10. TEACHING... AND THREE INTERESTING CHURCHES...

I went teaching, frankly, not only to earn a living, but to gain skills which might be useful in pastoring or possibly theological lecturing later. I always knew it would be an interim vocation: teaching theology (or a subset like practical theology or apologetics) would be my main life's work. I'd known that since the age of about 16.

I taught at St. Andrew's Cathedral Choir School in Sydney for a term, while at Sydney University... more about that here.

After two years at Bathurst Teachers' College I was appointed to Captain's Flat Central School (k-10) 

- 1959-61 - teaching just about everything (except science, domestic science, woodwork/metalwork) to 12-15 year-olds. 

As any teacher will attest, first year out is challenging: how does one exert authority over teenagers whose hormones are mucking up? In the holiday-period between my first and second year I gave a lot of thought to this (in addition to thoughts associated with getting married to Jan!!!). The next four years were - professionally - a 'breeze'!

Then two years (1962-3) at Jannali Boys' High School (Sydney) 

 - where I taught Geography, History and English.

 While there I helped to start up an Interschool Christian Fellowship (ISCF) group. One of the co-leaders was Paul de Plater, who later became a Baptist pastor - and ministered for a short time at Narwee Baptist a few years after we left. He was a good man, given to depression, and later committed suicide. I remember having dinner with him at a restaurant in Cronulla, when his estranged son walked in. It was very moving. The other co-leader I have just met again at a UNOH conference (July 2008): David Chambers, who has had a lifetime of ministry in Christian education and serving the poor. He and his wife Margaret live at Coburg in Melbourne these days. 

After Jannali I entered the NSW Baptist Theological College, and began a student pastorate at Narwee Baptist Church.

*****


Churches in these five years:


1. Captain's Flat Presbyterian Church. 80+ year old Rev. Robertson drove in all weathers from Braidwood (I think twice a month) to preach at the services - an inspiring example of ministerial longevity.  


2. St. Thomas' Kingsgrove (1962). The memory of the evening vesper comes to mind regularly: Lead me Lord, lead me in thy righteousness, make my way plain before my face. For it is Thou, Lord, Thou Lord only, that makest me dwell in safety'. 


3. Mortdale Baptist Church. Rev. Colin Campbell was in inspiration in other ways - especially the value of 'home visiting' members of his congregation, and administration. (This was the largest Baptist church in NSW at the time, and he had only one other pastoral staff-member - Deaconess Elaine McCormack).


Here I've written an article about the teaching ministry of the church... 

11. MANHOOD

One of the books I wish I'd written is Steve Biddulph's Manhood. Now Steve is more liberal than I about pornography and masturbation and a few other things but essentially he's on to something very important. Indeed in the seminars I lead on manhood I make this global statement:

'Most of the problems in the Western world can be traced to our inability to create men from boys.'

Every pre-industrial society has initiation rites for precipitating boys aged 14 or 15 into manhood. We in the West have something called adolescence which inhibits/complicates this process. So what should we do? Men should take boys away and talk about being men - the challenges and the problems of manhood - do things together, enjoy recreational activities together, talk about Big Ideas with boys.

If we don't properly create a rite of passage for boys, they'll find destructive counterfeits - hence initiation ceremonies in the armed forces, teenage boys getting on to drugs and breaking into houses etc. The Kiwi movie 'Once Were Warriors' is the best I've ever seen on the destructive aspects of the breakdown of Western families.

Most men don't have real friends. They don't know how to grieve with other men. So they 'burnout' and have mid-life crises. Their emotional output is not matched by emotional input. And they've never properly dealt with their family-of-origin stuff.

Probably most of us males need a 'mid-life crisis' to wake up to ourselves. Mine was in Korea in 1977/8 (?) when I spent a night in tears in a chapel in the Full Gospel Central Church repenting of my sinfulness, selfishness, failures in ministry and parenting etc.

For more on this important topic visit these articles on men and fathering.

12. MARRIAGE

My best friend? My wife. One who really cares about me. Who asks how my day was and really wants to know...

Jan and I are different. She tells the story of some time early in our marriage when she asked if I'd help with something or other. I said 'no'. I have some urgent study to do. I'd put sermon preparation or a writing assignment far ahead of fixing something around the house, or realigning physical objects in another configuration. With Jan, my hunch is that if on the Wednesday before the Sunday she's due to preach she can think of a reason to make pumpkin soup instead of reading a commentary on Hosea, she'll head for the kitchen.

I remember Barry Jones, Australia's highest-profile 'public' intellectual being asked 'What do you hate doing?' His response: 'Nothing, except moving physical objects - including myself - around the earth!' I can resonate with that.

MARRIAGE ENRICHMENT

A few times Jan and I have led Marriage Enrichment seminars. From the feedback, they're always appreciated.

Here's the letter I've read to her in front of those people:

A Love-letter to my Spouse

My Darling Jan,

I am continually grateful that you're my wife. What a privileged man I am. We've had 39 and a half (now, as I write in 2010, *51*) years of happiness: in fact as we said to each other the other night, we've spent two-thirds of our lives together! You are the mother of our four wonderful children - and you've been a wonderful mum. Our love for each other has grown over the years; from romantic love to a mix of romantic and realistic love.

I thank God for

* Our courtship: they were a wonderful couple of years

* The fact that we were both virgins when we married

* Your willingness to go through the physical pain of giving birth to our four children, and your willingness to be sometimes father and mother to them, especially when they were little

* Your giving up your job for us to move to Canada

* The unexpected gifts you have given me - like the pocket watch a couple of weeks ago

* The fact that we can both get irritable - you with the computer, me with slow people

* Our holidays, where we walk together or sit and read in some of the most beautiful parts of the world

* The ease with which we can make decisions about our life together and our family

* Our new flat: we have never enjoyed living anywhere as much as we enjoy living here

* The enjoyment of lying in each others' arms and talking together - and of course

* Our sexual life: it's getting better with each passing year!

