OUR PRESIDENT

Timothy Kroll’s Biography

Timothy Kroll served as Senior Pastor of Northside Baptist Church (St. Petersburg, FL) for 13 years. Besides his pulpit ministry, he provided leadership to Northside’s historic Missions ministry, a large (over 700 students) Christian School (Northside Christian School), and a thriving benevolent ministry (He Cares Food Pantry). Today, he is the President of the Woodrow Kroll Ministries.

Tim’s passion is to become like Jesus – the goal of a disciple of Jesus Christ. This includes knowing the words of Christ, carrying on the ministry of Christ, imitating the life of Christ, and helping others to do the same. While at Northside, he helped move the church into a greater pursuit of genuine discipleship as well as transitioning the church to an elder form of governance and getting the church debt-free for the first time in over 50 years.

Tim has served in the pastorate for over 23 years, having served as the Senior Associate Pastor at Northside for 3 years and the Missions Pastor at Heritage Baptist Church (Lynchburg, VA) for 7 years. It is this pastoral experience and heart that God is using in Tim to see His good blessings come to other pastors around the world. He and his wife Lisa reside in Titusville, Florida. They have four married children, one unmarried son, three grandsons, and three granddaughters.

Timothy Kroll’s Philosophy

Growing up in a ministry family (grandfather was a pastor, uncle was a pastor, father was a Bible School professor), I often had people asking me if (or telling me that) I was going to grow up to be a pastor or professor. It was in the sixth grade that my Children’s pastor (Herb Owen) talked with me about the work of God he saw in my life and the call of God he saw on my life. Over the years, many of them as a Missions Pastor or with responsibility over Missions, I have come to understand “the call of God is not genetic.” I am not in Christian ministry because of my family, I’m in Christian ministry because God has called me into Christian ministry.

In my first pastorate, I gave the deacons a two-page single-spaced letter with four reasons they shouldn’t hire me, but God had other plans and I accepted His call to the pastorate. When the Psalm 119 Association Board asked to talk with me about taking over the Presidency of this ministry following my dad’s retirement, I asked them to only consider me if they were sure God was calling me to take up this responsibility. I then shared everything with the Elder Board of our church and asked them to pray.

I am firmly convinced that the reality and truth of Acts 13:1-5 was not a one-time thing. If we want to know the will of God, we will often find it being shared through others in the Body of Christ – the Holy Spirit spoke to 5 men in Antioch about what He wanted to do with 2 of them, meaning that there were 3 others who knew what God wanted to do with the other 2. I believe God speaks through His Word, through the Holy Spirit to us, and through the Holy Spirit to others. In the call to this ministry, both the Psalm 119 Association Board and the Elder Board of Northside Baptist Church agreed that the ministry was being led by God to me.

While praying for God’s leading and call to this ministry, I wrote this:

“I will only do this if the end result is that I am more like Jesus than I was before – that my wife gets a more Jesus-like husband, my kids get a more Jesus-like father, that my grandkids get a more Jesus-like Saba, that everyone else gets a more Jesus-like person in their lives. After that, I will passionately, eagerly, enthusiastically, and energetically pursue helping others become more like Jesus.”

My prayer is that through the Woodrow Kroll Ministries that I can do all that my Heavenly Father has called me to do and to continue all that He blessed my earthly father to start to do in helping connect people with the Author of the Bible through the teaching of the Bible.