Sunday, January 04, 2009

Ministering God's Grace in Times of Illness

If you're a pastor or in pastoral ministry, you should seriously consider picking up a copy of Brian Croft's short, practical, biblical book: Visit the Sick: Ministering God's Grace in Times of Illness, with a foreword by Mark Dever.

Here are some of the endorsements:
"In this little volume, Brian helps us to think straightforwardly and faithfully about God’s truth and God’s people. His advice is as sound as it is simple. . . . Read this book, and let Brian help you in helping others."

Mark Dever
Senior Pastor, Capitol Hill Baptist Church,
(From the Foreword)

"What do pastors do when visiting the sick? Such visits are crucial both eternally and pastorally. Brian Croft has written a marvelous piece to assist us. His work is theologically grounded, gospel centered, and full of practical wisdom. I recommend it enthusiastically."

Thomas R. Schreiner
James Buchanan Harrison Professor of New Testament Interpretation, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Teaching Pastor, Clifton Baptist Church

"I read Brian Croft’s Visit the Sick with glad thanksgiving! Visitation is a timely and much-needed topic for pastors and Christians in our day. And Croft addresses it with sound thinking and very helpful suggestions. Visit the Sick sets out to provide sensitive, God-honoring, and gospel-driven counsel to pastors and Christians. And it hits the mark. If you’re like me, someone who feels ill-equipped to say the right words or do the right things at someone’s sick bed, you’ll delight in this book and give God great praise for moving Brian Croft to write it. May the Lord be pleased to move us to visit our people and by that means awaken legions!’

Thabiti Anyabwile
Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church, Grand Cayman Island

"Every pastor—and many other church leaders as well—will visit the sick. Some feel that their visits are fruitful times of ministry; others feel very awkward. Very, very few, however, have the intuitive people skills and the pastoral expertise to do this successfully without some training. Brian Croft’s book provides concise, wise, and practical instruction for this important aspect of ministry. Read it for yourself, study it as a staff, or use it as a training resource for all those in your church who regularly visit the sick. It can help turn a routine responsibility into a time of effective ministry.’

Donald Whitney
Associate Professor of Biblical Spirituality, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
President, The Center of Biblical Spirituality

"Visit the Sick is an excellent and much needed resource today when the actual practice of 'shepherding souls' is so often neglected. Many younger pastors (and not so young ones as well) have never received the sort of very practical guidance which Brian Croft gives in this book. This book has the potential to be a great blessing to pastors and those they shepherd. It will now be a recommended text in my Pastoral Ministries class and I heartily commend it to others.’

Ray Van Neste, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Christian Studies; Director, R. C. Ryan Center for Biblical Studies, Union University
Elder, Cornerstone Community Church

"Seldom does one encounter pastoral resources of a practical nature that are richly biblical and theologically grounded. But Brian Croft's excellent guide to pastoral visitation of the sick and ailing does just this. By placing his wise and perceptive practical counsel within the framework of key biblical teaching and central theological conviction, he provides more than a mere 'how to' guide for pastoral visitation. Gratefully, he offers also the gospel of grace and power needed for the kind of practical help that truly brings honor to God and leads people to Christ. Filled with wisdom and rooted in theology, this resource offers the blend so needed in the church today."

Bruce A. Ware
Professor of Christian Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary