Getting money right in the Christian ChurchWhat’s your word to the pastor, when just down the road there is a big prosperity church doing flashy ministry? The Prosperity Gospel is a different gospel, not good news, says the Generosity Monk Gary Hoag. Seminaries have not done a good job teaching on money.  There are big errors:Prosperity - Taking Old Testament promises out of context,Slavery - Sending people back to slavery by teaching the tithe,Culturally - If your message sounds good culturally it’s probably another gospel,Instead what we need to pursue is the Spirit’s fruit of generosity, and Gary says the fruit will then take care of itself.Not only should you not care what the humans think.  You can’t care.  You are playing to an audience of one. Plus how do we define success?  How do we think about outcomes in ministry?  How do we not look for the wrong things?How should we think about budgeting as as 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.

How should a leader respond, when a member of a church community takes their own life? And what can leaders do to prevent such tragedies? Dr Karen Mason teaches counselling and psychology at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary in Boston. Karen will discuss suicide in the church from the perspective of senior pastors on The Pastor's Heart.Dominic and Karen discuss the right and wrong reactions that pastors and churches make when faced with this situation.They explore the vital role of the pastor in these situations both as a leader and as someone to care for the family long term, as well as detailing practically how to put the funeral together. They also outline how to approach the theology of suicide. Lastly, they discussed hard hitting issues that come along with suicide such as guilt and what to say when someone is struggling with thoughts of suicide.Dr Karen Mason will be joining ADM’s School of Theology, Culture & Public Engagement 2020 to conduct two masterclasses on suicide prevention in the church. Dr Mason is the author of Preventing Suicide and has another book coming out later this year.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.

Evangelicals standing up to the culture over the treatment of our indigenous peoples.As Australia Day gets closer, we evaluate the history of Australian Christianity’s interaction with Indigenous people.From Mary Bennett in the 1930s to William Cooper and more recently Kevin Rudd's apology in 2008, we will discuss the impact of the gospel on interactions between indigenous Australians and Christian mission.Historians Stuart Piggin and Robert Linder have just released a major new book Attending to the National Soul, Evangelical Christians in Australian history 1914-2014.Stuart Piggin joins us for a frank discussion on:* Black Armbands vs Whitewashed views of history* Missionary response to the massacres* The Christian roots of NAIDOC Week and Australia Day.* Missionary complacency in removing aboriginal children from their mothers* The evangelical influence behind Kevin Rudd’s apologyLate in the discussion there is a reference to Dominic Steele's father Jeremy Steele's work on indigenous languages.  His website Aboriginal languages of Australia 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.

Trigger Warning - this post discusses abusive relationshipsThis week on the Pastor’s Heart, we address the complex issue of domestic abuse within the relationships of ministry leaders. While all abuse is wrong, there are added complexities in ministry relationships.  Often a ministry job is entwined with a ministry families house, income stream, city and community for a ministry family. With that much at stake, wives can feel a pressure not to raise concerns.The dynamics of these relationships then get worse, leaving friends, family and congregation completely unaware and the victim even more isolated. Jenni Woodhouse serves as pastoral care coordinator for the Church Missionary Society NSW & ACT, but previously was chaplain for the Sydney Anglican Church’s Professional Standards Unit.We will ask her how to spot relationships like this, how they come to exist within ministry families and strategies to assist impacted families.There are details of immediate crisis support here.Jenni and Dominic talk further about difficult personalities here and domestic violence here.A sermon by Dominic addressing Domestic Violence is here. The Sydney Anglican Church’s Domestic Violence Policy is downloadable 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.

