All the time in church there are unexpected things happening.  We or someone else makes a decision to change something which then relationally or missionally impacts another area of church life that we didn’t expect.

Sometimes we put  too much attention into one area of church - and now other areas are suffering.

Whatever size your church is - the church system is complex, interdependent and interconnected.

Sometimes the presenting problem won’t actually be the real problem, there’s something else causing it which is not immediately obvious.

How do you balance the instability and chaos of external ministry with adding a foster child or adopted child to a ministry family?

What are the implications of taking children in crisis into the ministry home? What motivates ministry families to become foster parents or to adopt? How do older children and the church respond?

What is it to be #likeaman ?

There are not many places in the New Testament where men are spoken to specifically.

Today we are thinking about being a Christian man. 

In the ESV and NASB the translation of 1 Corinthians 16:13 has ‘Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong’. (ESV) 

But what does that mean?

There are three different ways that the adult population of churches can grow:

1. Adults being saved. 

2. Christians transferring from another congregation within your denomination of switching from another denomination. 

3. Children of members growing up in the church and taking on their parents faith for themselves.

Most evangelical churches - even growing churches - are underperforming in the first and third ways.

In the Sydney Anglican Church parents report that an average of only 65% of their children who grew up in church are currently professing Christ. That number hasn’t changed in ten years - despite a targeted effort to increase it to 70%.

A new massive ethical question has risen up with the advent of artificial intelligence. 

How will people decide what kind of morality to give to their artificial intelligence creations?

There will need to be a morality.  But what should it be?

How can a senior minister best train junior preachers (student ministers and assistant ministers) in preaching?

There’s a tension we all feel: we want to be a training church raising up the next generation of leaders and yet we also want to make sure that the quality of what happens in our gatherings is high.

We don’t want a Sunday morning ‘plane crash in the pulpit’, where people at church that day think‘I wish I had stayed home today’ or ‘I wish I had gone to St Bloggs down the road.’

Artificial Intelligence is an oncoming tsunami that will catch all of humanity off guard.

It is a change more like a wheel than a typewriter.

But what will this do to our sense of self?

Stephen Driscoll, in ‘Made in our Image - God, artificial intelligence and you’ says artificial intelligence may do great harm - giving more power to sinful people, governments or companies.

He says artificial intelligence will likely trend towards people pleasing - giving each of us what we want now/a sense of heaven now or it may become more debauched.

It may even become an existential threat to us - because EITHER it lacks a wise moral system OR it righteously opposes our sin.

God wants all of me to love all of God all the time’ says Senior Pastor of Fellowship Dubai, Ray Galea.

We want our staff and leaders to live and serve in ministry out of an overflow of the love of God for them. Grasping this love properly lifts our service from duty to desire.

As pastors we are so committed and focused on encouraging our congregations to love God with all their hearts, souls, minds, and strengths. But do we stop to consider that our own love for God might be the limiting factor?

The pastor’s love for God will be a limiting factor for the congregation’s love for God. If we do not truly have hearts for God, how could we possibly lead others to the same?

“It may be that God is destroying the Church of England and who am I to stand in his way?  

“The real tragedy would be if, in this traumatic, confusing time, if all of the evangelicals and the broader Orthodox group fall out with each other…  if we can bear with each other in our different strategies, then that will be what we need (in whatever the future in England is going to be), whether that's within the Church of England or outside. 

Charlie Skrine, the senior minister of All Souls Langham Place London, says his church (and other evangelical churches in the UK) are in a world of pain at the moment over the growing split in the Church of England. 

Mr Skrine, who is speaking at the Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion Conference in Sydney, says All Souls is united in it’s commitment to biblical teaching on sexual ethics, but divided on what the best response should be. 

Australia’s former Prime Minister Scott Morrison releases a new autobiography this week where he speaks explicitly about his Christian faith, and there’s a bible quote on almost every page.

