There are three different ways that the adult population of churches can grow:Adults being saved. Christians transferring from another congregation within your denomination of switching from another denomination. 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%.The second way is people switching from another church within your denomination, or transferring from another denomination.Sydney Anglican Youthworks Consultant Al James says key focuses are deep discipleship, deep connection and authentic discussions at home with parents about faith. To watch Al James' Seminar on helping young people stick with Jesus, click this link: https://share.transistor.fm/s/b8d6fc0eThe 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 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?The market is already making different choices. Elon Musk has said he wants the AI behind X (formerly Twitter) to be morally flexible.   He wants his AI to appeal to all people: left and right, authoritarian and democratic, kind and brutal.Stephen Driscoll is the author of ‘Made in our Image - God, artificial intelligence and you’.To order online: http://matthiasmedia.com.au/products/made-in-our-imageThe 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 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.’Toby Neal is at Vine Church in Surry Hills in Sydney.  Toby says there’s been days when he sat at the back of the church, head in hands thinking, “Oh dear - I hope we don’t have anyone new here 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.

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.Artificial intelligence will likely lure us into our own individual heavens and unbundled freedoms, but it won’t fix our souls.Stephen Driscoll works in ministering to postgrads and academics at the Australian National University in Canberra as part of the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students.Matthias Media Link to purchase: https://matthiasmedia.com.au/products/made-in-our-image.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.

‘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?Key Applications: Pray Ephesians 3 prayers for yourself and your team. Never assume a potential ministry staff member has accepted the gospel of God. Listen to see if they are personally gripped by grace. Demonstrate God’s love by meeting with your team consistently.Watch to see if the demands of ministry have choked the joy of salvation. Demonstrate God’s loving grace when a team member misses the mark. Encourage ‘Gospel Grace identity’: Does a team member welcome feedback or are they defensive; are they willing to apologise without qualification.Ray Galea was the pastor of MBM Rooty Hill in Western Sydney for 33 years until he moved to Dubai in 2022 to lead the Fellowship Dubai church there.Ray is giving the evening keynote addresses at the Reach Australia Conference to talk about our the Pastor’s heart, feelings, emotions, and faith.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.

“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. He says a third of All Souls members are wanting to leave the Church of England now, a third want to stay and fight (never leave), and a further third are confused, and this diversity of opinion is reflected in the staff team. Former All Souls evangelist Rico Tice has distanced himself from the Church of England, attends a Presbyterian Church, but retains Church of England Permission to Officiate. Rico said on the Gafcon 2018 livestream, of the gospel promoted by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Evangelism Team, “It's a different religion... and it’s around whether scripture is authoritative in terms of human sexuality… I think it’s a great wickedness to tell people who are on the road to destruction that they're not... if we have church leaders who are putting people on that road to destruction it’s a salvation issue.. That's why we have to distance ourselves..." (https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1482677891837392)Mr Skrine says in Revelation 2 Jesus says that his people must not tolerate sexual immorality. Mr Skrine says the bishops don’t get it, but there are tiny glimmers of hope of a settlement, with bishops moving slowly reluctantly towards the conclusion that they need to give up authority and come to a settlement.He says the actions of the Bishop of London have united evangelical leaders within the London Church in a highly significant way with groups like All Souls, St Helens, Holy Trinity Brompton and Soma all standing side by side. 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.

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 Blue Fox Media 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.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.

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.The Global South Churches said in their important Ash Wednesday 23 statement that the Church of England has disqualified herself from leading the Anglican communion.Gafcon said the Archbishop of Canterbury’s leadership has been irreparably damaged.We speak with  the chair of the Global South Archbishop Justin Badi Arama of South Sudan and the new General Secretary of Gafcon Bishop Paul Donison.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 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.We are living in a fake news world on social media with a parallel loss of confidence in institutions and authorities. Prince Harry says, ‘Whatever the cause, my memory is my memory, it does what it does, gathers and curates as it sees fit, and there’s just as much truth in what I remember and how I remember it as there is in so-called objective facts.  Things like chronology and cause-and-effect are often just fables we tell ourselves about the past.Former US President Barack Obama says “Unfortunately, too much of politics today seems to reject the very concept of objective truth. People just make stuff up. They just make stuff up. … we see the utter loss of shame among political leaders where they’re caught in a lie and they just double down and they lie some more. Politicians  have always lied, but it used to be if you caught them lying, they’d be like, “Oh, man”. Now they just keep on lying."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.Purchase Lionel Windsor’s Truth be Told  https://bit.ly/3VVD34NThe 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 is permissible and not permissible under new conversion practice laws in New South Wales - with Neil Foster, Matt Aroney and Michael SteadSydney Anglican Bishop Michael Stead, who chairs Freedom for Faith, describes the new laws  as the least worst that he has seen in Australia. Associate Professor of Law at Newcastle University and author of the Law and Religion blog Neil Foster says the law is unnecessary, but better than has been implemented in other parts of Australia. Professor Foster supports moves to ban oppressive or violent practices that are designed to change someone’s sexual attraction or impair gender identity. However, Professor Foster says the laws (which have a criminal and civil component)  can go beyond those bad things to areas where a minister is explaining the teaching of the Bible and wanting to help people to live in accordance with the bible. Acting Minister of Watsons Bay Matt Aroney says he doesn’t think the new laws will impact his pastoral practice.  Matt wants to turn down the anxiety levels.  He encourages to choose thoughtfully to respond to the people in front of us with the love and compassion that Jesus has. Matt applies the principles of his new book ‘Renovated: How God makes us Christlike’  to caring well for those Christians experiencing same sex attraction or gender incongruence. 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.