The addictive nature of social media, the mental health impact on teens, distorted identity and comparison, the way the attention economy undermines discipleship.

Parents (and pastors) so often feel out of their depth.

Today we review the 50 year impact of The University of New South Wales’ Campus Bible Study on Christian ministries across Australia and around the world - in raising up gospel workers, sending missionaries, planting churches and in Christian publishing. 

That’s what the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:13. And yet it’s a verse hardly referred to in the last few decades in discussions over who is responsible for evangelism. 

Chris Braga of Grace West Anglican Church Sydney told the Nexus Conference in Sydney that 2 Corinthians 4:13 shows that there’s a spiritual reflex that internal faith (in the death and resurrection of Jesus) will challenge fear and lead to speech. 

astors facing up to our imposter syndrome - navigating the noise that leads us to make bad decisions.

As Pastors, we feel the pressure to have the right answers to people’s questions.

We want to be able to navigate the complexities of life and church and land everyone safely at the other end. 

People share with us and the hardest parts of their lives, they trust us with their most private issues, and time and their money.

And they trust us that we will handle the most complex relationship difficulties with wisdom. 

We end up feeling like imposters. Who am I to lead the people of God?  And how can I have wisdom here? 

A new study shows that training in systematic self reflection will develop resilience among ministry workers, who are at risk of stress related ill health.

Self reflective resilience training is beneficial to those in ministry roles and programs in this area can minimise stress related ill health.

BUT, Not all self reflection is equal.

We are hearing reports from the university campuses, from young adult ministries, and from youth groups - that there is an increasing openness to the gospel of Jesus - and there’s a new openness among young men.

There’s a shift in the culture. There’s something happening that is different among young people - Especially among young men.

There’s a greater biblical ignorance in the rising generation. But significantly more openness.

As pastors we’re expressing leadership in our churches on gender and sexuality. We want to help our people think biblically - and yet with the culture moving so fast - it is an area that we feel ill equipped. 

On today’s Pastor’s Heart we benefit from the hard work of Sydney Missionary and Bible College Theology and Ethics lecturer Rob Smith who has just published a reworked version of his PhD under the title ‘The body God gives.’

What happens when a leader operates without a clear vision. And how poetic or concrete should a vision be?

How to organise things so the overall vision cascades down through every area of church life?

What should our pastoral approach be to innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, laggards and the nos.

Biblical vision and Leadership vision: What is the difference? Why do people mangle Proverbs 29:18?

There are claims - and you hear them every so often - that archeology has disproved this story or that in the bible, and claims from this or that scholar of particularly late dating of different bible books.

How do we as evangelical pastors react/respond/answer those claims?

How does godliness play out differently if I am a man, a woman, a young man, a young woman, a husband or a wife?

All Christians are called to live like Christ.  Why does the Apostle Paul choose to write about what godliness looks like for the older and younger and for us as men and women, rather than more generally for us as people?

Most Christians at some point do start to wonder if they are the real deal.  What God asks of us is so far reaching, so all encompassing, that when we come up short, we start to ask ourselves  “Am I an imposter?” “Should I really be a leader?” and perhaps/Am even a Christian at all?’

What is the work of the Lord? What is in vain if the resurrection is not true? What truly lasts and what does gospel work looks like in our daily lives?

As we approach ‘Aboriginal Sunday’ (19 January) we focus on the progress of the gospel among the indigenous in Sydney. 

What are the cultural changes and openness to Jesus Christ among Indigenous Australians?

Most of us evangelical pastors, theological colleges, indeed the whole of evangelicalism - we have a blind spot when it comes to Roman Catholicism in our theology, missiology and practice.

Where do we as Evangelicals make mistakes in our engagement with the Roman Catholic world?

What can we change? What should we change?

It is difficult times in the Church of England.

Having previously publicly betrayed his ordination and consecration vows - the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby - has now resigned over his handling of a safeguarding matter, following the release of the Makin report.

The Church of England is tearing itself apart over sexuality.

There are more apostate bishops than faithful bishops in the English House of Bishops.

And there is now a massive group within the Church of England called The Alliance,  representing 42% of the denomination’s attendance,  basically pleading to the house of bishops to repent.

Church Leaders have welcomed the report of the trial of cashless gambling which recommends that ‘account based gambling’ be introduced in New South Wales by 2028.

There are bigger problems with gambling in Sydney and New South Wales than pretty much anywhere in the world (outside Las Vegas).

But the Clubs and Hotels industry is running a narrative attempting to discredit the trial, calling it a three million dollar waste of money.

Is the church losing its global mission focus?

The number of overseas missionaries being sent out is down on ten years ago.

Church and mission leaders have encouraged Christians to respond to the need for mission locally, especially as church decline accelerates.

Yet there’s a growing concern that global mission involvement is being neglected in many local churches.

How do we encourage our staff teams and members to be more intentional in Jesus’ mission of making disciples?