In a special extra edition of the Pastor's Heart, Freedom for Faith director Michael Kellahan joins Dominic Steele to discuss how Christians can best respond to Australia's religious freedom review.
Recommendations are here http://bit.ly/religiousfreedomreview
How can your church be more loving to newcomers?
How do you do welcoming well? What are the strategies for best connection?
Not so much the arrival on the first visit, but what is best practice to see people journey from that first visit to becoming a fully integrated member of your church - so that they are still with you 12 months later?
How do you triage people? Then what resources/energy do you spend ministering to different people?
How do you work out how not to put too much energy into people who will never come back?
Andy Hobbs from Salt Church Wollongong and David Allen from Hunter Bible Church and Unichurch, Newcastle in Newcastle have both thought lots about these questions.
In this revealing and frank discussion with former Archbishop Peter Jensen discusses the particular responsibilities of senior leaders and the pressures that senior leaders are under.
Plus an extended review of the state of the Anglican Communion and the response around the world to #Gafcon2018.
‘It’s not that we don’t care on purpose … it’s just that we don’t care’ – Generation Z.
Jesus has given us a job to do, make disciples of all nations. We want to better engage in our changing community.
But it’s going to be an easier task if we understand the people we are reaching out to.
Mark McCrindle of McCrindle Research has been looking at this topic for years, and has just presented at the ‘Australian Community and Church Summit 2018’.
Mark will be our guest on www.thepastorsheart.net this Tuesday afternoon at 2pm to discuss the Australian Community and how we can best minister to our changing neighbourhoods
There are issues of demographics, technology, debt, life expectancy, cultural diversity.
Fresh from the Singleminded Conference, we speak to Conference Chair Dani Treweek about how we can better love and pastor the single members of our church family?
What are the particular pastoral issues that singles face?
How can we encourage single Christians in their gospel maturity, contentment and service.
Craig Hamilton, author of Wisdom in Leadership, says getting one’s heart right is the most important think in leadership.
So we are speaking today specifically about the heart of the Pastor.
Craig says when it comes to leading yourself, the hardest person to lead, there are key issues of pride and fear that need to be addressed.
On www.thepastorsheart.net we aim to help Christian leaders better fulfil the mission that Christ has given us.
Today we are thinking about how to best love and care for the same sex attracted Christians in our churches.
We are talking about theology, maturity, history, emphasis, holiness, sin, language and culture.
Our guests are Rev Dr Wesley Hill, from Trinity School for Ministry in Pittsburg and Jackson Stace from Liberty Christian Ministries Inc. Sydney (www.liberty.sydney).
Wesley is best known for his book Washed and Waiting. His most recent work is Spiritual Friendship.
Mitch joins Dominic Steele to tell his story of living a ‘double life’ in his early twenties, before things came to a head in Dubbo in country New South Wales. And then his journey working things out with God, and into Evangelical Presbyterian ministry and heterosexual marriage.
There are health issues, work deadlines, the pressure of family to be together, the overall stress of life, personal mental capacity to face the day, and the crucial assessment of the kind of reception one could expect from church that day: ‘Will I have someone to sit with? Will I have to sit with unpleasant people again? Will the sermon be worth it? What if Rev X is preaching? Will I belong? ... perhaps it would just be easier to get the shopping done.’
What do you do when there’s conflict in your church?
Because there will be at some point.
How can you deal with conflict well?
What do you do when there’s no conflict to prepare for the times when conflict will come?
How to you give your people a framework for understanding and resolving conflict?
What do you do when a couple comes to you and the marriage is a warzone?
What should you outsource? What should you do yourself?
Bruce Burgess is the Australian Director of Peacewise.
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How do you not just work ‘in the ministry’ but ‘on the ministry’?
How does a senior pastor lead in vision, finances, staffing and money to promote the gospel of Christ?
How do we communicate, execute and celebrate the vision?
How to teach on generosity?
How do we ask graciously?
What are the mistakes to avoid?
