The One Thing

Term  One :  It  seems an eternity away.  After all,  we haven’t even got to Christmas yet! But the key to  starting  strong  in Term One  is  getting on track in Term Four. Think ahead about the five important things for Term One Ensure you’re ready to welcome new people coming into church Aligning new leaders and staff  is crucial . How will you do it? Be prepared for mission opportunities: plan...

"We become bolder in our local mission when we see what God is doing globally." Being a healthy church means being concerned what God is doing throughout the whole world. Wei Han Kuan thinks that Charles Perry (the evangelical founding bishop of Melbourne) got it right when he said in 1851 that “the best means of ensuring the health of the local church is a vital commitment to world missions.” How...

How does global mission partnership work? "In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now," (Philippians 1:4-5). The Philippian church was not just concerned about how the gospel was going in their city, but where Paul was ministering as well. Partnerships at a church and an individual level Missionaries on home assig...

Carey Neiuwhof has looked at some of the changes in North America, but what about the changes in Australia? We are closing more churches than starting. Is closing a church a bad thing? Fill in the blanks: we only have one church for every XXXX people in Australia How long do Australian churches take to become viable? Why too much funding is a problem for church plants Why authenticity matters Doin...

25% of people in churches will have switched in the last 5 years. Changing churches is hard, but it's meant to be. When is a good time for people to move churches (geography, kids and families)? What are some of realities of people switching? How do pastors pastor people doing a switch (both leaving and gaining)? What about people moving to a church plant?  TOOL BOX: How to Walk into Church...

Retirement is more than golf, gardening and travel. Once someone finishes work, they enter a new phase of life. Philip Hayes (EV Church, Erina), a retired eye surgeon, thought about what would happen if we used this as a great opportunity for the gospel. He's developed a great ministry to help others transition to this new stage of life. Phillip talks about: The life of a retiree is not what y...

The timeline for some people is that they meet their spouse, get married, and prepare to have kids. (It's not everyone and we love people who are single or kids is not an option for them!). But some people find themselves about to have kids, but are at a congregation that does not have a kids program.  Geoff and Wendy Lin from Holy Trinity in Adelaide talk about how they prepare couples for ki...

Youth and young adults have unique challenges. Karl Bonner from Northlight Anglican Church shares: Changes from school to post-school: from programmed to self-initiated Church provides constancy when there is a lot of change Effects of COVID on people leaving school Differences between adults and young adults Young adults are less likely to conceal their sins, but are less likely to continue in go...

How do we help kids adjust to all the changes of moving to high school? Kids are going through a lot, but some churches sometimes miss the opportunities to help kids move from kids ministry (often on a Sunday morning) to a youth ministry (often on a Friday Night). Chris Jones and Annemarie Rivers from Youthworks help us think about this. What are kids going through as they finish Year 6 Kids finis...

The gospel reminds us that we are sinners, but also broken and fragile people. As people come to church they come with their various mental health issues. Keith and Sarah Condie discuss what is the role of the church in helping people. It is not our job to fix people. Church can be really good for people as they deal with the issues. The importance of watching and listening to people who might...

One in five people in Australia are dealing with a mental health issue at any given moment, and gospel workers aren’t immune. Keith and Sarah Condie from the Mental Health Institute unpack how to maintain mental wellbeing. The difference between mental health problems and maintaining good mental health The gospel’s impact on our mental wellbeing How to look after our minds, body, relationships and...

"The sin of empathy" is a phrase attributed to family systems psychologist Dr Edwin Friedman.  Matt Waldock of Manchester City Church explores why empathy is unhelpful in ministry and compassion is a better way of thinking. Compassion is suffering  with  someone Empathy is feeling the pain that they feel But you cannot help someone if you are in pain yourself The person with the most a...

What should we think about the 4th term? 1. Mission: Dust your mission calendar off. For summer it can be a big mission season, for others it is the slow season. For those who are prepping for that big mission, now is the time to get things going. Really important to have a next step for what will happen for people coming to Christmas NB Your mission calendar is where you mission funnel drives you...

