . If you’d like to receive JMM’s once-a-month e-letter with news, seminal ideas, and other bits and pieces, or if you’d like to make contact for counselling, a personal one-to-one (or couple) retreat, or preaching, feel free to email me .
Many REQUESTS FOR HELP/AFFILIATION come each day. Sorry I cannot respond to these communications from African, Asian and Latin American pastors and churches: but please know I pause to pray for you when I read your email. Sorry we cannot finance translations of articles into Urdu or other languages: but feel free to do that yourself (if the automated translation facility here is not adequate).
SEMINAL ARTICLES. If you want a ‘feel’ for the articles I’ve written which seem to be bounced most often to others, they would include:
The ABC’s of Effective Pastoral Leadership
Ambition, Excellence and Success
Best Practices in a Healthy Church
Bible: Three Ways of Reading It
Christians have a Biblical Mandate: Be Political
Church Growth and Pastoral Stress
How Churches Got To Be the Way They Are
Ex-Pastors: Why do Clergy Leave Parish Ministry?
Healthiest Churches in the World
Homosexuality: Beyond Stereotypes
How to Know the Lord (Social Justice)
Is Gandhi in Heaven? (Christianity and Other Religions)
Masturbation: A Christian Perspective
Megachurches: Some Personal Reflections
Open Membership in Australian Baptist Churches
A Pastoral Survival Guide [2: Family of Origin and Self-Understanding]
A Pastoral Survival Guide [4: leadership and Interpersonal Skills]
Pastors in Transition
Pastors’ Wives
Recent Trends Among Evangelicals
Shattered Vows: Exodus from the Piresthood
Stress, Burnout and Ex-pastors
Teaching Ministry of the Church
Universalism: Will God Empty Hell?
Your Church Can Come Alive Discussion-starters
FINALLY, please note that on many topics (eg. creation/evolution, Islam, homosexuality, comparative religions, and some theological subjects) we have ‘pro’ and ‘con’ articles, to encourage mature thinking about complex issues. There are sound pedagogical reasons behind this approach: too many people – Christian or other – simply believe what they were taught when they were younger and impressionable. You’ll surely want to be open to varying points of view before you land somewhere, ideologically and theologically, won’t you?
If you really want to know my general theological position, it could roughly be termed ‘progressive evangelical’ – something similar to that of the popular author Brian McLaren (see eg. this summary/review of his Generous Orthodoxy . I’m open, however, to the insights of those to my right (eg. the reality of miracles, Jesus’ resurrection, and the reality of Satan/demons, Islamic fascism etc., but I’m generally critical of ‘simplicity this side of complexity’ fundamentalisms of all kinds) and left (eg. on the broad subject of homosexuality, but I’m also critical of the missiologically weak liberalism of the mainline Christian churches).
But as followers of Jesus Christ have always affirmed: ‘solo deo gloria‘: to God be the glory!
Shalom!/Salaam!/Pax!
Rowland Croucher
Related Articles:
- My Story (Rowland Croucher)
- Interview with Rowland Croucher
- A spirit of sound mind: Notes on a scam
- Richard Dawkins and the John Mark Ministries website
- J M M Website
This work, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.
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