It’s hard because we go into ministry because we like doing the ministry.
But if things are to grow, we need to step back and empower and encourage others in these roles.
This is true in kids ministry, but it’s true across the church.
I think this is one of the major factors that is hampering the growth of our churches.
We are talking this Tuesday with Sandy Galea, from MBM Rooty Hill in Sydney’s West and Kidswise about how to grow ministry teams.
Andrew Beddoe is asking about evangelical churches: Where are the tradies? Where are the factory workers? Retail workers? Those on social welfare benefits?
What does it take to have fruitful ministry over the long haul?
Rolling out vision in an Evangelical Church! ’People don’t give to need, they give to vision.’
But what is vision and how do you come up with the vision, workshop with key stakeholders, communicate the vision, roll it out?
We talk to two really impressive young leaders/original thinkers who have lots to teach all of us, from NewLife Anglican : Oran Park, Stuart Starr and from Grace City Church in the inner city of Sydney, Tim Clemens
Our guest is Dean of Students at Sydney’s Moore Theological College Paul Grimmond. Paul has battled with anxiety all his adult life, and has been quite open about this. He wrote recently “‘Don’t be anxious about anything,’ Is that all God’s got to say?”
Paul says ‘it’s difficult to differentiate between the anxiety that is a result of the fallenness of the world and the unhealthy anxiety that is a part of my sinful response to this broken world. Am I feeling anxious because I have a body that chemically over-reacts to threats, or am I feeling anxious because I have let sin take control? That’s not always an easy question to answer.
Paul shares shares his story with Dominic Steele and looks at what the bible has to say.
David Robertson is minister of St Peters Free Church in Dundee Scotland. http://www.stpeters-dundee.org.uk He is also the associate director of the Solas Centre for Public Christianity http://www.solas-cpc.org
David is in Sydney to speak at Katoomba Christian Convention and for a holiday.
He does a lot of writing – in newspapers, magazines, on the net and also books. He’s the author of Awakening (the life of Robert Murray McCheyne); The Dawkins Letters, Quench (cafe evangelism) and Magnificent Obsession. His latest book is called Engaging With Atheists.
He’s interested in history, politics, theology, music, sport, art etc. David’s a ‘big picture’ person who likes to look at things in a wide context – especially the growth, decline and renewal of the church in the West….
His nickname ‘wee flea’ comes from a series of interactions He had on the Richard Dawkins website. Robertson was banned from his site under his own name and Dawkins called him, Alaister McGarth and John Lennox ‘fleas living of a dogs back’.
Robertson promptly started reposting under the name ‘the wee flea’, and Dawkins, not being aware of Scottish church history or the nickname of my denomination (the wee frees), let it go by for a few weeks…until he was outed…and banned again!
The Wollongong region has just seen 60 churches band together in a combined effort to reach their district for Jesus. The initiative was conceived and lead by the senior minister of Wollongong Anglican cathedral, Sandy Grant.
Sandy joins Dominic Steele to talk through the wins and lessons from the mission, “Jesus is___”.
This is a special edition of The Pastor's Heart, linked to this month's national Australian ministry conference, Nexus, on to the topic of 'Every Member Ministry.'
We are joined by The Trellis and the Vine author Tony Payne who is currently doing his PhD on Every Member Ministry, and was the keynote speaker at the Nexus Conference.
Rachel Ciano lectures in church history at Sydney Missionary & Bible College and joins Dominic Stele to discuss the impact of the Reformation on the Roman Church.
Sam Chan is our guest on 'The Pastor's Heart' this afternoon talking about his new book 'Evangelism in a Skeptical World.'
Sam and host Dominic Steele have both been thinking about the same issues for a long time. There's lots of areas of agreement, and some areas where they disagree.
There's been a lot of talk recently about the impact of 'Guilt and Shame' on our understanding of ourselves and where we stand with God. Dan Wu has been studying these issues in depth and joins us live on 'The Pastor's Heart'
Some of the questions that we face as we come to Easter include: How do you choose an Easter passage? What does preparation look like? What's the goal of aGood Friday or Easter Sunday talk? How much are you looking for guests and how much for regular members?
This is a description of MBM kids from Sandy Galea: Two babies died, two mums have breast cancer, One baby was born profoundly deaf, another with down syndrome, we have a child suffering from multiple benign tumours, another in remission from cancer and we have kids suffering from anxiety and depression.
How can we help these children better deal with this?
What do you do with all this pain and suffering?
Former Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Peter Jensen, first trusted Christ listening to Billy Graham speak in 1959.
On hearing of Dr Graham's death, Peter Jensen relived that afternoon with Dominic Steele on The Pastor's Heart.
EV Church's 'Rhett Harris was super provocative at a ministry conference a while back. As Rhett was promoting ministry teams, he was arguing that rostering is contrary to the gospel,' says Dominic Steele.
'I thought, "I can't let him get away with these statement and maintain credibility," so I pushed back, and we had a big debate in front of the whole seminar group.'
Pete Tong talks about how God has led him through a difficult time as a close brother walked away from the Lord. Plus what surprised him about the women of Luke’s gospel?
Evan McFarlane leads the training of around five trainees each year at St Paul's Anglican at Carlingford, Sydney. Excitingly in one of the congregations that Evan pastors, 80% of members are involved in 1:1 discipleship. From this group there has been a steady flow of young men and women putting themselves forward for Christian Ministry.
Michael says there has been a genuine cultural shift that now requires a legal response. But, the government will not act unless they believe there is a genuine problem that needs curing. So lots more shorter individual submissions are needed that spell out the problems.
David Mansfield was John Chapman's successor as director of the Sydney Anglican Department of Evangelism. He speaks here about the heart of Australia's greatest twentieth century evangelist.
