The One Thing

At the time of recording, the Reach Australia National Conference was well under way. We got a chance to talk with people about how they have been encouraged. The resources, including Murray's talk, will be up online soon!! CREDITS: ⁠ The One Thing is brought to you by  ⁠Reach Australia⁠ . For ideas or questions please email  ⁠resources@reachaustralia.com.au⁠ To support the Reach Australia Onl...

Recently, we talked with Rory from 10 of those which are books to give away. Glen Scrivener is an author of one of those books, Love Story. Unlike tracts, books are not something that people tend to throw away. This is a great book to give away. All stories point to the gospel, especially the importance of resolving the story and there is truth in myth This is a book for your neighbour, for the pe...

SPECIAL BONUS EPISODE!!! Nancy Guthrie's will be coming to Australia in June 2024 to run workshops for women to understand biblical theology. Nancy is an author, speaker and podcaster who has spent her life encouraging women in the Bible. Nancy's personal experience in sitting under the Bible Why biblical theology is essential for all Christians to understand The importance for women to un...

A building is more than just a rain shelter! How people see the building and how it's used can be a great asset to gospel work. Vine Church has gone through the process of renovating and rebuilding an inner city church. Kate Stace is the Director of Ministry Operations. She shares: Thinking about the next generation as you build Why you should explain how a building project is connected to gos...

When you have a church building and people who don't attend your church want to use it, what questions should you think through first? Kate Stace from Vine Church is the Ministry Operations Director at Vine Church in Sydney. She shares: Why what happens in your church building matters Using your site as a mission field Priorities for what the building is used for Policy nuts and bolts Question...

Have you ever noticed the bits of writing at the end of the song you are singing? It should include the acronym CCLI. Christian Copyright Licensing International does not police the law in copyright, but is there to serve the church in making sure we adhere to the laws well and serve our musician brothers and sisters. Bhavani Marks visits us to talk about: What you need to pay copyright licensing...

Australia has seen a number of church management platforms. Do we need another one? ChurchSuite (an online management system built in the UK) is coming to Australia this year. Scott Sanders asks Gavin and Paul from ChurchSuite about how their platform will benefit Australian churches: Why putting 'people before programs' is so important. How the platform is designed for people who love tec...

Vine Church uses name tags, Hunter Bible Church does not. In this episode Toby Neal (Vine Church) and Dave Moore (Hunter Bible Church) face off in a debate about whether name tags are helpful in church.  Arguments for: Community: They can help people connect as addressing people by name helps with relational interactions Follow up: Having a check in process helps to get new people's contact de...

Are Christian books still a powerful tool for evangelism? Rory Baxter has been publishing books as cheap as he can, to get them into the hands of as many non- Christians as possible. Here's his take on how they've been effective in churches.   Scott and Rory talk about: Rory's own story about learning the gospel with dyslexia What is it about books? You can take it are your own...

Andrew Heard has a new book out, Growth and Change. Over the coming weeks we'll be posting conversations that Jo and Scott had with Andrew about the book and its background on the Reach Australia Podcast (our longform podcast). In this episode of The One Thing, Jo and Scott reflect on their conversation with Andrew. Here are some of the things that they loved: He works through these struggles...

St Faith's Anglican Church in Sydney's Northern Beaches has made significant changes to how they think about mission as they pray to see more people saved. We talk with Marcus Druitt from the church about what he has found to be the effective elements of evangelistic courses. In this episode we discuss: The important contexts of an evangelistic course, including thinking about your mission...

God has made us all different. We need to keep this mind when we do the whole thing of feedback: experience, personality, gender, cultural background and their role. We need to be: Thinking about the relationships around us and getting to know the people we need to give feedback to. Caring personally and challenging radically leads to good feedback. Making sure that people know their role so they...

Feedback needs to be something that is a regular thing, but it also needs some formal rhythms of review. Importance of regular reviews for staff and other leadership Asking key questions: What are you doing well? What could you do better? What do you need to develop? Also gives opportunity for others to raise things to develop the culture of the ministry and team Importance of reviews as individua...

It's one thing getting feedback, but what about receiving and looking for feedback. We continue our series on feedback. In this episode we look at Look for feedback means you will be more open to receiving it. As a leader you create a culture of feedback when you ask for it. Keep mind who you are asking feedback from: their role, experience and authority. When receiving feedback notice your ow...

Feedback is an essential part of developing people in ministry. We need to know how to do it well. Here are some tips for giving good, effective feedback: Using a tool called the SBI tool Being clear on the purpose, people, place, timing, tone and followup of feedback Making sure we are clear on the purpose of feedback: to make people better Making sure feedback is part of our culture, therefore i...

Feedback is such an important part of the culture of a growing church. Why don't we do it? Recently, we received some feedback in the Reach Australia resource library that we needed some new tools on feedback so welcome to the next few weeks as we look at the idea of feedback. Why do we not give feedback? We have had some back experiences with feedback We are worried what it will do to the rel...

We continue our exploration into how AI can help us in ministry. In this episode we go beyond CHATGPT to look at marketing, writing and other uses for AI in ministry. CHAPTGPT for brainstorming, coming up with a marketing plan and sharpening emails. Text to Image AI for producing kids ministry resources and illustrations for sermons. Creating reels (short videos for social media) using AI Using AI...

AI has become an phenomena in the world. We're exploring how something like CHATGPT can be useful for ministry and where it cannot be substituted for person-to-person ministry. Analysis: Finding trends in data and preaching: repeated illustrations, hobby horses, proportion of application Limitations: AI is not aware of copyright issues Chatbots on church websites have limited value. They might...

Term 1 is on the way. What do I need to think about? Reminding people of the vision. Dripping vision into all things we do. Giving people a plan for the year. Have a plan for: preaching, mission, serving (recruiting, developing, onboarding and celebrating). Plan to plan for the year. Plan your holidays. Make sure you are bringing on new staff well. Planning out Easter, which is early this year. We...

Dr Patricia Weerakoon discusses why our churches need to have clarity about gender, orientation and identity from pastoral, theological and medical perspectives.   There has been significant shifts in people presenting with transgender issues since around 2011-12 Biology - sexual gender, orientation and identity Making distinctions between personality, stereotyping and sexual identity Engaging...

Rory Shiner would love to make "Christianity weird again" and so has written a book on the cross.  His third book in his backwards trilogy, Forgiven Forever, is  practical and accessible. In this chat he and Jo talk about: We need a book on the cross to help us live it out. Forgiveness in world of cancel culture. Forgiveness helps us deal with the shame, the inner grandma, that bot...

Merry Christmas from Reach Australia and The One Thing Crew! SHOW NOTES: Follow us on socials  ⁠Instagram⁠  ⁠Facebook⁠  ⁠TikTok

Last week we looked at how important it is to celebrate in ministry. This week we do something a little different and talk about what we, in the Reach Australia Network have to celebrate:  The National Conference in May, and the encouragement it was to see so many people in the room and the great things they took away to learn to be better at community. New church plants that have launched thi...

The thing about December is that it is a month of celebrating as we draw near to the end of the year, and as we celebrate Jesus coming into the world.  But when it comes to ministry, why is celebration so essential? Jo and Scott talk about the importance of celebrating in ministry and not just in December.  Today we cover: Why celebrate and the importance of 'smilestones'. The importanc...

Dubbo Presbyterian has had a history of good evangelical work, but as Allan Blanch and Dave Ferris explain, some key changes have had a big effect on their growth over the last few years. Clearer outcomes has meant that the church is ready to buy into the vision of the church Moving staff from congregational oversight to working as a team Moving from rosters to teams very quickly (and whether they...