The Pastor's Heart with Dominic Steele

We traverse the historical landscape of identity, starting from Descartes' cogito ergo sum or "I think, therefore I am," to the current age where identity has become a commodity.  Chris Watkin, the award-winning author of the Biblical Critical Theory, helps us understand possessive individualism, starting with John Locke, expressive individualism, and how both terms help us grapple...

Our focus today is on the massive legacy of some of the greatest women of church history.  We discuss how different the Jesus’ mother Mary (as portrayed in the New Testament) is to Mary as she’s popularly thought of.  We focus on the account of one of the early martyrs, 22 year old mother Perpetua, who was fed to the lions.   We look at England’s nine day queen Lady Jane Grey and her mentoring by...

Whether we are the senior pastor, theological college lecturer, missionary, student worker, Christian publisher, or denominational leader - we all work within an evangelical ecosystem. And it’s possible for us to make it harder or easier for our ministry peers to play their part in glorifying God.  Mikey Lynch’s new book The Vine Movement, published by Matthias Media (https://bit.ly/vinemovement),...

Now, where and how for Sydney Anglicans - with Raj Gupta and Zac Veron The future of the Anglican Church in Sydney.   We engage in a ‘Stockdale Paradox’ discussion, confronting the brutal facts about attendance, finances and National Church Life Survey data about mission, newcomers and maturity.  Plus we review the recent Sydney Anglican Synod debate where leader after leader poured out their hear...

Social Justice is a fiercely contested concept among Christians. Often discussions about caring for the poor have not been grounded in a biblical vision for gospel ministry..  Evangelicals have been criticized for appearing to be weak on social justice.  The charge is that we have been so focused on gospel ministry that the poor and disadvantaged have been neglected. How does caring for the poor f...

We send out missionaries.  But sometimes it doesn’t work out.  There’s a forced return home.  Dashed hopes.  And all sorts of understanding and support - from the mission agency, supporter churches, pastor friends and others. Stan and Clare Lie were serving with the Church Missionary Society, lecturing in theology in the middle east, and serving with a church in Alexandria, before being called hom...

How should Christians respond to customs, traditions, and stories that have associations with false religions, demonic powers, and evil? Could a church building be covered in cobwebs and used as an invitation to come inside? Would you run a Halloween event for the kids of your church so they don’t feel like they are missing out? Or would you run something as an outreach to connect to the neighborh...

Join us in conversation with Vishal and Ruth Mangalwadi, as they unravel the complexities of Modern India and the Hindu perspective, and helpful ways to engage them with the gospel. Particularly as immigrants from the Indian subcontinent to Australia increase. Vishal and Ruth Mangalwadi explore how the foundations of modern India have been profoundly shaped by the Bible and the Protestant Missiona...

We put lots of emphasis and training into becoming better teachers.  But how can we improve the clarity, comprehension, conviction and confidence in public reading? Bad public bible reading is too soft, too fast, with mispronunciations, lack of preparation, bad pausing, emotionless,  lacking understanding of the text, monotone and mono speed.  Good public bible reading is faithful to text, without...

What are the issues that senior pastors of smaller churches face - personally and to do with church culture, mission and identity. What are the joys and tensions? What is ministry success?  What are the common pastoral frustrations?  How is long term ministry fruitfulness helped or hindered by our ecclesiology?  What are the particular issues that come up in the middle years of incumbencies? (year...

There have been massive social changes as the western world has shifted from a Christian world view to a post Christian world view.  In his new book ‘ Being Christian after Christendom’ , the senior pastor of Dapto Anglican Church David Rietveld analyzes the changes that churches, pastors and parents face in this transition.  Six weeks ago on The Pastor’s Heart David gave his explanation of the pr...

The Barbie movie has started big conversations around the world and is becoming a significant ‘cultural moment’ - opening up and influencing conversations about death, the gospel, the relationships between men & women and worldview.  We explore particularly the evangelistic opportunities and how Christians might best engage. Caitlin Orr is an Anglican Deacon on maternity leave.  Sophia Russell...

1 Timothy 2:8-15 might be the most controversial New Testament passage.   There has been an enormous amount of scholarly attention on this section of scripture, especially over the last few decades, and there are practical questions that we can’t ignore in church life.  Lionel Windsor is a New Testament lecturer at Sydney’s Moore Theological College. Lionel teaches the pastoral epistles to third y...