I love and admire you for...

* Your desire to do God's will

* Your honesty and integrity: you are more willing than I am to admit a mistake

* Your commitment to our family - our children and our grandchildren

* The way you have overcome being the victim of an abusive and angry father. I love the way you have tried to separate me from your father - particularly when I come on strong or am overbearing…

* Your care of me - meals, clothes: you are a wonderful home-maker

* Studying and equipping yourself for Christian ministry: doing two degrees in midlife is a great achievement

…and there are lots of other things

Please forgive me for...

* Having too great a commitment to ministry outside our home, which I now see was at the expense of our family - particularly in the case of our eldest two children

* Not helping more with the children when they were little - especially when they cried in the night.

* The times I was angry with you, and hurt you deeply, and for not expressing my displeasure more gently - and for not understanding better, particularly early in our marriage, what having an angry father was like for you

* Not helping more in the home

* Putting you down when I thought you should have known something

* Not being more patient when fixing computer problems - expecting you to remember ten complex things in one bang!

I pledge/promise before God that

* I will try to listen to your heart, your feelings

* I will try to be more domesticated

My prayer for you - and for us - is...

* That we shall find our significance in God, rather than in our training or accomplishments or anything else that humans prize

* That in the last few years of our pastoral ministries we will grow together in our knowledge of and love for God and in reaching out to others effectively

* That your beautiful desire to please others and be their servant will not diminish, but will also be tempered by a willingness to be served sometimes… that you will be more free to ask me to serve you

* That in our semi-retirement which is coming up we shall have a ministry together of encouragement to others - perhaps a ministry to pastors and leaders

I love you!

Rowland

13. CHILDREN & GRANDCHILDREN

We have four wonderful children – Paul, late-40s, Karen, 15 months younger, then after a ten year gap we got the machinery going again and two more girls joined our family – Amanda, now late mid-thirties, and Lindy, a year and a half younger.

Before my mid-life crisis (in Canada), I was a typical male workaholic, who aimed for excellence at my job/calling, and left too much of the parenting to the children’s mother. Our two eldest are still suffering the effects of all that (and they’re not in the church). The youngest two are very close and devoted to us, and to the Lord. Why? Simple, really: I bonded with them in their pre-teen and teenage years. In the year in Canada when Jan was out working and I was home studying, I’d go down the hill to meet Amanda and Lindy after school. The walk home was precious: I would hear all about their day. When Jan arrived home and asked about school etc. of course they’d told their story and just said ‘O.K.’ I remember commenting many times to Jan that she got to hear the eldest kids’ debriefings and I didn’t back then, and I – and they – missed out on so much!

Paul is quite an outstanding poet. Here's one of his offerings to an Internet poetry group (on which he has posted about 150 poems of the 600 he has written):

By Queen's Park Lake

Posted by Paul on July 10, 2001

a cygnet waddles up to
Jay, aged two, who
almost pats its
blur
of a furry-grey
bobbing head;
as I stand
an exclamation,
and its mother
a question mark

at just
the distances
required of us

by perfect grammar.

~~~

More of Paul's poetry...

