Rowland Croucher (born 1937) is a retired Australian pastor, counsellor and author.

Early life and education

He was brought up in the

Open Brethren The Open Brethren, sometimes called Christian Brethren, are a group of Evangelical Christian churches that arose in the late 1820s as part of the Assembly Movement within the Plymouth Brethren tradition. They originated in Ireland before spreadi ...

in Sydney. Croucher graduated as a teacher from Bathurst Teachers' College; BA University of New England; LTh., Dip.RE,

Melbourne College of Divinity The University of Divinity is an Australian collegiate university of specialisation in divinity. It is constituted by eleven theological colleges from eight denominations. The University of Divinity is the direct successor of the second oldest ...

; ordained as a

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

pastor,

NSW Baptist Theological College Morling College is a Baptist college in Macquarie Park, New South Wales. It is affiliated with the Australian Baptist Ministries. It is an approved teaching institution of the Australian College of Theology and a registered teaching institution o ...

; Master of Education

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

; (post graduate) Bachelor of Divinity MCD.,

Doctor of Ministry The Doctor of Ministry (abbreviated DMin or D.Min.) is a professional doctorate, often including a research component, that may be earned by a minister of religion while concurrently engaged in some form of ministry. It is categorized as an advanced ...

Fuller Theological Seminary Fuller Theological Seminary is an interdenominational Evangelical Christian seminary in Pasadena, California, with regional campuses in the western United States. It is egalitarian in nature. Fuller consistently has a student body that compri ...

Personal life

Croucher and his wife Jan were one of the earliest couples in Australia to be ordained to ministry in Baptist churches. She had several ministries - mostly part-time or voluntary - at Heathmont, Syndal, Boronia and Doncaster East Baptist churches and was for several years also involved in prison ministry to women. She died in 2017 after 57 years of marriage. They had four children.

Career

After a five-year career as a high-school teacher, Croucher began training in 1964 for the

ministry in New South Wales. He worked for the InterVarsity Fellowship (1968–1970) (now the

Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students The Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students (AFES) is an Evangelicalism, evangelical Christianity, Christian Parachurch organization, parachurch organisation that aims to encourage university students to believe in and follow Jesus Christ. ...

(AFES)); then pastored churches in Australia: Narwee and Central Baptist Church - both in Sydney - and Blackburn Baptist Church in Melbourne, which became a "megachurch" in the late 1970s, with seven pastors, a salaried staff of 25 and 1,000 attending; plus several interim ministries. He was then, briefly, pastor at First Baptist Church,

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. From 1983 to 1991 he worked for

World Vision In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

Australia. Since 1991, Croucher has been founding director of John Mark Ministries, serving pastors, ex-pastors, church leaders and their spouses throughout Australia and elsewhere.Les Scarborough (NSW, now retired) and Psychologist/Trainer Tim Dyer (Tasmania and elsewhere) are colleagues. The John Mark Ministries website, with 20,000+ articles, claims to be one of the most accessed non-denominational religious websites in Australia. In 2011, Croucher added his voice to those of other Christian leaders calling for the introduction of

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...

in Australia.

Books

* ''Questions and Responses, Vol 1'', (Bayswater, VIC: Coventry Books, 2018; ISBN 9 780648 323310) * ''Recent Trends Among Evangelicals'', (Sydney: Albatross Books and Kent: MARC Europe, 1986; ISBNs 0 86760 025 X and 0 947697 45 4) * ''Still Waters Deep Waters: Meditations and Prayers for Busy People'' (Sydney: Albatross Books and Herts: Lion Publishing, 1987; ISBNs 0 86760 031 4 and 0 7459 1187 0) * ''High Mountains Deep Valleys: Meditations and Prayers for the Down Times'' (Sydney: Albatross Books and Herts: Lion Publishing, 1991; ISBNs 0 86760 090 X and 0 7459 1299 0) * ''Rivers in the Desert: Meditations and Prayers for Refreshment'' (Sydney: Albatross Books and Herts: Lion Publishing, 1991; ISBNs 0 86760 137 X and 0 7459 1709 7) * ''Gentle Darkness: Meditations and Prayers for Illumination'' (Sydney: Albatross Books and Herts: Lion Publishing, 1994; ISBNs 0 7324 1007 X and 0 7459 2431 X) * ''A Garden of Solitude: Meditations and Prayers for Encouragement'' (Sydney: Albatross Books and Herts: Lion Publishing, 1998; with bibliography and index to all five volumes in this series: ) * ''Grow!'' Meditations and Prayers for New Christians (Melbourne: JBCE, 1992; ) * ''Live!'' More Meditations and Prayers for New Christians (Melbourne: JBCE, 1993; ) * ''The Best of GRID'' (with Grace Thomlinson): Leadership, Ministry and Mission in a Changing World (Melbourne: World Vicion of Australia, 1993; ) * ''Your Church Can Come Alive'' (Melbourne: JBCE, 1991; ) * ''Sunrise Sunset: Prayers and Meditations for Every Day of the Year'' (HarperCollins, 1995; ) * ''The Family: At Home in a Heartless World'' (HarperCollins 1995; )

References

External links

Croucher's blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Croucher, Rowland 1937 births Living people 20th-century Australian Baptist ministers Religious leaders from Melbourne Writers from Melbourne Australian religious writers 21st-century Australian Baptist ministers