The Rev. Robert Creech, PhD

Rev. Robert Creech, PhD, began to serve on the Board of Directors in 2005 with responsibility for developing and directing Defining Leaders and other educational programs for clergy.  He retired from the Board in 2011 but continues to serve as Faculty.  Dr. Creech hosted a CSNSF Conference, The Impact of Death in the Family and Congregation, at Truett Seminary in 2013 and will continue to develop and teach courses in Bowen theory.

Dr. Creech served as Senior Pastor at the University Baptist Church in Houston, Texas from 1987 to 2009. He was on faculty of Houston Baptist University and has served as adjunct professor in biblical studies and in leadership courses in masters and doctoral programs for Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (Houston), the Houston Graduate School of Theology, and United Theological Seminary (Dayton, Ohio). He is the co-author of The Leader’s Journey: Accepting the Call to Personal and Congregational Transformation (Jossey-Bass, 2003), which applies principles of Bowen Family Systems Theory to the personal development of congregational leaders.

Dr. Creech received a BA degree from Houston Baptist University in 1974, an MDiv from Southwestern Baptist University in Ft. Worth, Texas in 1976, and a PhD in New Testament Studies from Baylor University in 1984. He has participated in clinical conferences and coaching in Bowen Theory since 1998, and spent a portion of his sabbatical in 2000 at the Georgetown Family Center.

Since 2009 he has held the Hubert H. and Gladys S. Raborn Chair of Pastoral Leadership at Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary in Waco, Texas. He also serves as Director of Pastoral Ministries, overseeing the seminary’s theological field education program.

Publications

Books

The Leader’s Journey: Accepting the Call to Personal and Congregational Transformation, with

Jim Herrington and Trisha Taylor (Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2003).

Reading the Bible Outdoors: The Practice of Lectio Sub Divo, A Devotional Guide. Editor.

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016.

Worthy of the Calling: Ministerial Ethics in the 21st Century with Joe E. Trull. Grand Rapids: BakerAcademic, 2017. (under contract).

Articles and Chapters

“Sustainable Church: Practices That Make for a Lifetime of Service,” Review & Expositor. Vol. 113 No. 3 (August 2016).

Review & Expositor: Longevity in Ministry (ed. With Dr. Angela Reed). Vol. 113 No. 3 (August 2016).

“A Sower Went Out to Sow: An Agrarian Reading of the New Testament,” American Baptist Quarterly. Fall 2016.

Generations to Come: The Future of Bowen Family Systems Theory and Congregational Ministry.” Journal of Family and Community Ministry, November 11, 2015.

“Generations to Come: The Future of BFST & Congregational Ministry.” in Family Systems Forum, Volume 16 Number 2 (Summer 2013).

“Family Systems 1000 BCE: A Natural Systems Reading of the Davidic Narratives” in Family Systems Forum, Volume 15 Number 1 (Spring 2013).

Clergy and Congregations in a Regressed Society” Family Systems Forum (13 (Spring 2011): 1-2, 9-12.

“Bowen Theory and a Pastoral Transition,” Family Systems Forum (Fall 2010, Vol. 12 No.3, pp. 1-2, 8-10).

“Jesus and Differentiation of Self.” Chapter 15 in The Cornerstone Concept: In Leadership, In Life by Roberta M. Gilbert. Falls Church, VA: Leading Systems Press, 2008.