~~~

One of the highlights for me as a parent was to participate a few years back in the 90th birthday celebrations for my mother in Sydney. Our three daughters drove to Sydney for the occasion (first time they'd ever been locked up in a car for two nine-hour stretches!). Karen and Amanda and I drove together to pick up 'Ma' as she was called from her retirement village in Cherrybrook, and it was lovely just relaxing with them as we drove through the suburbs of Sydney...

~~~

Karen has several strings to her professional bow: editing, marketing, a good knowledge of medicine, and lately, superannuation. She and Ross have produced two wonderful daughters - Abbie, who has an honours Arts degree, and Coralie, who has a degree - and a job - in landscape architecture.

Amanda is a trained teacher of English as a second language, and a counselor (for some years with a Christian school, counselling trouble teenagers). She is currently working with a Catholic preparation-for-marriage organization as a facilitator. She and John live downstairs in our home, and their two little girls are a daily delight!

Lindy is a leader in the missional organization working among the urban poor in a couple of Melbourne suburbs - Urban Neighbours of Hope. A proportion of my seminar, preaching and counselling donations go towards that organization's wonderful ministry. Here's a promo for one of their Surrender Conferences:

Update 2010: Lindy is now with an inner-city Melbourne ministry - Urban Seed.

One of my most cherished parental dreams is to be able to get as close to Karen and Paul as I am to Amanda and Lindy.

GRANDCHILDREN

Ever wondered what happens in a teenage boys' dressingroom after a win in a football match? (Our grandson Jay is dark-haired, without a top, and is leading the chant):



Shalom!/Salaam!

Rowland Croucher

14. NARWEE BAPTIST CHURCH

This morning's email text-for-today: Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. Isaiah 5:20-23

A good warning before I start this section. I had been teaching for four years and had known since youth that teaching was to equip me for pastoral ministry. We were attending St. Thomas'Anglican Church, Kingsgrove, where Rev. Dudley Foord was the pastor. It was terrific: good Bible teaching, effective evangelism, a healthy church. But I was convinced I could not become an Anglican. On a memorable day our two families went to the beach at Cronulla, where Dudley invited me to be the church's youth leader, and I told him I was entering the Baptist ministry! The Baptists, for some reason (!) wanted me to join a Baptist church in preparation for entering their Theological College, so we went to the nearest one - at Mortdale. It was the largest Baptist Church in NSW at that time, mostly due, I believe, to the effective administrative and pastoral gifts of the senior pastor, Rev. Colin Campbell.

So two good - and contrasting - churches provided complementary models for me as I entered College. I was 'part-time' (note the 'quotes') pastor at Narwee Baptist Church, which began to take off. We added a full-time youth pastor and his wife (Dave and Mary Kendall), then the following year a part-time deaconess. 

These were four hectic years: two young children, driving taxis Friday nights to help pay the bills, preaching twice most Sundays, giving a mid-week Bible study, speaking at lots of youth rallies here and there, running summer camps and beach missions, Crazy - but stretching!

Now I was a very confident young man: leading a Christian Fellowship at Teachers' College and then a suburban church in Sydney came easily to me. My Brethren upbringing taught me to encourage laypeople to study the Bible for themselves. Dudley Foord modeled enthusiastic evangelical pastoral leadership. And the Narwee folk were very flexible. That church grew in spite of there being nine other Baptist churches within a five-mile radius, and the suburb being built-out. It was the youngest Baptist church in the district, and it's a credit to the more senior folk there that my somewhat naive enthusiasm was tolerated at all.

Their weekly program: Sunday - 9.30 Sunday School, 11 Morning Worship, 3 Christian Endeavour, 6.45 Pre-service prayer meeting, 7 Evening Service. Communion - 1st Sunday morning and 3rd Sunday evening. Monday - 8 Men's Recreation Club. Tuesday - 7.15 Girls' Life Brigade. Wednesday - 11 Ladies' Fellowship (alternate weeks). 8 - Prayer and Bible Study. Thursday - 6.45 Life Boys. Friday - 7.30 Boys' Brigade. Saturday - 10 Girl Cadets. Quite busy!

John Maitland, a Baptist historian, prepared a history of NBC for its 50th anniversary (May 2004). Jan and I were there: a wonderful experience. He sent this questionnaire about our time at Narwee:

1.How did you come to be appointed to NBC?

The Baptist 'Home Work Council' put my name to the church, as I recall. And I think Rev. Colin Campbell had a hand in it somewhere (as he did with Mike Dennis' appointment). And as I was living locally, had been accepted as a candidate for ministry with the college, they had to find a church for me somewhere.

It all fitted!

2.Did you have a philosophy/plan in mind for the Church when you arrived?

As I was a teacher before this, I guess my aim was to 'grow people in Christ through Bible teaching'. I'm also, I think, something of an evangelist, and wanted the church to reach out to the community, and see people come to faith in Christ. I seem to have a gift of encouragement.

Reading old sermon-notes from NBC days is interesting (I knew more about some things then than I know now). I found myself often asking 'What's God doing in your life?' I've always had a horror of myself or others 'standing still' in their spiritual life.

3.Did you have any expectations of the Church?

Yes, that we might 'grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ' and grow numerically.

4.Was this your first Church?

In a sense, yes. I was president of the Christian Fellowship at Bathurst Teachers' College and that was good training in leadership of a 'quasi-church' (all we were missing in that group was sacraments!). And it was my first experience of being in leadership in a Baptist Church. I'd never attended a deacons' meeting, never baptized anyone, nor conducted a wedding before arriving at NBC (talk about 'steep learning curve'!)

5.As your ministry at NBC developed did you develop priorities for ministry there?

Confession-time: the church was so responsive, and some of the lectures at the Baptist College which I attended (or was supposed to attend) four days a week so dull, I devoted quite a bit of energy pastoring, visiting, preparing three sermons or Bible studies most weeks at the beginning - as well as sitting for, I think, 13 or 14 exams at the end of each of the first two years. (Crazy!). Oh... and leading beach missions on holidays, driving a taxi one night a week to help with family finances, playing sport regularly, lecturing at both the Baptist College and the Sydney Missionary and Bible College... And did I mention being married and fathering two gorgeous children? Back to ministry: personal/pastoral priorities were to encourage people to grow in their faith. In terms of the church, besides the usual pursuits of study, prayer and service, we developed an emphasis on 'overseas missions'...

