The Pastor's Heart with Dominic Steele

So how do we maximise the mission opportunities that come to us at Christmas?  Every Christmas we stop. The majority of us go on holidays and relax. But for Churches, it’s usually the busiest time of the year. People are relaxed, feeling festive and are much more likely to visit their local Church. How can we design our Christmas services to have the best missional impact? What can we do in the le...

A new definition of Conversion Therapy proposed to the Victorian Government defines teaching Classical Christianity as harmful Victorian Baptist pastor Murray Campbell of Mentone Baptist Church , writes on www.murraycampbell.net : In the future, will Churches and religious organisations in Victoria (your home state) have freedom to preach, teach, and counsel and pray in line with their religious c...

So many churches are stuck just under the 200 barrier. It seems it's the hardest transition in congregational dynamics to navigate. Senior Minister of Toongabbie Anglican Church , Raj Gupta joins Dominic Steele, to talk through the challenges, mistakes and strategies in managing this transition. Raj says a key issue is 'the locus of relational connectedness' or what structures peopl...

What should a Christian leader do when their role is to care for people, and they don’t want to interact with people? What impact does depression have on preaching? What kind of friendships should ministry leaders have? What about suffering in the leaders life? What would you say to a leader who is walking through the tough of depression for the first time?  We ask Peter Adam the hard questions ab...

What are the characteristics of effective leaders?  How do emotional maturity and anxiety impact leadership?   Robert Creech, Professor of Pastoral Leadership at Baylor University, is in Sydney for the The Family Systems Institute conference and joins us to speak to the complex relationship between ministry teams and their congregation.  Effective pastoral ministry is primarily about relationships...

How to evangelise the post secularist, impacted by the growing rise of paganism? Dr Peter Jones, Executive Director of truthXchange , is our guest this week. Since 1989, Jones has addressed “the New Age” and New Spirituality.  He’s the author of “Gospel Truth, pagan Lies: Can You Tell the Difference”, “Cracking DaVinci’s Code” and “The God of Sex: How Worldview Determines Sexuality.”  After 18 yea...

With Jay Behan set to become the first bishop of the new Anglican Diocese in New Zealand, he sits down with Dominic Steele to spell out how the principles and difficulties behind responding to theological revisionism.  Plus the lessons learned in New Zealand and how they might apply in other contexts. Jay Behan will be consecrated and installed as the first bishop the Church of Confessing Anglican...

In a special edition of The Pastor's Heart, from the Indonesian capital Jakarta, Dominic Steele speaks to graduates of the Compassion Australia child sponsorship program Krisna Bagus Prasetyo and Liberty M.D. Astuti. We speak about growing up in extreme poverty, finding a safe community with Compassion and meeting Jesus. These children are from families who are not able to provide three meals...

There’s a key problem in Sydney’s Anglican churches with a drop in the number of newcomers. The trend is downwards across the board. It’s massively concerning. In 2013, the Diocesan mission set a goal to raise the number of newcomers to Church to 12% by 2020. However, as of September 2019, it is looking like we will fall well short of this goal. There’s a new report out this week, featuring interv...

Randy Pope, lead pastor of Atlanta's Perimeter Church for 42 years, joins us this week, as he transitions out of the senior leadership role.  Perimeter has been responsible for over forty church plants since 1977. He joins us to talk ministry strategy, his realisation that he needed to focus on spiritual maturity, rather than growth, and a thorn in the flesh for many senior pastors, 'Spi...

‘I was hoping for another plan, but I’ll take God’s plan.  I am comforted by the truth that it’s not out of control, but he’s using it for good,’ says Pitt Town Community Anglican Church Senior Minister Greg Peisley . Greg was preaching on Sunday morning when the church family at Pitt Town realised something wasn’t right, and encouraged him to go straight to hospital at Westmead. The following Mon...

Sydney Archbishop Glenn Davies shares openly about  Weeping for the city of Sydney like Jesus wept over Jerusalem. His surprise to be speaking at public rallies against the extreme changes to the NSW laws surrounding abortion. How seriously flawed the bill is, and how deceptive and politically expedient the manner of it’s presentation has been.  On the sexuality crisis in the Australian Anglican C...