Simon Manchester explains to Dominic Steele how he prepares to teach at a major conference and how to show your congregation the beauty of 1 Timothy 2. Simon’s been lead pastor of one of Sydney’s larger churches, St Thomas’ North Sydney, for thirty years, before standing down last December.  He shares stories about when the St Thomas’ congregation didn’t want him, being summonsed to the Archbishop’s office, and making major changes  Simon is opening the bible this week for two thousand Christian leaders at the Church Missionary Society Summer School in Katoomba in Sydney’s bushfire impacted blue mountains. He’s teaching on ‘The God who seeks’ from 1 Timothy.Check out Simon Manchester's CMS Summer School talks on 1Timothy 1 Part A, 1Timothy 1 Part BDominic Steele's verse by verse talks on 1 Timothy 2 (Unfortunately Simon's are not available free online)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 this Christmas / New Year week we bring you a reheat from one of our earliest episodes.It’s the discussion where EV Church’s Rhett Harris initially rocked me by saying ‘Rosters are contrary to the gospel.’The thesis that Rhett put forward has led me to implement a complete restructuring of the ministry practice at our church. I hope that you find it as revolutionary and thought provoking as we did. 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.

How to pastorally approach the death of a little child.We are having this conversation with three pastors who have had children die, because around the Christian world and in the secular press there has been discussion about the death just over a week ago of two year old Olive Aylne, the daughter of Andrew and Kalley Heiligenthal, who are key figures at the Bethel Church in Reading California. Immediately after Olive’s death her parents called for people to pray for her to be resurrected.  The call has sparked a social media movement #wakeupolive, which has been endorsed by many Pentecostal leaders.  We attempt to serve those who might be grappling with the death of a loved one or just may be thinking #wakeupolive doesn't seem to be right way of handling a little girl’s death, but aren’t able to properly articulate why.’Teresa and Dan Lee are on staff at MBM Rooty Hill and Andrew Barry is from Janalli Anglican Church.Kalley Heiligenthal’s original instagram post said, “Her time here is not done, and it is our time to believe boldly, and with confidence wield what King Jesus paid for. "It’s time for her to come to life."Kalley later posted, “Day three is a really good day for resurrection.”On Day seven, Bethel released a statement acknowledging that, ‘we haven’t seen the miracle of Olive being raised,’ and that 'we are moving towards a memorial service and celebration of her life.’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.

Moving on from a ministry is a natural part of life - but when done badly it can be debilitating for a ministry. This is a key area for Christian leaders to get right. Leaving a ministry is never easy, especially when our families, friendships are embedded within it. Tim Hannah is coming to the end of his fourth major ministry role as the CEO of Compassion Australia. He joins us this week to answer  How to decide when it is time to leave? Who do you speak to about leaving? How will this impact my family? How can you send off a team or congregation member well? What if you are asked to leave? How do you let go of a ministry you led? 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.

On the Pastor’s Heart we speak to Greg Powell, clinical psychologist focusing on helping Church and mission organisations work well together. Greg consults on complex leadership breakdown and helps team increase in effectiveness.As our society and Churches focus on mental health, Greg has a lot to say about how ministry leaders can maintain their own mental health and support their congregations. Greg will share tools for coping with the emotional demands of Church leadership, the emotions involved in saying goodbye to a parish and strategies to support the growing number of young adults with depression.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.

A new study of student wellbeing at Sydney University carried out by McCrindle Research highlights the positive impacts that faith groups are having in the lives of students on campus. Dominic Steele speaks with Rowan Kemp from the Sydney University Evangelical Union and Geoffrey Folland from Power to Change USYD about the impact of the gospel on campus life. McCrindle research has recently found that students who belong to faith groups will rate their experiences in those groups much more highly than their experiences at university generally.   Rowan and Geoff share both the findings of the report and their own experience of helping students find their belonging and identity during a fundamental time of transition. Students involved in faith groups are 2.3x as likely to feel they can reach out for support in their faith group than at university generally. They are also nearly twice as likely to feel connected and included in their faith group than at uni generally. Of the students who turned to their faith groups in tough times, 91% found their support extremely or very helpful. Even with the support of a faith group, 31% of students at Sydney Uni said they did not feel safe expressing their faith on campus. The statistics present an encouraging view of the impact campus faith groups have for individual student wellbeing. Have you been invested in or encouraged by a campus faith group? Let us know in the Pastor’s Heart discussion group. See the published report here: http://j.mp/chaplaincywellbeingThe 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.