The Pastor's Heart with Dominic Steele

What should a Christian leader do when their role is to care for people, and they don’t want to interact with people? What impact does depression have on preaching? What kind of friendships should ministry leaders have? What about suffering in the leaders life? What would you say to a leader who is walking through the tough of depression for the first time? We ask Peter Adam the hard questions about friendship, mental health, avoiding burn-out and investing in senior ministers. Peter will speak openly about his own experience - one which is mirrored by a surprisingly large number of others. Peter Adam is vicar emeritus at St. Jude’s Carlton, formerly principal of Ridley College Melbourne, and vicar of St. Jude’s. He mentors 28 young pastors, has written extensively on how God speaks into our lives and is a founding member of the Council of The Gospel Coalition Australia.The Church Cothechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches.  Advertise on The Pastor's HeartTo advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsorSupport the show

The whole concept of a tolerant society is being spun around.Sydney Anglican Bishop Michael Stead says there are moves afoot to block Christians from being able to say that ‘Christ is the only way to heaven.’It’s also being claimed by Equality Australia that to say ‘marriage is between a man and woman’ is an offensive statement. Bishop Stead says he wants to protect moderately expressed statements of religious belief.  There are two parallel parliamentary inquiries into religious freedom taking place this summer, due to report back in February. Then the Federal Government is expected to take revised draft Religious Freedom legislation back to the parliament in March, to fulfil a previous election promise. Sydney Bishop Michael Stead, who chairs the Anglican Church of Sydney’s Religious Freedom Reference Group, has just submitted substantial submission to the inquiry on behalf of that group.The Church Cothechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches.  Advertise on The Pastor's HeartTo advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsorSupport the show

January is the key time of the year for welcoming newcomers in the southern hemisphere.  In the northern hemisphere it’s August/September.But how do we best follow up new people who are moving into the district and looking to join a church?Someone visits your church, but what’s next.  What sort of ‘visitor pipeline’ should you have?What kind of system can be devised that is most effective for welcoming the largest numbers of people over a year? - while making sure that everyone doesn’t get exhausted?Should you visit? phone? email? text? or nothing?Where is too much effort just that.  Too much effort?  How do you grab the ‘low hanging fruit’?What mistakes can we avoid?  Where should we ignore the American advice here as just being too cultural?Someone has visited our church and we have invested lots of effort in them, and it’s all come to naught.  Someone else visits, we do almost nothing, and they end up joining.  What’s with that?  Dave Allen is from Hunter Church in Newcastle and Andy Hobbs from Salt Church in Wollongong.  Both have great advice for us in this area.The Church Cothechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches.  Advertise on The Pastor's HeartTo advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsorSupport the show

It’s time to review what’s happened this year and have robust informed conversations about what we will do next year?  What won’t we do again?  How we will do things differently? And why? To make realistic decisions, we need to know what’s helpful to measure?  And what isn’t? Not everything that’s measurable matters. And not everything that matters is measurable.Mike Hastie has been serving on the team at Newtown Erskineville Anglican Church, and is about to become the senior pastor of Toongabbie Anglican Church. Mike’s the founder of a project called Growing Healthier Churches which is all about helping us pastor better by measuring and tracking. The Church Cothechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches.  Advertise on The Pastor's HeartTo advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsorSupport the show

South Australian Ryan Williams had been a Christian for five years and campus pastor at Mars Hill Everett for twelve months,  when Mars Hill’s founder and senior pastor Mark Driscoll resigned and the church collapsed in 2014.Christianity Today’s podcast account of the rise and fall of Mars Hill has just concluded.Ryan is now senior pastor of City on a Hill Albuquerque and shares on how he and the other ex Mars Hill Staff and Members are processing the pain of the past and the issues raised by the podcast http://www.thepastorsheart.net/podcast/marshillThe Church Cothechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches.  Advertise on The Pastor's HeartTo advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsorSupport the show