6.How did Dave Kendall's appointment come about? Also Barbara Wadson's appointment as Deaconess?

Dave was part of a 'Youth Crusade' in our church from 'Ambassadors for Christ' and in conversation I got the impression he was open to a call to youth ministry in a local church. The church had no spare money: when they called me they had to increase the stipend to support a part-time married pastor, and also purchase a manse (in Bonds Road). So one memorable night, after Jan and I committed ourselves to raising our tithe to a fifth of our small income, I divided the congregation into four segments, and got on the phone. (The four groups: those with money and teenagers; those with teenagers but not a significant income; those with money and no kids; and finally the young people themselves). By the end of the night we had pledges, for just one year, sufficient to cover a married full-time pastor's stipend, plus renting a house and purchasing a car. This method of 'financing by faith' we used again at Blackburn Baptist Church to call Robert Colman. The rationale for all this can be found in my book, Your Church Can Come Alive. Dave and Mary were with us for two and a half happy years - a time in which many young people came to faith in Christ, and quite a few left for Bible College training and missionary work. (Remember John Stewart, who went on to a significant ministry with Gospel Recordings?) The Youth Choir under Dave's leadership was also quite a feature in those days! (Remember Dave singing 'Roll Jordan Roll'?)

Barbara Wadson was added as a third staff member (part-time) in, I think, the last two years of our ministry at Narwee. The church had grown beyond one pastor's ability to handle all the pastoral needs, and her visitation ministry, especially to women, was very fruitful.

7.How did you work together as a team? Were there any informal or formal guidelines?

I think we could have had more 'team enrichment' times together: life was so busy back then. But we got on well. Team members knew their gifts and their roles, and were given quite a bit of freedom to operate within broad guidelines.

8.In retrospect, what are the things that stand out

* for the NBC?

The growth of the church, through many conversions, and some transfers; the remarkable commitment to missionary giving (someone calculated that it rose 2000% in those four years); and above all the spirit of unity that pervaded the church. I can't remember a cranky person or a 'hidden agenda'from anywhere in those four years. Remarkable!

* for you?

I remember Joyce Emerson saying early in my time at NBC: 'Why don't we have a hymn, a prayer, and the offering, and you preach for the rest of the time?' I'd never heard that approach to a 'theology of worship' before, and it astounded me that anyone would want to listen to me for double the length of a normal sermon! But the encouragement from the church in terms of preaching/teaching, visiting/counseling, and leadership generally was a wonderful platform for confidence-in-ministry... (Joyce also guided me through the order of service for my first wedding: I still have her notes somewhere, like - 'tell the bride to hand her bouquet to the bridesmaid at this point'!!!)

I recall (with some humility) the deference paid to this young (25-year-old) pastor. Many called me 'pastor' rather than 'Rowland' and acknowledged my leadership in ways that still astonish me, given my inexperience in matters 'Baptist' or 'pastoral'. There are several pastoral highlights - like the man who phoned me at 2 am to tell me with horror that Satan had come into his bedroom; or the confessions of people who trusted me with their deepest secrets, or their marriage/sexual problems, or their wrestling with faith and doubt, or Col Emerson's battle with 'black depression'. Or ministering at the bedside of people who were very ill (like Shirley Date)...

9. It would also be helpful to have Jan's perspective

Jan: When I arrived Gwen Thompson said 'Of course you'll be the president of the Baptist Women's Fellowship!' I responded (feeling quite fearful): 'I've never been to a BWF meeting: why don't you carry on with the job and we'll look at it in a year's time?' Which she did very graciously (and competently) while this 'raw' pastor's wife learnt as much as she could.

Then I did the job for a couple of years, until I went back teaching in our fourth year. I remember some of the picnics we had, where we followed instructions to find the destination, answering questions along the way. We started a senior ladies' fellowship, which did craft and other activities, and reached out to several older women who joined the church. I was in the choir (led by Graeme Baillie), which was great: but the congregational singing at Narwee was always hearty. I led Girls' Brigade as captain for a couple of years. I taught RE in local schools one morning a week while Nancy Lawson minded our two small children. We also had quite a few people-without-accommodation stay in our home for short or long periods (two who come to mind were Marjorie Bee and Helen Sharman). When we moved into 70 Bonds Road I felt we were moving into a palace: it was a beautiful home. I remember parking the VW under a window in the weatherboard church while our two children were asleep outside: something no one would do these days! The overall impressions were of 'busyness' and 'happiness'.

10. Anything else that comes to mind as you trawl your memories of NBC Rowland?

One night in November the first year we were there we had a baptismal service. At the end I gave an 'invitation' to those who were 'deciding to follow Jesus' to come to the front of the sanctuary. I don't know how many crowded down there - 11? 15? - but it was the first time I'd ever experienced a response like that. It was wonderful! (And as most of them were young people, that made it easy to convince the church to call a youth pastor).

The Missionary Conventions, organized by a committee headed up by Albert Stacey, opened our eyes to the needs of the world. Stewart Dinnen from WEC spoke at one of them: a weekend which gave Marjorie Bee (I've forgotten her maiden name!) a sense of call to go study at the WEC college in Launceston, where she met Graham - and the rest, as they say, is history!

I recall with joy working with those at the heart of the fellowship - deacons and their families - the Emersons, Thompsons, Jeffreys, Baillies and other faithful people. Monty Mitchell and his family joined us halfway through my time at NBC: Monty loved visiting people in their homes, and he called on hundreds of folk (especially those connected in some way with Boys' Brigade). Many other good, faithful people joined us - like the Jamiesons (from PNG), the Taylors...

And some of the 'characters' -

* Noel Freeman, an older single man who was a volunteer with Campaigners for Christ, and served very faithfully as a deacon;

* A gentleman who came from I-don't-know-where who was a 'fruitarian' (he only ate fruit) and did tree-lopping for a job. (He'd climb to the top of the highest tree on church picnics, to everyone's horror and astonishment).

