All ministry is vulnerable during the COVID-19 season. But kids and youth ministries especially. How can we reduce that vulnerability?Kids and youth connections have been difficult online for months now.Kids are over Zoom after weeks of online school.As we turn our attention to the restart, How do we regroup, recover and restart the young people ministries?Plus how do the principles of Adaptive Change apply in the kids and youth space?Ed Springer is a consultant with Sydney’s Anglican Youthworks.And Dave Hopper consults for the Youth Network of the Queensland Presbyterian Church.The Church Cohttp://www.thechurchco.com is an excellent website and app platform built specifically for churches.  Support the show--Become a regular financial supporter of The Pastor's Heart via Patreon.

In New South Wales, Australia churches are permitted to gather for meetings of 50 from Monday, but are not permitted to have communal singing.  Rob Smith, Curtis Smith & Dr Charlotte Hespe discuss. NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant says, "Communal singing and chanting should not occur because of the high risk of transmission of the virus. Instead, measures such as one singer standing at least three metres away from others would be safer.” In a special edition of The Pastor’s Heart we talk about the future of singing in church with Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Council Member, and Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame, Doctor Charlotte Hespe, Songwriter and author of ‘Come, Let us Sing’  Rob Smith and Music Director of Church by the Bridge and St. Augustine's Anglican Church, Neutral Bay, Curtis Smith.Some of our questions we consider are: Why singing matters for personal health / why singing together matters for church health.What does the science say about singing and the risks of droplet spread?What if it’s not safe to sing together? – greater good ethical dilemmasWhat if we’re prohibited from singing together? – thinking through our responseIs singing with masks on an option?Reconceiving church in the short to medium termSinging privately / singing in familiesHow do we navigate a way forward as churches?NSW Government health department checklist:https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/industry-guidelines/places-of-worshipNeil Foster’s helpful blogpost.https://lawandreligionaustralia.blog/2020/05/30/worship-in-coronavirus-time-the-latest-nsw-rules/Here's the NSW government's official media release:https://www.nsw.gov.au/media-releases/changes-for-worship-weddings-and-funeralsHere are the NSW health department rules. https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/_emergency/Public%20Health%20(COVID-19%20Restrictions%20on%20Gathering%20and%20Movement)%20Order%20(No%203)%202020.pdfThe Church Cohttp://www.thechurchco.com is an excellent website and app platform built specifically for churches.  Support the show--Become a regular financial supporter of The Pastor's Heart via Patreon.

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?The best advice for Australian churches is still to expect a protracted period with congregations limited to 100 people, with one person per four square metres, for many Churches, this necessitates change, with congregations to be divided or planted. Jenny Brown heads The Family Systems Practice, is an experienced family systems therapist and the author of Growing Yourself Up. Nigel Fortesque is the senior minister of Christ Church St Ives.  Nigel’s survey of congregational attitudes to the reboot is here.The Church Cohttp://www.thechurchco.com is an excellent website and app platform built specifically for churches.  Support the show--Become a regular financial supporter of The Pastor's Heart via Patreon.

Brian Tung says leading our churches successfully out of COVID-19 is going to be much more complex than the journey in. He 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.Brian Tung is the senior minister of St Georges Hurstville in Sydney’s South and he has a doctorate in ministry leadership.Watch online at http://www.thepastorsheart.net/podcast/adaptiveleadershipThe Church Cohttp://www.thechurchco.com is an excellent website and app platform built specifically for churches.  Support the show--Become a regular financial supporter of The Pastor's Heart via Patreon.

The road forward .  Four scenarios and three questions for every church leadership team. Churches are starting to plan for a post shutdown world.  The Australian Prime Minister has announced a three stage road map, of gatherings of stage one = 10 people, stage two = 20 people, and stage three = 100 people.But significantly stage three could run for a very long time.Adam Lowe is senior pastor of St Barts Toowoomba, as well as being a psychologist who has focused on organisations.  Gary Koo is the Bishop leading the Sydney Anglican Church’s Covid-19 Diocesan Taskforce.Adam outlines four key scenarios facing churches and a series of three questions that churches need to address. Link here. See also an article on strategic change by Adam Lowe here. Gary Koo says there are key lessons we have learned:We’ve had more people engage with our church services than when we met physicallyOnline church has provided opportunities for those with chronic health issues to attend more regularlyOnline fellowship has been helpful for those who find it difficult to initiate conversationOlder members have adapted better than may have been expected.It has provided opportunities for inter-generational encouragementSocially disadvantaged areas have been impacted disproportionatelySmaller churches have been impacted disproportionatelyPeople value church connection possibly more than we realisedThere is competition for our people’s time that stops them from engagingA lot of church life involves doing what isn’t ‘essential’Churches dependent on rental income have been hit hard. There is a disparity between the mental resilience of our senior ministers and our assistant ministers. What is the cause of this?People may not have access to a reliable pathway to access mental healthresourcesMultiply redundant communication is necessary for messagingPastoral care has been undertaken in a more intentional way than before.People have valued ministers making personal contact with themThe Church Cohttp://www.thechurchco.com is an excellent website and app platform built specifically for churches.  Support the show--Become a regular financial supporter of The Pastor's Heart via Patreon.