The synod of the Australian diocese of Wangaratta, Victoria has decided to walk a path that stands in opposition to the teaching of the bible, defies the theology of the national church and rejects the agreement of the national bishops council. Kanishka Raffel is Anglican Dean of Sydney and a member of the council of Gafcon Australia .  Dean Raffel has told Dominic Steele on The Pastor’s Heart tha...

“It’s never been more hostile, but it’s never been more open” - David Robertson My conversation with Stephen McAlpine and David Robertson was enlightening. They argued that the experience of being Christian today is the experience of Daniel, living in Babylon.  Rather than despair, Steve and David say there is lots which Christian leaders can do to equip teens, uni students and young workers to “s...

The Principal of Queensland’s Theological College Gary Millar joins Dominic Steele to talk about transformation in the Christian life, the subject of Sydney’s Moore College’s annual lectures.   What is change?  Where do we misunderstand it?  How do people claim for too much change, and on the other hand, how do we expect too little?  Do people change in the Old Testament?  New Testament?  What are...

"Most of all I want a transparently biblical vision of inclusion to be shaping how the church welcomes and accepts me - rather than the ever-changing views of society around me. I don’t want to be included on the basis that cultural attitudes have changed but on the basis of the timeless Gospel that Jesus Christ self-sacrificially brought into this world," - Ed Shaw. Today, in the lead u...

Richard Coekin leads the influential network of Co-Mission churches in London.  He’s been involved with the launch of many churches and ministries, including the London Men's Convention , London Women's Convention , the 9:38 Ministry Training Strategy, Passion for Life Ministry and most recently Planting Collective . Grace One of the key leaders of Evangelicalism in Great Britain Richard...

We hear from Jenny Brown with Craig Foster on the issues of Christian ministry, the complicated relationships involved, and how understanding family systems theory can help. Jenny Brown heads The Family Systems Practice, is an experienced family systems therapist and the author of Growing Yourself Up. Craig is a senior associate minister at Norwest Anglican Church, and works part time was a consul...

A recent survey found that teenagers believe caring for the environment is more important than caring for the poor. As Generation Z grow up, it is becoming increasingly important for to equip our congregations with a biblical approach to environmentalism. My conversation with Lionel Windsor, author of  Is God Green ? tackles these complex issues of greed, politics, exploitation and our accountabil...

The last death throes of cultural Christianity and what’s next with Phillip Jensen Former Anglican Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen says to understand the issues fronting Christians today we will best start with understanding the history. Phillip, who now heads up Two Ways Ministries , takes us on a helicopter journey through fifty years of cultural and Christian history...and considers where to from...

Sydney’s Moore Theological College Principal Mark Thompson has just arrived back from a tour of the world’s leading theological colleges, observing best practice and latest trends.  Dr Thompson briefed his faculty on his findings yesterday. Today he joins Dominic Steele to talk trends and changes in raising up and training a generation of harvest workers.  Anglican Aid To find out more about suppo...

How can youth ministries act as a 'shock absorber for the church' as we absorb and adopt to changes in culture.  And how should our DNA be orientated? Stu Crawshaw is advocating an atonement based youth ministry.  Soul Revival Church's Stuart Crawshaw answers everything we've wanted to know about youth ministry and the next generation... Anglican Aid To find out more about supp...

It's not just the word and prayer (the poetry). it's also the systems and organisation that support them  that matter (the plumbing).  In one of our most requested topics, David Moore is operations pastor with Hunter Bible Church and Unichurch, Newcastle and joins Dominic Steele this week to talk ministry strategy, systems and hacks: reporting, protocols, communications, finances/investm...

There’s been ‘a spate’ of resignations of senior ministers where team leaders of churches have surprised many of us by resigning and switching roles to become team members or switch to chaplaincy or other roles. The task seems like it’s getting harder. What can we do to strengthen our resilience? There’s a Life In Ministry Conference coming up in August in Sydney dealing with the whole issue of re...

Lessons from seven churches, five of which were plants, with David Jones Presbyterian Church planting enterpreneur David Jones has planted five churches and revitalised two.  David, a former moderator of the Australian Presbyterian Church, has just retired as senior pastor of Anne Street Presbyterian in Brisbane.  David joins Dominic Steele to share lessons learned over forty years. Anglican Aid T...