How do we connect for Jesus with the largest group of migrants coming into Australia? In just in the last few years - the group of Hindus migrating from India have overtaken China and the UK to become the largest constituency of migrants.  Evangelizing Hindus is a massive priority. Ben George is chair of the Sydney Anglican South Asian ministry committee known as Satya   Clive has just started as...

 A heart for the persecuted pastor - with Dan Oli Shani. One in seven Christians are persecuted globally.  That’s 360 million Christians who are denied access to jobs and education, are arrested, attacked, and even killed for following Jesus. Worst effected according to the Open Doors World Watch List are Christians in North Korea, Somalia, Yemen, Eritrea, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan and Iran . All t...

What is meant by each of the terms biological sex, gendered behaviors or expressions, sexual orientation and gendered identity? How do the various terms relate?  We talk to former director of Sydney University’s  Graduate Program in Sexual Heath, Dr Patricia Weerakoon, Rob Smith, who is head of doctrine at Sydney Missionary and Bible College and Rev Kamal Weerakoon, who has done masters studies in...

We take a pulse check on the health of preaching in Australian Evangelical Churches with one of our leading preachers, from Melbourne’s Centre for Biblical Preaching , Mike Raiter.  Mike has just spent a few weeks surveying twenty different Australian Churches - watching  their sermons online - and analysing them on type of sermon, biblical genre, who was being preached to, faithfulness to text, l...

Major cultural change is making a big impact on Christians and the church.  Something radical has changed.  Admitting you follow Jesus ‘weirds people out’ in a way it never has before.  And doing church the way we did no longer yields the same results.  Senior minister of Dapto Anglican David Rietfield says there’s fewer new people and the regulars are coming less frequently.  David has a new book...

What is the relationship between concupiscence and sexual same sex attraction? One of the most contentious issues facing the Christian Church at this moment is how can Christians think and speak truthfully, clearly and compassionately about desire and temptation in a way that does not condone or encourage sin?  There were years in Christian ministry where I never really thought about the term conc...

Are our Gentile Pastor’s Hearts out of step with God?  The Apostle Paul says the gospel should be first for the Jew, but Joseph Steinberg, is calling for a rethink, saying often the western church has as it’s priorities: the gospel being ‘last for the Jew.’ Should we think of Jews as ‘another people group’ or given their special place in God’s unfolding plan, should they have a special place in mi...

In almost every personal conversation I’ve had since returning from Africa I’ve been asked about my personal reflections on the almost four weeks that Catherine and I spent there.  How was Gafcon?  What was significant? What stood out? How has Africa impacted you? This episode features conversations with Archbishop Tito Zavala (Chile), Archbishop James Wong (Indian Ocean), Rico Tice (Christianity...

Our Pastor’s Hearts are in New York City as we honour New York’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church founder Tim Keller who died yesterday.  All the congregations of Keller’s church Redeemer Presbyterian Church met together overnight, for an evening originally planned to cast the next stage of Redeemer’s Vision, but which became a moment for the church family to grieve and pray after the death of Rev Kel...

Richard Borgonon is the author of Word 1-2-1.  He presented at the recent Gafcon Conference in Kigali, Rwanda alongside Christianity Explored’s Rico Tice on how a church might have an integrated evangelistic strategy incorporating both an evangelistic course and a program where members are encouraged to personally evangelise their friends through personal bible reading.  After Rico Tice headed off...

After Queen Elizabeth’s funeral last year, Saturday’s coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla was probably the biggest reaching church service of our lifetimes. We analyze the service theologically and missionally and compare it with the coronation service of Charles’ Mother Queen Elizabeth II. Is it in any way better theologically and where is it worse?  Mark Earngey lectures in Church Histo...

Sydney’s Archbishop Kanishka Raffel has responded to Gafcon’s Kigali Commitment which says the Archbishop of Canterbur Justin Welby’s continued leadership of the Anglican Communion is entirely indefensible. Leaders representing 85% of the Anglican Communion say they have no confidence in the Archbishop of Canterbury or the other instruments of the Anglican Communion. In his first interview, since...