Exponential Australia Church Leaders Podcast

The Temptation to Neglect One's Soul: This fortnight we hear from Mindy Caliguire, who has become known around the globe for her work in Soul Care. Mindy is most known for her work as an author, on staff at Willow Creek, board member with Stadia, and more recently with an organisation called Gloo. In this episode Mindy speaks of some of the pitfalls many church planters fall into, as well as d...

Planting in the DNA: What does it take to be a Church Planting Church? This fortnight we hear from Josh Kelsey. After being involved in all sorts of ministry in Australia, Josh and his wife Georgie felt called to bravely pack up their bags and move to NYC of all cities. Along with their two sons, in that time God has led them to plant not just one church, but several campuses and locations both wi...

What can we learn from rural church planting? This fortnight we are heading from Aaron Bachmann (Lead Pastor, Lifestyle Church QLD), and Caleb Dwyer (Lead Pastor, Generosity Church NSW). Both are incredible church-planting churches located in rural settings. Generosity church is now planted in 11 locations, while Lifestyle church is in 3. But what can we learn from those who are planting in countr...

Integrating Spiritual Formation Planting, campusing, and integrating Spiritual Formation through it all Ally Cawthorn, along with her Husband Steve, planted Urban Church in the city of Perth through the Harvest Net Network of churches. In this episode of the podcast, Ally gives insight into several paradoxes; her passion for Ignatian spirituality while serving on the ACC National Executive, bringi...

Parachute Planting   This fortnight we are joined by Ger Jones. Originally from Wales, working professionally in London, and called to ministry via Vancouver.  Ger shares his journey, his heart for ministry, as well as the remarkable season of ministry that led him to “parachuting” with his family into LA to plant a life-giving church. He shares some of his profound learnings along the w...

This fortnight we are joined by a quiet hero in the Australian Church, Sharon Wright. 8 years ago Sharon felt called by God to pack up her life, and head out to far west NSW, to a small town called Condobolin. With no immediate connections, no apparent strategy, and yet a deep conviction of God's call. Hear how she was able to initiate community, create space, and see God do the miraculous. Sharon...

This week we hear the facinating story that God is currently writing in our nations capital! As we chat with two young leaders from very different parts of God's church who initially bonded over food and a heart for the Lord, and unpack all that has been able to be birthed and pioneered through a collaborative initiative. This conversation will give you hope, as well as a picture of what the Churc...

Join us for a special extended conversation with multiplication movement leaders from all around Australia. In this episode we dive into the topic of multiplication and hear from those on the front lines about what they are seeing in the Aussie church, their heart for mission and multiplying and the need for multiplication to be catalysed in the nation of Australia.  Hosted by Tim O'Neill, ch...

How can we make others the Hero?  Welcome back to our first Podcast of 2023! And what a way to start! This fortnight we are joined by Dave Ferguson, the Visionary leader of Exponential, Newthing, as well as being the Lead Pastor of Community Christian Church in Chicago. Dave is also a world renowned author of several books.  With our regional events just around the corner, we were deligh...

There is a significant trend towards Social Housing across our nation at present as more and more people are being housed in this way. Mark Schultz describes why the church must and how the church can re-position itself with new churches, missional communities and micro churches being established where the people are. Mark, who as part of the Together for Ryde Network chairs the Vertical Villages...

Reclaiming the diversity and opportunities within the Aussie church  This week we are joined by a remarkable leader in Sharon O'Neil. Sharon has become known as a significant voice in our nation when it comes to the incredible gifts and abilities God has given women in leadership. Sharon is a Senior Leader, church planter, Social Worker, and works widely in the city of Launceston to bring abo...

This week we are joined by Al Gordon, the Rector of SAINT Church, now a church of 5 locations in the East of London. SAINT has been the incredible unfolding story of a church that has led with creativity and entrepreneurialism in a context that demands it. A church that is highly regarded for its design, bee-hives, craft beer, and a 2 day festival of creativity known as Renaissance. Hear first han...