Public bible reading is something people often take for granted. But hearing God speak to our community is the highlight of our church gatherings. How do we practically speaking, read the bible well?  Backyard Bard, Simon Camilleri gives us some pointers: Historically, when the people of God stop reading the bible, they go off the tracks.  The sermon is not just the ministry of the word and the bi...

Dive into this system of working out where disciples are at: sleeper (uninterested non-Christian), seeker (interested non-Christian), consumer (uninterested Christian) and disciple (interested follower of Jesus). Daniel Im is the Senior Pastor of Beulah Alliance Church in Edmon. Daniel and Scott talk about: How do we preach to these four types of people mentioned in the system The process of ongoi...

We want to make sure that a gospel presentation is accurate and effective, so what makes for a good gospel presentation? Dave Jensen is from Evangelism and New Churches in Sydney. Dave talks about: Three key ideas to make a good presentation Three key components to effective evangelism There are presentations that can distract us from effective evangelism. Evangelism is not just for the benefit of...

Reach Australia is about reaching Australia, but our network is spilling over to other countries as well. Josh Johnston from The Tron Church in Glasgow was part of the team that came to Reach Australia's National Conference this year. He reflects with Scott Sanders about: The work of gospel in The Tron Church lately The importance pathway thinking Learning to think Now, Where, How The encourag...

Healthy church teams are such an important part of being a healthy church. Ray Galea talks about the differences of building a team from his time at MBM, and inheriting a team from his time with Fellowship Dubai Ray talks about: The importance of looking of the fruit of the Spirit rather than the gifts of the Spirit in your team Working out a clear structure Knowing yourself as a leader, you...

The grief of a losing a child is something that no one should have to endure. Nancy Guthrie might be known to many as a great Bible teacher but she and her husband have experienced and incredible amount of of grief in their lives with the loss of not just 1 but two children.   *** THIS EPISODE DOES CONTAIN ISSUES OF GRIEF AND LOSS, IF THIS RAISES ISSUES FOR YOU PLEASE ASK FOR HELP ***  Here a...

There has been a greater awareness of neurodiversity in our world today, Bec Baines explains how churches can be better equiped to minister to people with different forms of neurodiversity as we see the gospel include all sorts of people. Neurodivergence can include the Autism spectrum, PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance), ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), dyslexia, dyspraxia, down...

Adjusting churches for including people may not be as expensive as you might think, in fact it is not merely about the building. Disability comes with age, so we are all facing it at some point! Louise Gosbell has spent a lot of time thinking about disability and ministry. Making a building accessible - where it happens in the Bible Why ministry to people with disabilities is so much more than jus...

What do we need to think and do when it comes to term three? Often it's a good time to dive into longer term planning and recruitment for the next year. Raising leaders for next year Strategic plans for next year Keeping people focused on vision Digging into your small group ministries Get into the important but not urgent things like budget for next year Getting leaders away for thinking, ref...

It's a simple online course to help you explain the gospel to people. Glen Scrivener talks about his course 3,2,1 which can be done online. You can do it with someone or pass on the link for someone to do it themselves. Speak Life is a ministry to make Jesus known The development of 3,2,1 has not been overnight but has been a project from 2011 This is course for anyone, but especially for visu...

Imagine an experiential gospel presentation where the food matches the talks and discussion. Taste And See is a 4 week course that has been developed by Paul Young, Wendy Potts, Rory Shiner and others. There are lot of presentations out there, but we need to keep making more, its part of the importance of re-creating in our ministry areas Food is an important part of life, the story of the Bible a...

At the time of recording, the Reach Australia National Conference was well under way. Scott chats with Murray Capill about the 4 chambers of the heart. The resources, including Murray's talk, will be up online soon!! TOOL BOX: Murray's Slides The Heart of Holiness (Gospel Coalition Article) CREDITS: ⁠⁠⁠ The One Thing is brought to you by  ⁠⁠Reach Australia⁠⁠ . For ideas or questions please...