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 Evangelicalism, Evangelical Christianity, Christian churches that arose in the late 1820s as part of the Assembly Movement within the Plymouth Brethren tradition. They origi ...

in Sydney. Croucher graduated as a teacher from Bathurst Teachers' College; BA

University of New England University of New England may refer to: * University of New England (Australia), in New South Wales, with about 26,000 students * University of New England (United States), in Biddeford, Maine, with about 6,000 students See also * New England Coll ...

; LTh., Dip.RE,

Melbourne College of Divinity The University of Divinity is an Australian collegiate university with a specialised focus in divinity and associated disciplines. It is constituted by twelve theological colleges from seven denominations and three schools. The University of Di ...

; ordained as a

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

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 University of Theology, and is a member of the South Pacif ...

; Master of Education

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

; (post graduate) Bachelor of Divinity MCD.,

Doctor of Ministry The Doctor of Ministry (DMin) is a doctorate in religious ministry. It often includes an original research component, and may be earned by a minister of religion while concurrently engaged in ministry. It is categorized as an advanced doctoral de ...

Fuller Theological Seminary Fuller Theological Seminary is an Evangelical seminary in Pasadena, California, with regional campuses in the western United States. It is egalitarian in nature. Fuller has a student body of approximately 2,300 students from 90 countries and ...

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 student movement with affiliate groups on university campuses in Australia. It is a member of the International Fellowship of Evan ...

(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 cit ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. From 1983 to 1991 he worked for

World Vision The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk of a "plu ...

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 Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...

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