What happens when someone has been hurt in a Christian organisation, and the person they need to complain about has authority over them?
Does Christian conflict resolution sometimes assume an equality that simply isn’t there? What changes when the other person is your senior pastor, CEO, bishop or ministry boss — someone who holds not only organisational authority, but perhaps pastoral and spiritual authority as well?
How might we better (as pastors) better come alongside victims of domestic abuse?
Counsellor and author Darby Strickland joins us to discuss domestic abuse, the entitlement that drives it, and the patterns of control that can be hidden beneath an appearance of Christian respectability.
Why do some church teams emerge from disagreement stronger, while others fracture, divide or quietly drift apart?
Tim Dyer has spent years helping churches and ministry leaders navigate conflict. He says church teams can be simultaneously conflict-prone/averse and process-poor, which can lead to a “high fire danger rating”.
Consent, Bodies and Belonging: Ministering to Young People with Disability.
Accessibility Ministry Advisor at Sydney Anglican Youthworks Bec Baines speaks about consent, capacity, bodies and belonging, and how to disciple young people with intellectual disability.
Craig Roberts, CEO of Anglican Youthworks and chair of the committee behind the new Sydney Anglican attendance report, says there’s much to thank God for, but there’s also some challenging numbers, as Sydney Anglicans pursue the ambitious goal of 5% annual attendance growth through people coming to faith in Jesus.
What's the functional idol in your own ministry? Career? Family? The platform? The numbers? Are we preaching law as legalism dressed up as discipleship, or grace so loose it asks nothing of anyone?
In this episode, we examine the application of the ten commandments to pastoral leadership today.
We are with Dr Andrew Atherstone (Wycliffe Hall Oxford) and this time we trace how a Sydney rector's insistence on Bible teaching and the local congregation, over and above inherited Anglican structure made such an impact on the UK evangelical scene.
For evangelical Christians in the Church of England, the question of whether to stay, resist, or leave is a live crisis.
Church historian Dr. Andrew Atherstone (Wycliffe Hall, Oxford) to look back at six decades of evangelical oral history—and what it teaches us about our current crossroads.
We often speak about the pressures and heartbreaks of pastoral ministry. But we speak far less about its joys, privileges and eternal rewards.
Matt Fuller, Senior Minister of Christ Church Mayfair, joins us to discuss his new book, The Joyful Pastor (Despite Everything).
How not to be misled filling in the Religious Question on the Australian Census.
A secular advocacy campaign is targeting Australians who have a loose connection with faith— telling some they should mark “No religion.”
It’s online quiz looks like Census guidance.
But here’s the problem. It misleadingly substitutes its own test for the question being asked by the Bureau of Statistics.
Social researcher Mark McCrindle says the Bureau is not trying to measure active engagement but rather affiliation.
In this special ‘pop up’ episode of The Pastor’s Heart we talk with New Testament Professor Darrell Bock about how best might Christians might engage culturally to reach Australians for Jesus.
Leading New Testament scholar Darrell Bock gives a rapid fire exploration of Luke and Acts, addressing 30 rapid fire questions (in 30 minutes) focusing on every current controversy in Lukan studies.
Do our sermons actually land in the lives of the people in front of us?
Do they help anxious believers, tired parents, proud leaders, compromised Christians or sceptical guests to hear, trust and obey the living Word of God?
New global research associated with Harvard University suggests that people who regularly attend church tend to do better in life than people who do not.
But if churches are helping people flourish, what is happening to the pastors who lead them?
On the surface, some are drawn by beauty, history, liturgy, mystery, masculinity, discipline and Orthodoxy’s claim to be the original church.
But John Diacos says beneath many of the surface attractions lies something much more spiritually dangerous.
For a generation of Sydney evangelicals, the Katoomba Christian Conventions weren’t just events in the calendar - they shaped church programs across the city.
In the 80s, 90s and early 2000s, thousands gathered under the circus tent and then later in packed auditoriums to hear the Bible taught, sing with conviction and be raised up for ministry.
But how did Katoomba become such an influence in Sydney evangelicalism? What decisions shaped its extraordinary impact? And what lessons are there for today.
Dean of Students at Youthworks College Ruth Lukabyo explores why young people disengage, how inherited faith becomes owned faith and what churches can do to better navigate the critical transitions from childhood to adulthood.
Tony Payne provocatively argues that while evangelicalism has successfully recovered expository preaching and every-member ministry, we have not adequately recovered every-member word ministry.
What’s going on? Is this a reaction against thin, seeker-friendly evangelicalism? Spiritual nostalgia?
Across the Western church, some younger Christians seem to be searching for deeper roots: tradition, transcendence, beauty, liturgy, sacraments and a stronger sense of connection with the historic church.
The loneliest person in church may be the one standing at the pulpit.
Pastors spend their lives surrounded by people, but ministry can make real friendship strangely difficult. Confidentiality, responsibility, expectations, perceived favouritism and the pressure to “have answers but not needs” can leave church leaders profoundly alone.