Colin shares his insights from a life time of being involved in church planting in Australia, and why now is a great time to plant a church. Interestingly, Colin unpacks how much has changed including the number one point of attraction for a person looking for a church no longer being preaching but being community engagement.  Episode.41 available on  SPOTIFY | YOUTUBE | APPLE PODCASTS &...

While God is calling us to do incredible things for his Kingdom, that never comes at the cost of intimacy with him and doing it in step with his spirit. This week we hear from author and well known leader, Rich Villodas, from New Life Fellowship Church in NYC. Rich shares about the tension of "Hussle culture" and doing great things for Jesus, all while ensuring that we are abiding in Jesus and doi...

Church Planting Live. Often we hear incredible success stories in retrospect, and we celebrate these! But what about those are right at the beginning of their journey? Beginning to sense the call and unsure where to start? This week we hear from Sarah and Trent Young, who have only just stepped out, relocated, and parachuted in to plant a church in Coffs Harbour. Stepping out from a great church,...

Church Planting as Finger Prints. This week we are joined by Cody Byrne, who along with his wife Chantel planted Tribes Church in Perth in March 2021. Cody shares their incredible journey of relocating to Perth, and the profound steps along the way. One of the great highlights is how God impressed upon Cody the uniqueness of every church plant. Why do churches tend to look so similar? What is the...

Leaders who reach their goals without losing their Souls. This week we hear from Jason Perkins who is the Network Director of the Irresistible Churches Network, a network connected to Andy Stanley's Northpoint Community Church and passionate about creating spaces that Non-Church people want to belong to. Jason shares both his story, as well as his great passion for leaders to be healthy while stil...

Chris Swann Director of Church Planting for City to City in Australia provides insights about the sometimes unexpected grief that a sending church has when it plants a church. There are times when the leaders of sending churches are taken by surprise by the effect of friends leaving with the plant, the impact on income, and the inertia that can result from key people being sent out. But it doesn’t...

Church Planting as a legacy. This week we hear from Joel Chelliah. Joel is both the Senior Pastor of Centrepoint Church in Perth, the WA ACC State President, as well as heading up the "HarvestNet" Church Planting network. Joel shares passionately about what it truly means to be a church fiercely committed to church planting. As both the recipient of such empowering and generosity and what it then...

Evangelism for the average punter. This week we are joined by author and speaker Sam Chan. Sam has released several books on the topic of evangelism and how churches can identify and release every day lay people for the work of evangelism. We all recognise the everyday challenges of engaging people with the gospel, but the task has never been more at hand in 2022. We know this frank conversation w...

The Power of the generations. This week we are joined by Jason Ballard, who is a gifted church leader functioning in several roles within Vancouver, Canada. He planted "The Way" church in the midst of the pandemic, as well as leading the Canadian Church Leaders Network. Jason shares some of his journey, as well as the gift of team in planting, the previous generation and significant leaders champi...

Join us for a special episode as we share a session from our recent online 'Stirrings' Event with Mac Lake. One key item STIRRING in the nation of Australia currently is the incredible need for leadership development and building sustainable leadership pipelines as we continue to rebuild and step into this new chapter as the church. Mac has a driving passion for leadership development. He has plan...

The gift of being a son and daughter in the house. This week we heard from Sam and Esther Dix, who are right in the thick of planting "Disciple House Church". The unique feature of their story is that they have been planted from within the "Harvest Net" network, and sent from Centrepoint Church in Perth. Hear from them just how significant it was to be sent from a church planting church, planted f...

Revitalising the institution. This week we are joined by Sarah Jackson who is the CEO of the "Church Revitilisation Trust" which has now planted 117 churches closely connected to HTB in London. Hear how they have been able to "throw the kitchen sink" at the challenge at hand, as well as create innovative and alternative streams to raise leaders. This is an inspiring work that we pray inspires many...

Becoming an Online Pastor in 2008. The World as we all know has just changed so much. And what was once just a search engine, has become one of the great opportunities for engagement and evangelism in our lifetime. This week we hear from Dave Adamson who has just released his new book "MetaChurch: How to use Digital Ministry to Reach People and Make Disciples". Dave shares some of his pertinent re...