Today we’d like to introduce you to Bryan Crotts.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Today, I am a minister and have been for over 22 years. I grew up in a minister’s home – a preacher’s kid – but had no ambition to follow in my father’s profession. I worked summers and weekends in a family furniture business and headed off to college to study business. My plan, or rather, the plan for me was to return as a third generation partner in business. During college I began to feel an inward call to pastoral church ministry. I was not a wonderful student. My interests were outdoors and working with my hands. Studying, reading, writing, and making public presentations were not my skillset. Because the interest in ministry persisted, I had to become proficient at disciplines I disliked and my final years in undergraduate studies gave the opportunity to do so. By the end of college and graduate school, they became second nature. I still enjoy being outdoors and manual labor, as they provide an outlet for me to clear my head. Ministry often becomes an identity, as I suppose do most professions. I enjoy studying, praying, teaching, preaching, leading worship services, and serving people.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Part of my story in ministry has to do with my background in business and customer service. I look back at shaping influences in my life – parents, education, travel, arts, and so on – but especially my experience and understanding principles of business and how it has given me a unique aspect of service. While churches need ministers who can study, pray, visit, teach, and preach, there are some contexts where other experience from the world is necessary. All churches, at some level, are a business. In today’s world, churches exist under more pressure from costs, finances, unrooted culture, and a broad category I’ll call regulations (state laws, insurance regulations, etc).
A friend of mine in the banking world assigned me the term “turn-around specialist”. He saw my experience in his own church and noted that I had the ability to turn a church from a crash and burn trajectory to one of health with a future. Churches that have grown in numbers over the years, especially in the southeast or Bible belt, find that accompanying buildings, ministries, and expenses are sustainable only as long as there are enough nickels and noses to sustain them. I have served three congregations where significant right-sizing of personnel, budgets, and facility related matters had to be solved. This has involved making very unpopular and often not understood decisions. While a church is not ultimately an organization, but more an organism, organizational or business decisions can kill part of the organism.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I selected the artist/creative category since most of what I do requires time, thought, writing, and speaking. What I enjoy about my work in my congregation is the opportunity to know each person on some personal level and tailor what I say or write to meet their spiritual needs. I don’t write or speak for any audience but those within my parish. Many ministers today work to gain a wider audience through various social media platforms or going outside of their congregation with books or speaking engagements. I enjoy being close to home.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
My sister says I was the special kid because I had the G.I. Joe Aircraft Carrier (all seven feet of it) and once had a birthday cake in the shape of the General Lee (a-la-Dukes of Hazzard). My serious and best childhood memory would be travellng with my Dad to Jordan, Israel, and Egypt. We spent a month following the history of the Ancient Near East, especially as is noted in the Bible. We visited the pyramids of Moses’s day, the ancient city of Petra (of Indiana Jones fame), and many of the sites in Israel that are important to the Christian faith.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.covpres.church