Akos Balogh of http://www.bluefoxmedia.com.au joins Dominic Steele to review Mr Morrison’s new book where the former Prime Minister writes  of wrestling with whether to study at Vancouver’s Regent College, being helped by listening to sermons by Tim Keller and Rick Warren, being rebuked and encouraged by Christian pastors and friends, wrestles with forgiveness, and God’s goodness during a long struggle over infertility.

Plus we discuss how pastors can wisely interact with political leaders.

It is almost D day in the Anglican Communion. 

Today we give the background for two highly significant meetings. One to take place next week in Rome.  The second in June in Cairo. 

The Rome gathering has been called by the rejected Canterbury leadership.  The Cairo gathering has been called by the leadership of the Global South.

As background, The Church of England, the historic mother church of the Anglican Communion, under the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury formally abandoned the historic Christian faith when the English General Synod voted to follow Archbishop Welby and his house of bishops in voting for same sex blessings.

In reaction, the majority theologically orthodox have drawn a line in the sand and parted company with the church of England.  

We are moving into a post - post-modern world  But what does that look like and mean for truth - and us as pastors - as we attempt to communicate with our churches?

Our church members have unconsciously adopted some of the presuppositions of our society in the way we process texts and information.

Moore Theological College Lecturer Lionel Windsor joins Dominic Steele to explore what it means to believe the truth, turn to the truth, and adopt habits of truth and faithfulness in a post truth world.

The Pastor’s Heart - A word to our heart from Dominic Steele

In a Pastor’s Heart special, Dominic Steele speaks to our hearts today as we engage in the battle of the Christian life. We get a call today to perseverance and resilience.

Dominic addresses, not just pastors, but young and old; healthy and unfit; wealthy and poor; busy and quiet; husbands, singles, divorcees and widowers; fertile and infertile, straight or experiencing same sex attraction; or struggling in addictions.

As pastors most of all we want our kids to love Jesus.  And yet Barnabas Piper says so often pastors kids are messed up. 

What are the unique experiences, joys and challenges of being pastors kids? And how can we better parent as pastors?

There are issues of awareness, assumptions and expectations.  Plus confusion about identity. 

James Galea grew up as a pastor’s kid in Western Sydney and now leads the ministry team at Freshwater Anglican Church on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. 

How do we speak to children about sin? How can we help youth understand themselves as sinful and in indeed of forgiveness?

What to make theologically of the sense of entitlement in youth culture?

Plus how do we think theologically about the important issue of vibe in youth and childrens’ ministry and in regards to how kids engage with church.

A new book is launched this week ‘Identity, Church Culture and Discipleship in Youth and Children’s Ministry - Australian Evangelical Perspectives on Youth Ministry.

The old saying is ‘A rising tide lifts all boats.’  But could the spark of story telling, and celebrating faith increase evangelism in churches and on university campuses everywhere?

National Director of the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students Richard Chin is emphasising the importance of prayer, through what he calls a 'two-for-two' model, and asks churches to join him in consistent branding in a nationwide push to introduce people to Jesus.

We discuss practical steps to integrate evangelism into the church's DNA, champion the role of head, heart, and hand in fostering a consistent culture of outreach.

“It’s like they got the exegesis spot on, then closed their eyes, fired an arrow randomly into the air, opened their eyes to see where it landed and said, ‘That looks like a good place to do application!’” - Theological College lecturer on student sermon application.

But are those of us who have graduated from theological college much better? For after all the students are just imitating what we have modelled.

Dean of Students at Sydney’s Moore Theological College Paul Grimmond has just completed a doctor of ministry project on improving application in evangelical preaching.

Andrew Leslie is encouraging us to first take a step back from practical concerns and reflect on the beauty and wisdom of the bible’s teaching about manhood and womanhood.

In much contemporary debate about gender we focus on practical questions about what different people can do.  

However the head of Moore Theological College’s Doctrine Department says the picture of gender in the beginning is not an arbitrary divine imposition that comes with its own set of arbitrary rules and instructions.

Stephen McAlpine says the real question is “Does the future have a church?”

The statistics are not our friend.

We have been talking on The Pastor’s Heart about dropping church attendance. Stephen McAlpine is writing about the more widespread phenomenon.