he pub test of ‘religious liberty’ in the COVID-19 reboot

In New South Wales, Australia, pubs and clubs will soon be allowed to open for 50 people but churches will still be restricted to 10.

Cornerstone Presbyterian Minister Mark Powell says “I guess that’s because having a beer and playing the pokies is an “essential” service, whereas worshipping God and having a cup of tea or coffee with a small group of people is just too dangerous? At least churchgoers don’t need to be breathalysed after they leave.”

Mark joins us live to discuss this discrepancy in NSW government health policy.

We are addressing how we care for and lead our congregations on the way back. We are seeing states quickly move through the different stages of opening up. How do we handle the fear of change, and navigate the decisions of starting to meet again. How do we help our members flourish in community while keeping a physical distance? How can we come through this stronger? What about the feelings that they and we are experiencing, and how can we support them through the next few months?

Leading our churches successfully out of COVID-19 is going to be much more complex than the journey in.

Brian Tung says don’t squander the God-given opportunity to make ‘real’ change in the COVID-19 rollback. How do you fix it even when it’s not broken? Note, People don’t hate change. They hate loss. How do you make the most of the productive zone of disequilibrium. Plus how to take small risks smartly with experiments.

Today we get totally nitty gritty/extremely practical and we are talking church seating in stage three.. with the Bishop of South Sydney Michael Stead.

The road map - from Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison - indicates that there is going to be a moment that the government is calling 'stage three', probably/potentially mid July when meetings of up to 100 people will be able to take place.

Michael Stead is the Bishop of South Sydney and he’s been thinking through how to navigate what are the implications of the 100 limit practically on church buildings.

How is a crisis an opportunity to lead strategic change? The road forward . Four scenarios and three questions for every church leadership team.

Churches are starting to plan for a post shutdown world. Adam Lowe is senior pastor of St Barts Toowoomba, as well as being a psychologist who has focused on an organisations and Gary Koo is the Bishop leading the Sydney Anglican Church’s Covid-19 Diocesan Taskforce.

We are reacting quickly to the announcement today from Australia’s Prime Minister Morrison of a three step program to re-open Australia by July.

Peter Mayrick, from the Moore College Center for Ministry Development joins us to unpack this.
Peter has recently completed a survey of churches and ministers on how we are negotiating COVID-19. Peter is clear that this is an opportunity for Churches to reflect on every aspect of ministry.

Lots of our churches have been using evangelistic courses as part of our long term strategy. But many leaders and evangelism teams are nervous about how to lead in the new world of online evangelistic courses.

Greg Lee, senior pastor of Hunter Bible Church and Kirsty Bucknell, a researcher who have developed a program for resilience and mental health, join us to help senior leaders support their teams for the long term, big picture. Rather than fumble through, this is a key moment to pause and consider how we can build stronger teams throughout the next few months.

What should we be aiming for now? What does a win look like? 

Most of us have been doing Church online while socially distancing for a month - but aside from getting a video service online at the right time, how do we measure success right now? 

We speak with Tim Clemens and Dave Miers about what a Church should be aiming for and how they can measure success during Covid-19. All ministries cost a certain amount of resources, so this week we discuss how to track effectiveness, when our traditional measures are much harder to gauge. 

We discuss the similarities and differences of presenting to a full room of people versus to a camera, how to relax and the difference post production can help make in capturing and keeping attention.

(This episode will interest Australian Church leaders)

In a special edition James Flavin and Raj Gupta join Dominic Steele late on Easter Day to process the new guidelines for government assistance for churches released late on Thursday afternoon.

We talk about the massive impact on income for some churches. Plus assistance packages available from various levels of government.

As we are busy preparing online presentations for Good Friday and Easter Sunday, two of Australia's leading Christian Communicators join Dominic Steele to discuss how COVID-19 has changed our task.

Mike Raiter is from Melbourne's Center for Biblical Preaching and Sam Chan is an evangelist with City Bible Forum, Sydney. We discuss how preaching will to change both this coming Easter weekend and over the coming months.

The zeitgeist has changed profoundly in the last month. Our 2020 vision calendar has been ripped up. We can’t predict what will happen next week, or even tomorrow.

We discuss the following questions: How has being online changed the audience for our sermons? How do we show the relevance of the gospel to a culture which is reeling?

How should communicating online be different to an in person Church service? How do we connect with gospel-curious people in an online sphere?

What questions are our covid impacted communities asking about God? How will these changes we are implementing now impact how we do Church into the future?

Mike and Sam share their own personal reflections and experience of fear, insecurity and being pushed to trust God.

This week on The Pastor’s Heart, we talk with Phillip Jensen about the seriousness of the situation we are facing and how it highlights structural issues within our individualistic 21st century society.

We discuss autonomy and submission, free press and censorship, materialism, wealth and the complacency of our society. Phillip challenges us to understand the changes we are facing as ministers of God’s word.

‘Our buildings are shut down, but we can’t shut down our identity of being salt and light and love for the world’

Archbishop of Sydney Glenn Davies joins Dominic Steele in a live broadcast to answer questions on how we can lead our churches through the COVID-19 crisis.

From midday Monday (23 March) religious gatherings and places of worship have been shut down in Australia, with only a small exception for small weddings and funerals.

The restrictions turn church life on its head.

Calm God centred leadership for your church in the corona era with Pastor Eugene Hor, Bishop Gary Koo and Dr Irmgard Pascoe 

We discuss the top 15 mistakes senior leaders make, with Wisdom in Leadership author Craig Hamilton from Sydney’s Glenmore Park Anglican Church.

How does Easter fit into your evangelistic pathway? How can you get Easter guests back? How do you create an atmosphere which helps believers celebrate the truth of the resurrection and equally, helps newcomers consider the resurrection for the first time.

Tony Wright got everyone talking through a provocative series of articles about 1-2-1 evangelism vs course based evangelism.

We get to the bottom of it with Sam Hilton on the strength of evangelistic courses and Tony Wright on the importance of personal evangelism.

We talk frankly about the issue of the week - The standing down of Acts 29 CEO Steve Timmis under a cloud of claims of Spiritual Abuse with Mezz McConnell and Matthew Spandler Davidson who are in Sydney for the Acts 29 Australia, NZ and Japan leaders conference.

Senior pastors need to stop turning a blind eye to this subject and talk much much more about abortion in church.

There are women in all our lives and churches who have had an abortion. Men, women and children who have been touched by abortion - in our workplaces, churches and families.