* A lady (I've forgotten her name) who lived in a half-finished house. She wasn't well physically, and we organized the church to mow her lawn (which was two feet high at the beginning!)

Finally, after four happy years it was a joy (and a relief) to hand over to Mike Dennis, hopefully without too many 'skeletons in the cupboard'. The church was ready for a full-time pastor, and a building program, and an expansion of its ministries, and Mike and Meg, who are dear friends to this day, were the ideal couple for the job!

P.S. The brilliant Ship of Fools people had a mystery worshipper visit Narwee Baptist Church.

Their photos: (the building extensions began after we left) -

Ad maiorem Dei gloriam! (For the greater glory of God!)

Rowland and Jan Croucher

15. PREACHING

I've written elsewhere about what I think preaching is all about, so here I'll limit myself to some anecdotal material. (More to come)

16. THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE

As already mentioned I've known since teenage years that I was destined for some sort of preaching/pastoral ministry. Teaching was the best preparation I knew in terms of broad academic training, and experience in communication and crowd control (!). So after five years of teaching in two NSW secondary schools I applied for the Baptist ministry.

The selection procedures were interesting. I was to read Henry Cook's What Baptists Stand For (quite illuminating), write out my doctrinal beliefs and the books I had read (by then it was about 1000 so I had to be selective), preach on the text 'Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world' to about ten serious people sitting around a table, and answer their questions. Sixteen of us applied that year (1963); I was one of four selected (the others were all my seniors by many years).

The College was going through some turmoil, with the Principal in the gun with some in the Baptist Union (R E Walker, prothonotary of the Supreme Court, F J Church are two who come to mind) for being ecumenical. (Strange that, as Dr. Roberts-Thompson had already written a book on the subject which apparently none of the nominating people had read). He left after the first term I was there, and ex-Principal George Morling - an amazing man, and something of a saint, but a little doddery - came in for a term or two to teach theology.

I was in College primarily to become credentialled. Although I loved study - particularly theology and Bible - I was impatient with the mediocrity of the teaching staff's abilities at the College, so I was choosy about which lectures I turned up for. I actually passed some of those exams without studying for them, and topped the College in theology in my first year, got all sorts of prizes for this and that but put most of my time into the church (a student pastorate at Narwee Baptist). I had an idea God was calling me to specialized youth, or student, or teaching ministries and I should put most of my efforts into church-building, as it could be the first and last church I would ever pastor. I could catch up on theology later. Lecturers who read from their notes, who could not answer questions outside the written material in front of them (only one of them had a doctorate) did not inspire me to drive for 45 minutes in peak hour across Sydney! Exceptions were Dr. J A Thompson ('JAT') in Old Testament, and later two younger staff recruited from pastoring - Vic Eldridge (Old Testament) and Ron Rogers (New Testament and Greek). Except for Dr. Thompson none of the others had published much...

Just this morning I read in an old Expository Times (June 1975) journal - a monthly magazine for pastors/theologians - a review of JAT's IVP commentary on Deuteronomy. Brief excerpt: 'Well informed, but not always well argued. ... The author's own preference for tracing the core of the work back to Moses is supported by no arguments of any substance...'

So JAT was a 'published conservative' - but was sometimes more progressive in his lectures. Occasionally he would complain about something he'd said in class being misquoted by a student-pastor in a sermon. An indignant elder would contact the College to verify the particular heresy. (I'm glad in retrospect that the few opportunities I've had to apply for a position in a theological seminary didn't come to anything!)

Together with pastoring the church, these were busy years! In the first two years at College I added an LTh and Dip.RE to the College exams (total: 12-14 three-hour exams in each of those two years!). I also taught at both the Baptist College (sneaky that: if I taught Greek I had to be there, right?) and the Sydney Missionary and Bible College (English, Gospels),

Back to the confidence-thing... Somewhere in my past I was injected with pedagogical serum: I am an inveterate putter-of-things-right, which invariably gets me into trouble with those committed to the status quo. If the Baptist Denomination in NSW and its College were victims of their addiction to mediocrity I had to fix that, eh? I wrote letters to the national Baptist paper asking why there were a dozen Anglican churches in Sydney with more than 100 young people in Bible study groups - but not one Baptist church. I challenged the Baptists' prevailing fundamentalism: why have a doctrine of inerrancy for the Bible if the Bible doesn't for itself? Etc. Etc. Now you can guess the response. Who's this young upstart who thinks he can fix everything, and is so arrogant he doesn't attend half the lectures at the College he's supposed to? So I developed a reputation as a stirrer... Didn't really bother me (mostly) as I had regular encouraging feedback from like-minded people and many who were influenced by all this provocation to repent and grow and change...


But, to their credit, the staff were gracious (though I heard secondhand - and to this day still - about their mutterings). They even awarded me the once-in-four-year 'Sister Sanders Scholarship' to buy books. Since I was always buying books anyway, I spent it on a hi-fi music system! 


Some thoughts/jottings about theological colleges:


* In matters spiritual, we are all, in some sense, children posing as philosophers, or theologians. 


* I audited some lectures in a theological college as recently as two decades ago, where the professor read from his notes, and there was no invitation to ask questions! 


* The first pastors' conference I was invited to address was to the Victorian and Tasmanian Churches of Christ ministers, sometime in the 1970s. There I asked a question I replicated in many subsequent conferences: 'What two problems would you say you have most trouble with?' Response: management of people, and of time. Next question: how many seminary modules did you have on these two important areas? Answer: none. One pastor said: 'I was under the obviously mistaken impression my theological college was preparing me for ministry. It wasn't. They were simply filling our heads with theology, Bible, biblical languages, and history.' Fortunately all that has been changing since then. 