A three step plan to reopen Australia - with Peter MayrickWe 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 Mayrick 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.We’ll discuss what this means for the Church landscape in Australia▪ | How to make this happen with credibility and trust?▪ | How this impacts smaller and larger Churches differently?▪ | What will small groups look like socially distanced?▪ | Our natural response and how to fight against that▪ | How to communicate with our leaders and congregations▪ | How to build communityHe has very kindly come in to talk to us about his report released today. The Church Cohttp://www.thechurchco.com is an excellent website and app platform built specifically for churches.  Support the show--Become a regular financial supporter of The Pastor's Heart via Patreon.

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.Laura Riley was leading a term one evangelistic course that switched to online halfway through. And she’s now co-ordinating a fully-online course that started on Easter Monday with 13 guests and four hosts. Laura’s joined by Michael Nguyen, who became a Christian as part of an introducing God course last year and is now helping facilitate. We’ll discuss the nitty gritty of how to make an online evangelistic course work including: How do you make the initial connection work?How and where did we find the members in this group? How to make guests feel relationally safe? The difference age makes in how people relate and connect online? How does the discussion work? What is the timing on the night? Who is in the courses? How different is this to who we might normally see? Any key mistakes to avoid? Would you keep running a digital evangelistic course post COVID-19? Visit the Introducing God website.Download the Introducing God online promo video Watch the full Introducing God training video online (free) Watch the full Introducing God course online (free) The Church Cohttp://www.thechurchco.com is an excellent website and app platform built specifically for churches.  Support the show--Become a regular financial supporter of The Pastor's Heart via Patreon.

Having focused on the how-to’s of Covid-10, this week we are focusing on us: our personal lives, our teams and our relationship with Jesus during Covid-19. 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. We discuss what our Church and staff teams need from their senior leaders, how to build a robust team culture throughout Covid-19 and how to function as a team not used to working remotely and the best ways to build a culture of fun. We also discuss the multiple different reactions and responses members of our team may have and how we can best pastor them and their families. We drill down on how to encourage and invest in staff teams whose job descriptions have been thrown out the window and are on a steep (and uncomfortable!) learning curve. Kirsty and Greg emphasise a focus on beginning with our own mental health and suggest strategies to identify stressors, personally and for staff. Greg and Kirsty bring very different perspectives to the conversation, Greg leads a staff team of 24 at Hunter Bible Church in Newcastle, whereas Kirsty as an organisational psychologist with a clinical perspective on healthy teams. For more on Kirsty Bucknell’s Resilience in Ministry program: https://tinyurl.com/RiM-RegistrationThe Church Cohttp://www.thechurchco.com is an excellent website and app platform built specifically for churches.  Support the show--Become a regular financial supporter of The Pastor's Heart via Patreon.

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? Is it likes on Facebook? Online “attendance”? Reach? Number of people engaging in Bible study groups? This week on The Pastor’s Heart, 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’ll discuss how we can be seeking to grow God’s kingdom, setting goals for where our ministries will be when restrictions are reduced, measuring weekly successes and how to decide which ministries to continue to invest in. We also discuss what to aim for specifically in terms of mission and maturity.The Church Cohttp://www.thechurchco.com is an excellent website and app platform built specifically for churches.  Support the show--Become a regular financial supporter of The Pastor's Heart via Patreon.

We talk to TV professionals Evan Batten & Paul Richards about how preachers can best use video to effectively share the gospel.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.Paul and Evan discuss camera angles, scripts, how to relax, lighting, speech, genre, scripting, what to wear, where to look and how to incorporate other congregation members. They also discuss how to be conversational, make it relatable and add warmth and emotion.It’s a conversation for every skill level - to help pastor’s talk about the gospel in as effective way as possible. Paul Richards, who now is media and outreach director for the Australian Academy of Science,  has spent 10 years as supervising producer for Seven Network’s Sunrise and Evan Batten is an on air news reporter. More at: https://www.thepastorsheart.net/podcast/what-tv-professionals-wantThe Church Cohttp://www.thechurchco.com is an excellent website and app platform built specifically for churches.  Support the show--Become a regular financial supporter of The Pastor's Heart via Patreon.