Rod Irvine was senior minister of Figtree Anglican Church Wollongong and has written ‘Giving generously: resourcing local church ministry.’
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Catch up on our previous episodes at www.thepastorsheart.net
A good friend tells you when you have something stuck between your teeth just before the photograph is taken.
Scotland’s David Andrew Robertson was a guest on The Pastor’s Heart a few months ago and is a good friend (http://bit.ly/2vp3MJ4).
In an interview with ACR, having spent three months in Sydney, he’s had some significant things to say about the Sydney Anglican Church and asks have we gone off the boil on seeking the lost saved?
On Tuesday 7 August at 2pm, Phil Colgan from St George North Anglican Church and Craig Schafer from St Mark's Pennant Hills for a live discussion with Dominic Steele to discuss what we can learn from from David’s critique
I’ve had the attached sermon notes on my computer since 2004. I know I didn’t write them. I cant be sure who gave them to me (If it's you please make contact and I'll attribute properly). They are certainly helpful as we attempt to minister God’s word either in public Sunday teaching or in small groups.
There’s also a range of graphics that you may like to use as you prepare to lead your people in prayer on this.
What is poverty? What gospel do poor people need? How have parachurch ministries made the problem worse? What does evangelism look like in poor communities? What role for preaching? What does church membership and discipline look like?
How can we see a transformation in desperate poor communities in Scotland or Australia?
Mez McConnell is the senior pastor of Niddrie Community Church in Edinburgh, Scotland, and founder of 20 Schemes, a ministry dedicated to building gospel-centered churches for Scotland’s poorest communities.
As a senior minister what should you do if you have a porn addiction? What if it’s a staff member of senior lay leader? How do you preach to the congregation about these issues?
We talk to Marshall Ballantine-Jones who is doing a PhD on this topic, and who says there’s a significant rate of porn consumption in the general community, the church and amongst church leaders.
Albert Bernstein calls them ‘Emotional Vampires’
How do I (as a senior pastor) express the love of Jesus to those with different personality disorders: the narcissist, histrionic, paranoid personality disorder, OCD (both types), psychopaths, or the person with borderline personality disorder?
There are people in every church who consume much more than their fair share of everyone's time and energy, particularly the senior ministers time.
Jenni Woodhouse is a former chaplain to the Professional Standards Department of the Sydney Anglican Church and now is a chaplain to missionaries with the Church Missionary Society.
We are talking about and with the minister who loses it all, when the diocese moves into apostasy, leaving you and your people as faithful followers of Christ Jesus, but without denominational support, stripped of your ministerial license, church building and house.
This week we talk to four men and one woman who have been and are in that situation.
- From Canada, David Short.
- From the US, Chuck Thebeau (and his daughter Rachel)
- From Scotland, David McCarthy.
- From NZ, Dave Clancey.
The Anglican Dean of Sydney Kanishka Raffel and Senior Minister of MBM Rooty Hill Ray Galea join Dominic Steele, by the shores of Lake Galilee in Israel, to discuss last week’s important Anglican Gafcon Conference in Jerusalem.
Plus we play out an extended interview with Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, who serves as the Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, with it's 25,000,000 million members and as the chairman of the Gafcon Primate’s Council.
How can you build a church building, so you don’t quit in the 12 months after the project is finished.
This is a discussion for pastors. But also for parish council and committees of management.
Andrew Robson has taken a lead roll in three major church building projects, two at EV Church, on the Central Coast of NSW, and is currently taking the lead at St Paul's Anglican Carlingford’s major rebuild.
When I rang him to line up this interview, he was standing over a pit of previously undiscovered asbestos.
We will be asking him about what he’s learned? What he wouldn’t do again?
But what are your questions about any aspect of building a new church building* Vision and ministry principles relating to building design,* Ministry philosophy of church buildings and space,* The value of aesthetics,* How much to spend on big ticket items like sound/AV, lighting, furniture?* How to resolve differences of opinion and make compromises?
