In recent decades, many churches have recovered an emphasis on biblical preaching,

on healthy church membership, and on the centrality of the gospel.

Ministry to the poor and a focus on adoption have become more and more common,

and these are wonderful developments. And yet, one area still remains largely in the shadows and too often neglected.

The care of widows.

In our interview today, I'm talking with Brian Croft, a former pastor and the founder of practical shepherding,

a ministry focused on equipping pastors and church

leaders in the essential yet often overlooked practical matters of ministry. Brian is also the co-author,

along with Austin Walker, of caring for widows, ministering God's grace from Crossway. Let's get

started.

Well, Brian, thank you so much for joining us today on the Crossway podcast.

Hey, I'm glad to be with you. Thanks for having me.

So you're the founder and director of a ministry called Practical Shepherding, which is focused on training and equipping pastors in relation to a lot of different practical areas of ministry. I wonder if you could just

speak to that a little bit, because I think that connects into what we're going to talk about today.

When did you found practical shepherding, and what's your vision for what you're trying to do there?

So I've been a pastor for the last 25 years and about 12 years ago, just out of my own pastoral ministry in the local church,

training guys for ministry.

You know, so realizing, you know, I'm in Louisville, Kentucky, so I I know there a lot of them who are at the seminary getting great theological

training but seminaries don't train pastors for ministry as far as practical

ministry and that's just kind of a reality and so I take it upon myself that it's

my responsibility as a pastor of a local church to train guys to know how to do

ministry so I just started doing that.

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