We’re seeing a shift in approaches to doing church. Traditional denominations are becoming more open to moving their focus from solo campuses to multi-campus ministries in order to increase mission capacity. The argument is this may increase the effectiveness of church activity and increase our ability to engage local communities. Church mergers had been seen as a last ditched thing, when one was on the verge of unviability.  But there's a new discussion now, that merging a church with momentum, with another that is viable, but with less momentum, might be a more effective way to achieve overall growth. Antony Barraclough, the senior minister of the newly merged North Light Anglican Church on the North Shore of Sydney, walks us through the effectiveness of this approach, and the missional advantages he has seen. Sydney Anglican Report on Parish and Regional Restructure: https://j.mp/3cYUSYLhttp://www.thepastorsheart.net/podcast/effective-multi-campus-churchesThe Church Cothechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches.  Advertise on The Pastor's HeartTo advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsorSupport the show

This week, Senior Pastor of Seaforth Anglican Rich Wenden explores his findings on how we as the Gods people can better bring the good news of Jesus to these places.Rich has been researching missional strategies of churches in reaching coastal areas, and has lots of insights to share with us! We talk liturgy of the surf, liturgy of community, the impact of a missional faithful presence, and more intentional discipleship.We also discuss the impact of a missional faithful presence, intentional discipleship and community. Rich also challenges us to start thinking about how we can be contributing to this mission field, as well as what the opportunities are for our own context. Read Rich’s doctor of ministry project here: https://bit.ly/coastalministryThe Church Cothechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches.  Advertise on The Pastor's HeartTo advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsorSupport the show

‘Find life that lasts. It’s closer than you think’How might Churches in Australia and other countries take advantage of the united evangelism campaign being arranged for the UK and Ireland. Can the campaign be used to give us a needed evangelistic shot in the arm? Mission Pastor Elliot Temple and Senior Pastors Jodie McNeill and Tom Melbourne have been reviewing the material and bring their review. Throughout our conversation, we focus on evangelism opportunities within Australia and the potential of this campaign to further communicate the good news of everlasting life with Jesus. Jodie McNeill is senior pastor of Jamberoo Anglican Church, to the south of Sydney.  Tom Melbourne is senior pastor of Central Villages Anglican, in the Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney. Elliot Temple is mission pastor of Christ Church St Ives, in Sydney’s North.See also:https://www.thepastorsheart.net/podcast/passion-for-lifehttps://www.apassionforlife.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/APFL-Life-2022.pdfhttps://www.apassionforlife.org.uk/The Church Cothechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches.  Advertise on The Pastor's HeartTo advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsorSupport the show

How as the collective complementarian church, are we raising women up for ministry - ensuring they are equipped and given the place to exercise their gifts in ministry roles? What should our vision be for raising up women in ministry? How do you develop a culture in your church that is really positive to women exercising their gifts and hence stepping forward for full-time ministry roles? What can we be doing now? In this episode, Kara Hartley (Archdeacon for Women in the Sydney Anglican Church) and Jane Tooher (Director of the Priscilla and Aquila Centre at Moore Theological College in Sydney) will bring us some insights into these questions.http://www.thepastorsheart.net/podcast/recruiting-womenhttp://www.thepastorsheart.net/podcast/recruiting-womenThe Church Cothechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches.  Advertise on The Pastor's HeartTo advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsorSupport the show

We talk, how do we plan for Christmas when we’re just waking up from the COVID lockdown? Senior Pastor of Lower Blue Mountains Anglican Church Ken Noakes, joins Mission Pastor Andy Bootes from Hope Church Leppington and Missions Pastor Jessica Brouwer.We talk from first principles, demographics, what activities will work in this context, how COVID changes things, Christmas themes, strategy for events and follow up plans.Plus what have they done in the past that they are not going to do this year? And what to do about Boxing Day on a Sunday.The Church Cothechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches.  Advertise on The Pastor's HeartTo advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsorSupport the show