~~~~~

After College I was invited to become a student Staffworker with the Intervarsity Fellowship (now the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students). It is to the denomination's credit that although I was 'bonded' to serve them for, I think, another three years, they released me, and so far as I know I was one of the few (any?) to be 'ordained' (strange term) to an interdenominational ministry immediately upon graduation. The three following years were heady, inspirational, and evangelistically effective as I traveled the country speaking on tertiary campuses. More of that later.

17. INTERVARSITY FELLOWSHIP

As I wrote in the last chapter I was 'ordained' (I'll explain the quotes somewhere else) to a ministry with students after I left theological college. The Intervarsity Fellowship (now the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students) had Christian groups on most of Australia's tertiary campuses, and I wandered around encouraging those groups - 'training tomorrow's leaders for Christ' as we used to put it.

The AFES these days is more theologically conservative than the IVF I worked with. I told them I could not put my name to a bit in their doctrinal basis about the inerrancy of the Bible (how can I believe something about the Bible which the Scriptures don't assert for themselves?) but as I could affirm the 'authority' of the Bible, and as I was known as something of an evangelist since Bathurst Teachers' College days, they seemed happy to have me on board.

Ian Burnard was my boss, and an excellent one (ie. he allowed me maximum freedom to pursue the particular ministry I felt called to!). I traveled all over Australia, conducting seminars, missions, and did a lot of counseling in universities, teachers' colleges, and other tertiary institutions. They were heady days in terms of preaching in many churches, speaking at youth rallies and camps etc.

I wrote a letter to friends explaining my calling to serve the future teachers of our land (my first two years were spent mainly in Teachers' Colleges; the third as Staffworker for Sydney's Universities and Colleges. Here's the text of the letter:


~~~


"Who'd be a school-teacher? I just wouldn't have the patience!" "I'd probably throttle a disobedient kid, and get into trouble with the parents..." "The way we used to play up on our teachers... no I don't want to be one". 


It's true that the lot of some teachers is not a happy one. Some are not of the right emotional temperament to withstand the pressures of this profession.


And yet I still believe that the most wonderful and productive profession in the world is that of teaching. 


I will always be a teacher - I couldn't be anything else now. I probably won't teach English and History any more. Probably the future might see me teaching theology, or New Testament... That's in God's hands.


This year I've begun to teach teachers. My job takes me to the campuses of Teachers' Colleges around Australia. So far as I know I'm the first person ever to work as a full-time Christian counsellor among TC students in Australia. My parish is 30,000 strong, in 40 Colleges.

My role: minister, enthuser, Bible study leader, evangelist, asker of questions, 'prodder' if Christians are not witnessing adequately in their College mission-field, an 'encourager' if they are. I try to help the Christian Fellowships (CFs) which exist in all the Colleges, to learn God's will - in Bible study and prayer, in loving each other, in talking to non-Christians about Christ, and generally to help Christian leaders lead.

Why did I accept this job with alacrity? Because thesed youn people are going to determine what Australians will be like in the next generation. They will mould the lives of people who will guide the destiny of the world. They have an authority and power that is awesome.


You see, man is no simply the creature at the top of the evolutionary scale. Although he is different from the animals in that he has a lengthened infancy, the difference involves far more. Man has an immortal soul, the animals haven't. Man has a teachable spirit, a capacity to love God and unlovely people, an innate quest for nobility and the "good life". But a man or woman is made or marred in childhood. By the age of three, 50% of all the attitudes a person will imbibe have already taken firm root. By the age of 15, the twig is firmly bent into an almost full-grown tree. And for the next 50 years, the life lived will be an "out-living" of what is learned in that first decade and a half.


So you see, the teacher is a V.I.P.


Wise old Socrates used to say that if he could get to the highest point in Athens, he would lift up his voice and proclaim "What mean ye, fellow-citizens, that scrape every stone to get wealth together and take so little care of your children to whom ye must some day relinquish all?"


That the child-life is important is very evident as we turn to the Scriptures. Jesus himself was a child. He might have 'become flesh and dwelt among us' as a mature adult, but God saw fit to put him through the long preparatory stages of childhood before the comparatively brief period of his public ministry. Christ put a child into the centre of the group, rebuking the disciples when they argued that adults had prior claim to His time. His last charge to Peter: 'Feed my lambs.' 


Jesus knew that the child's mind is plastic: 'wax to receive and granite to retain' as someone has put it.


A university professor gave up his work among adults to teach boys. When asked for his reason he said: 'If you were to write your name on brick so that it would remain, would you write it before or after it was baked?'


Jesus died for all the children, all the children of the world. Most adult Christians were converted to Christ when children or early adolescents.


I regard my present job as an important one. Can you now see why? A high school teacher who teaches for twenty years has imparted ideas, attitudes, and information to about 4000 young people. Each pupil has this teacher in front of his class for about 70 hours a year. Something must rub off... particularly if the teacher is known in the school as a committed Christian.


So in a nutshell, my task this year is to get as many of these Very Important People called teachers to become more mature Christians, before they arrive at their first school appointment.


Will you pray for me?


~~~




Broadsheets were the way we evangelized campuses: 'Was Jesus God?' (I re-typed it recently for our website) was reproduced (ie. roneoed) thousands of times, and proved to be a winner. I also read another recently - 'Was Jesus Too Good to be True?' And another was a one-page excerpt from John Stott's Basic Christianity titled 'What About Jesus?' Also a precis of C S Lewis's The Problem of Pain (foolscap, two sides, single-spaced!) - a book I read five times to absorb its powerful message (which I now have a few problems with, but that's another issue!). 


I also wrote letters, articles and editorials for the national Baptist paper - The Australian Baptist. Here's an excerpt from an editorial I wrote for the issue of 30.7.69:

Generally, Christian students are as quietist as the churches from which they emanate. Their 'propaganda' hardly begins to match that of the New Left, either in quantity or persuasiveness. Sometimes their cliches, or stereotyped concepts of 'canned evangelism' inhibit their witness. They are, comparatively, poor apologists for their faith. Some over-react to any new truth they happen o discover; many espouse a cerebral neo-Calvinism; others are embracing Pentecostal experiences with their 'promise of pneumatic bliss' as TS Eliot puts it. Non-evangelical Christian students are excited about their latest concept - a 'Christian presence' within the universities (whatever that might mean). 

Christian students have a rational faith, and an ever-relevant Saviour. We must encourage them to read theology (how many churches have a book-rack?), and train them in Christian leadership. Does your church pray for its students, and for the Inter-Varsity Fellowship? Does it provide a strong diet of Bible teaching? Too many students are thoroughly disenchanted with their local churches, many with good reasons. The Christian Church has failed to take students' doubts and questions seriously... 

