Prepare Them to Shepherd: Test, Train, Affirm, and Send the Next Generation of Pastors (Practical Shepherding)

"Brian Croft highlights the church's responsibility to call and affirm individuals who claim a personal, divine draw to the ministry. This undermines the highly individualistic sense of call that people speak about today, which is considered above evaluation or critique. This book will change minds about how we, as the body of Christ, affirm the pastoral ministry of individuals."

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"Brian Croft has helpfully heralded a call to local churches to return to the ownership of pastoral discipleship. Prepare Them to Shepherd will offer great clarity where much confusion has been found in recent years."

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"In Prepare Them to Shepherd, Brian Croft provides much-needed biblical discernment for ordinary pastors like myself. Pastor, read it to benefit your soul. Read it to equip your church. Read it to be amazed that you serve the Chief Shepherd."

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"When Paul wrote to the Galatians, he expected those churches to be able to discern whether the true gospel was being preached or whether what they were hearing was another gospel—even if the preacher was Paul himself or an angel from heaven! Brian Croft calls churches to take up responsibilities Paul expected them to exercise and pastors to do the kind of work Paul charged Timothy and Titus to do."

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"What Brian Croft has written will help pastors, churches, seminary professors, and students include an important but often-missed step in a man's journey from a mysterious call to the ministry to a local congregation's call of that man to a pastorate. Vocational and lay leaders should keep this work close at hand when a man professes an inward call to ministry."

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"Pastor Croft has led his church to develop an intentional approach to evaluating a man's sense of call. If you have responsibilities of spiritual leadership in your local church, you'll want to get this book, for you'll find it helpful every time a man indicates that he senses God's call to vocational ministry."

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"Brian Croft loves the Savior, and he loves the church. That comes through on every page of this book. For those who care that the harvest is plentiful and want the Lord of the harvest to send workers, this book helps us to be sure the workers are worth their wages. Croft tells us what to look for—and when we find it, how to cultivate it."

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"We live in an individualistic world where subjective and private experiences are often thought to be beyond contradiction. If someone claims he is called to ministry, who are we to doubt it? Brian Croft demonstrates, however, that an internal call to ministry must be matched by an external call. The people of God, the church of Jesus Christ, should play a major role in assessing whether someone is called to ministry. Prepare Them to Shepherd is biblically grounded and full of wise pastoral advice. I commend it enthusiastically."

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"The church possesses a unique responsibility to identify leaders among God's people and equip them for ministry among all peoples. As the Holy Spirit sets men apart for ministry, the local community of faith is accountable to God for training them up and sending them out in a way that glorifies Christ. I am thankful to Brian Croft for this immensely helpful, thoroughly biblical, and extremely practical resource that will serve well those called by God, their pastors, and their churches."

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Few books are more timely than this one, and I am thankful to Brian Croft for his faithful and careful consideration of the call to ministry

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