The Pastor's Heart with Dominic Steele

An extraordinary story of God working by his spirit in the life of African Anglican Primate Laurent Mbanda As a four year old barefoot refugee Larent (and his parents) fled Rwanda in 1959 for Burundi.  Larent came to a saving trust in Jesus Christ as a child. He later lead the Compassion Relief Effort in the way of the Rwandan Genocide in 1994.  Larent Mbanda is now the Anglican Primate of Rwanda...

What is the relationship between clergy leadership behaviors and burnout?  How does destructive leadership behavior relate to burnout?  What about conflict at church?  How does a minister being the target of personal violence correlate to thoughts of quitting?  How is it different if you are a solo minister or part of a team?   And what if you are the team leader or a team member?  Plus how is it...

How do we as pastors help people with addictions? Addictions to alcohol, gambling, narcotics, gaming and sex addictions. How much is sin? How much is addiction?  Penny Wilkinson and her husband Andrew direct the Overcomers Outreach ministry and the Overcomers Place in Sydney.  Penny has just marked 20 years of Sobriety, having had her last drink of alcohol on 18 March 2003. http://www.thepastorshe...

We are not called to be entertainers, but preachers.  How might we as individuals and as leaders of God’s people tremble before him? And are we going soft on this? What is the connection between the text and the preacher? As a preacher, how long since you have been rebuked and repented? How has your world view has been challenged recently?  Paul Grimmond is Dean of Students at Sydney’s Moore Theol...

How might our church best relate to other organisations (churches, denominations and parachurches) who are also engaged in the grand cause of reaching the world for Christ? What is the difference between a church and parachurch and how might they best interact?  Are para-churches really just crypto-churches? And would we be better off calling them what they really are?   Or do we need to change ou...

How do we work together in complementarian ministry as we lead small group bible studies/growth groups/community groups?  Small groups are the heart beats of our churches, where we wrestle together on how God might have us live.   Most groups have a male and female paired together in leadership. But how do those two people work together? Do we see their roles as identical/mirror images of the othe...

Just over a decade ago Bishop Robert Forsyth and I were engaged in a church discipline process that eventually ended up before the NSW Supreme Court.  Today we address lessons learned during that difficult season. Robert and I will relive a difficult part of our lives. Associate Professor of Law Neil Foster will bring expert commentary.  Can I urge you to be circumspect in discussing this episode....

The Church of England departs the historic Christian Faith - with Archbishop Justin Badi Arama 12 Primates of the Global South Provinces have issued a statement saying ‘The Church of England has departed from the historic faith, passed down from the Apostles.’ The Primates - who are all national leaders within the denomination - say that the Church of England has disqualified herself from leading...

The Church of England has betrayed the Anglican Communion says Former Archbishop Peter Jensen.  In a challenging, not to be missed conversation, Dr. Jensen, the former General Secretary of the Gafcon movement and former Archbishop of Sydney, speaks candidly about his own shock and grief at last week’s General Synod decision, which he says is a crossing of the rubicon and will have far bigger conse...

Christian kids musician and entertainer Colin Buchanan joins Dominic Steele on The Pastor's Heart, to answer questions submitted over the last few weeks plus a few questions that Colin wrote himself. Plus Colin premieres a new song 'If you have ever made a mess, say yes!' Check Colin's website:  https://colinbuchanan.com.au/ Anglican Aid To find out more about supporting Anglic...

Archie Poulos has given us a list of books that he’s read in the last 12 months that have stimulated him to think about different ministry areas.  Archie’s recommendations include:  Explore by the Book. 90 days guided Bible reading. The Coming of the Holy Spirit, Phillip Jensen T he Moon is Always Round , Johnny Gibson  Biblical Critical Theory, Chris Watkin The Tower and the Square, Niall Ferguso...

The Bishops of the Church of England have announced that same sex relationships will be able to be blessed in Church of England churches.  In a massive turnaround, the English bishops are saying that what God says is sin, is blessed.  The prophet Isaiah says,  Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bi...

Most of us evangelical pastors, theological colleges, indeed the whole of evangelicalism - we have a blind spot when it comes to Roman Catholicism in our theology, missiology and practice.  Where do we as Evangelicals make mistakes in our engagement with the Roman Catholic world?  What can we change?  What should we change? How do we best see our Roman Catholic friends come to a personal saving re...