And so on... two single-spaced pages of foolscap (I hope some people read it). It was signed Rev. Rowland C. Croucher, Inter-Varsity Fellowship, 511 Kent St., Sydney, 2000. 


*****

This morning in my devotions I was reading an old (June 1975) Expository Times - a monthly journal for clergy and theologians.


In it was a somewhat critical review of Dr. Leon Morris's IVP commentary on Luke. It said, in part: 'Dr Morris is well-versed in the current trends of (biblical) criticism and has provided a well-documented survey with measured criticism in some respects... While recognizing, albeit with considerable reservations, the values of Form and Redaction Criticism, he seems rather to react over-strongly against the skeptical tendencies... All in all there is much that is useful and good in this volume but we cannot avoid the regretful conclusions that it is not quite up to the standards we have come to expect from Dr. Morris.' 


I stayed regularly in the Morris' flat on my IVF Staffworker trips to Melbourne. Leon Morris was a shy, gentle man, and sometimes hummed to himself in conversation-pauses. But he was a good friend of the IVF. A decade later I served with him on the council of the Victorian Evangelical Alliance.


Besides Leon Morris I have fond memories of friendship or acquaintance with key supporters of the IVF - like Charles Troutman (Gen. Sec. when I was president of the Bathurst CF), Ian Hore-Lacy (now a Facebook friend and still doing high-level scientific research and writing; I used to stay in his flat in Toorak (?) regularly), former Staffworkers Barry Newman (later a science teacher) Allen Chapple (who'd read about 1000 theological books before he joined IVF staff), Bill Andersen, John and Moyra Prince (who wrote an 80-page history of IVF/AFES), the then-governor of the Reserve Bank, Harold Knight (who once took me out to lunch), Klaas Runia (he gave a brilliant talk on the atonement, and I asked him if it was possible to get a copy of his ms. and he insisted I take his originals!), John Chapman (I don't think he was a uni graduate, but he certainly had a lot of influence over a couple of generations of students), Dudley Foord, Chua Wee Hian, John Reid, Anna Hogg, Edwin Judge, and Dr John Hercus (we still get Christmas cards from his widow Marjorie). Further back, I remember Howard Guinness, who started it all in Australia, addressing our IntersSchool Christian Fellowship group at Sydney Boys' High School in the early 1950s (he was then rector of St Michael's Vaucluse). I don't remember anything he said except that God had given him a large chin, and he had to learn to live with it!

18. MEDIA and INTERNET

Fascination with mass media was birthed in my teenage years, from two sources - one dysfunctional (my loneliness, and consequent desire to be heard/read by a lot of people out there so that I could attain some sense of significance); the other more commendable (my calling to communicate the Good News with as many as possible). 


Professionally, all this led me to studying the social psychology of Mass Media and Communication within a Masters' degree at the University of Sydney (I'll summarize all that sometime) and to accepting a job broadcasting Christian stuff on radio, with the Christian Broadcasting Association. This position was full-time in 1971 (weekly salary $80, $68 after tax!); part-time (writing weekly Christian news bulletins) in 1972 (while pursuing a part-time ministry at Central Baptist Church, and completing that Masters' degree). The most successful program I was involved in was the 45-minute 'Jesus the Revolutionary' (with Mal Garvin and John Hirt). 90 commercial radio stations used up a lot of their mandatory one-hour-per-week-for-religion with this - at it was at the height of the Jesus Revolution era. 


Something else I did in those years was talk often on talk-back radio (mostly with Ormsby Wilkins). Here's a summary of one interesting conversation.


It's been an interesting ride since then doing occasional interviews on national radio and TV. For some of these see here (about homosexuality), here (exclusive brethren), here (homosexuality again), here (on the Bible) etc. etc. If you're desperate to read/view some more Google will probably help. The latest (October 2010) - here .


Then there's the Internet: a wonderful medium for communicating with a lot of people. The first corner - some of the 100,000 Usenet newsgroups. A few of us got the only Australian Christian newsgroup going back in the 1990s. Here's the FAQ for that group. (Earlier versions here.) Because Usenet groups comprise anybody at all (most of the groups are unmoderated), sometimes you can have some dramas on them (chase the history of this newsgroup - alt.christnet.christianlife - for a prize example).  Liberty University invited me to give a lecture on Usenet Evangelism. 


The JMM website has gathered momentum over the years - and gets up to 10,000 unique visitors a day (it's up there with three others in Australia: the official Catholic and Islamic and Salvation Army websites - though the SA incorporates all the local ones). The Google ads bring in a little income each month to our ministry.


Another way we have profited from the Internet is selling F W Boreham books on eBay. Boreham was/is Australia's and NZ's only significant religious collectible author. I eventually sold my personal collection (for $22,000!) when our ministry needed a car. If you see Borehams, buy them (if they're $10 or less for common titles) - you might find a bargain! I'm also beginning another collection if anyone out there has no need of theirs!


Browsing and evangelizing on the 'Net can have all sorts of unintended consequences. Like:


* Being called an idiot by young people for having certain views on this and that! (I don't meet those people in real life!)


* Getting strongly-worded legal 'cease and desist' emails from an American mob who reckon they had a proprietory ownership of the name 'Trading Post'. We'd been operating the F W Boreham Trading Post for years until then


* About every couple of months when I'm having a lazy day off I - like most honest people when they're prepared to admit it, and careful people when they're wise - do some 'ego-googling'. I found there was a sick man in another country who took on my name. I get nice emails from notables who find themselves mentioned or their book reviewed on the JMM site. And occasionally cranky emails from some author or other who wants more significant mention of their website or whatever. (I don't believe in copyright for my personal stuff: s'long as it's 'copied right')


* Occasionally I get an email from someone from my past: we probably never would have met apart from this marvelous medium. This of course includes stories about 'Rowland you were preaching in such-and-such a place, about ____, and it changed my life!' Marvelous! These emails include grateful - and occasionally critical - stories from former parishioners. See the chapter here on Blackburn Baptist Church for some examples...