How does the Bible’s unfolding story makes sense of modern life and culture ? Christopher Watkin, who lectures in Philosophy at Monash University, has a new book out that paints a picture of a Biblical Theological worldview and interacts well along the way with all the major thinkers of the age.  Chris has done us pastors a significant service here.  One of my friends has called it the most helpfu...

Today we profile the Christian faith of one of the most significant figures of the early colony of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie, and his evangelical wife Elizabeth (yes the one used to sit in Mrs Macquaries Chair just aros from where the Sydney Opera House is).  In this ‘Best Of’ episode we discuss John Harris’ book ‘Judging the Macquaries’ - with Peter Adam Harri’s book scrutinises and reas...

The Alpha Course is 'emotionally powerful but theologically confused'. “Personally, I wouldn’t be game to use something that I know is inadequate” - Christian Author Tony Payne has watched through the latest Alpha materials. Tony joins Dominic Steele in this BEST OF episode to work through the strengths and weaknesses of the Alpha Course. This conversation is a high level discussion of ...

One of the most respected voices in the Evangelical World, the senior minister of St Ebbes in Oxford, Vaughan Roberts, is calling on his own bishop and many of the leaders of the Church of England to repent and return to the Apostolic Christian Faith or failing that pursue a provincial level split.  He says Church of England Bishops, who spent last week in meetings, have run out of long grass to h...

It’s World Cup Final week in Qatar and Muslims are using the event in a highly coordinated proselytizing campaign, or what they call Dawah, both in person and online. Sam Green, is a senior campus pastor with the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students, and his special interest for twenty years has been on reaching Muslims for Jesus Christ (See Sam's website see also his course Engaging...

Peter Orr says there is a crisis among pastors.  He says a fight is on for our hearts, ministry and joy. Pastoral work will only be a joy and sustainable if the congregation self consciously reciprocates the love and encouragement that is extended by the pastor to the congregation.  Peter Orr, who lectures in New Testament at Sydney’s Moore Theological College, is the author of a new book ‘Fight f...

How is God’s power at work in human weakness?  What does it mean to say ‘True health is about being in right relationship with God?’  How do we affirm human worth and recognise the complexity of functioning?  What is the connection between our inner and outer life?  How do we distinguish between sickness and sin?   What difference does a Christian community make?  And how can God’s compassion and...

It’s a reverse Pastor’s Heart today as Craig Hamilton asks Dominic Steele a series of questions at the Hustle Leadership Conference.  How was Dominic, his heart and ministry changed by those ten things that went wrong and mistakes he made in 2010? What does it look like for him to ‘fill up in his flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions’? How did The Pastor’s Heart come about? What is his adv...

Ten things that went wrong, the mistakes Dominic Steele made, and the day he almost resigned. Dominic Steele has just notched up twenty years as senior pastor of Village Church in Annandale, Sydney.  But it hasn’t  been consistent plain sailing.  In this address at Craig Hamilton’s HUSTLE leadership conference on 2 Timothy 2, Dominic shares about a season when it all went pear shaped, the things t...

How do you grow your church’s evangelistic ecosystem? Is that possible?  83% of Gavin’s church members see personal evangelism as an individual responsibility, yet at most 60% of them had a maximum of two spiritual conversations with non-Christians in the last six months!  Gavin Perkins has been researching what may be the causes and blockers to personal evangelism and how we might overcome these...

Sunday Church attendance across Australia is down, but decline has slowed. The Australian National Church Life Survey results are out.  Worryingly the key newcomer indicator has dropped to 5.7%. While evangelism is down, engagement in church based service groups is up. Mid week small groups are up.  We take a hard look under the bonnet of the top level results. Ruth Powell is National Director for...

Claims today that the global leader of the Anglican Church is out of step with God.  The Primates of the Global Anglican Fellowship (GAFCON), meeting in Kigali Rwanda, have said that Archbishop Justin Welby has, ‘Departed from the authentic exercise of his office by normalising and praising those who have departed from biblical teaching and practice…and giving equal place to practices contrary to...