19. INTERIM MINISTRIES

1. CENTRAL BAPTIST CHURCH: Halfway through 1971 the deacons of the Central Baptist Church in downtown Sydney - Australia's first-established Baptist Church - approached me and asked if I would conduct an interim ministry for them. They were looking for a full-time pastor, and wanted someone to be the key preacher/pastor in the meantime. It seemed a good idea, and we had eighteen happy months there.

One of the challenges for this congregation was to continue to reach out to the Chinese community in Haymarket - which I feel they did well. The services were translated into Chinese and every Sunday we joined the Chinese people for lunch in the basement. But with the experience I had had with students I challenged the church to reach out to the thousands of nurses and students within their catchment area. Because I did not intend to stay I believed it was my job to 'open the windows' and prepare this very conservative congregation for change. We loosened up the services, I preached on topics of interest to students... and they started coming in dozens. On our last Sundays eighteen months later the church sanctuary and the gallery were full.

But these new people were not members, and had no power in terms of selecting a future pastor. About 8-9 months into our ministry there the deacons unanimously invited me to consider the full-time pastorate at 'Central'. I was hesitant, and I told them I would not have led in freeing up the whole place if I knew I'd be a candidate for the pastorate. The deacons insisted: so I agreed for my name to go to a meeting of members for a vote. I have a document which was agreed upon: continue to write church radio news for the Christian Broadcasting Association a half-day a week; continue to study for the Master of Education degree; and be free to preach elsewhere one day a month - particularly among students - Australian and overseas - and nurses. Proposed salary: Weekly stipend $100, Car Allowance $16 per week, Manse (or rent of $40 per week), Telephone $4 per week (approx!).

Here's an interesting paragraph in the Statement: 'Some changes in the church organization and methods which may assist in the further development of the church as a whole and which should be thoroughly examined by the diaconate are: (i) a possible split of the diaconate into two sections, an Administrative group and a Pastoral group; (ii) the work of the Church Council transferred to the full diaconate with committee leaders reporting directly to them; (iii) Any venture which is outside the church programme and budget but approved by the church should be proceeded with in faith; (iv) a Communion Service in a revised form to be reinstituted on Sunday evenings.'

That church business meeting was interesting: people who there whom very few knew: but, yes, they were on the roll; and obviously rounded up by phone for the occasion. I just lost the 2/3 vote, and the deacons were disappointed. So much so that they came back to me and asked for me to stay on anyway, and they would re-submit my name later. I told them I would pray about it.

In the meantime three ministries 'headhunted' me: the South Australian Baptist Union to be a Christian Education person; Carey Baptist Grammar School in Melbourne to be their senior chaplain; and Blackburn Baptist Church to be senior pastor. I did what I've only rarely done: put it all into four columns, listed the variables down the side of the page, and prayerfully weighed up the pros and cons. BBC came out on top, and rest, as they say (again) is history...

2. OTHER INTERIMS

Here are other churches I've served in an Interim or part-time capacity - from a couple of months to a couple of years, roughly in chronological order, and one or two key memories:

ETTALONG BAPTIST CHURCH NSW. The church had filled the swimming-pool in the back-yard of the Manse with dirt, because (apparently) the pastor shouldn't be regarded as having any luxurious privileges some of the congregation didn't enjoy!


In 1984 I was surprised to read this in a Christian magazine: '... The early morning light of that Christmas Day shone upon me as I knelt in a nearby church, and the minister led me in prayers of repentance and renunciation of the satanic ouija board. Its predictions never came to pass, because now I had tapped into a higher power which shattered the evil predictions and rendered them void and useless.' I was privileged to be that pastor at Ettalong Baptist Church that day.

ASHFIELD BAPTIST CHURCH NSW. I was youth pastor for a year, and enjoyed the preaching ministry of John Curtis. When I suggested that future 'church prayer meetings' would probably move away from mid-week church-wide events to small groups it was greeted with severe skepticism!

GYMEA BAPTIST CHURCH NSW. We went there after the Vancouver adventure. The secretary was sure we were called to pastor the church. Stayed with a lovely family - the Mapstones - all four of us. Jan I and our two girls learned to water-ski on the Georges River. The church eventually called Ross Clifford, now principal of Morling (Baptist) College and recently President of the Baptist Union of Australia, who had a good ministry there.

WANDIN BAPTIST CHURCH VICTORIA. My main memories surrounded the purchase of the property next to the little old church building (we met in the senior citizens' set-up across the road: I attended the opening of their new church building earlier this year (2010) and felt the church was in good hands!); and also the significant number of hurting people in the church. The secretary committed suicide a couple of years after I left. This one-year ministry helped us financially after the commencement of John Mark Ministries - a 'faith-ministry' with no other guaranteed income.

GLEN EIRA COMMUNITY CHRISTIAN CHURCH (BAPTIST) VICTORIA. The outstanding feature of this church was the wonderful way they blessed people who left (and unfortunately there have been quite a few). Mick and Dorrie Terrington and their family were the 'core group' in the church, supported by some other beautiful families and people. It was a privilege to have been there for several years, and to visit occasionally since... The church has unfortunately shrunk in size, but now concentrates on a ministry to Indian families under the leadership of John Piercey.

Shalom!

Rowland Croucher