Disillusionment is one of the great threats to the Christian life and to Christian ministry   A wise man said the worst thing in ministry was not a pastor who quits, but a pastor who doesn’t quit, but who keeps going when they’ve given up. Sydney Missionary and Bible College Karl Deenick shares his own experience of hitting a major wall after seven years of pastoral work.  We unpack how ministry challenges can lead to a sense of disillusionment, especially among millennials, plus a way back.  Support the Show. -- Become a regular financial supporter of The Pastor's Heart via Pat ..read more

What would Dave Keun and Jon Kwan like to tell their younger selves if they could travel back in time before they took on the position of senior minister? How has their sense of ownership changed? What has been most difficult about the transition to the role? What mistakes have they made? Dave Keun has been senior minister of Kellyville Anglican Church in Sydney’s North West since March  2022. Jon Kwan has been lead pastor of St David’s Forestville (on Sydney’s Northern Beaches) since May 2022. Support the Show. -- Become a regular financial supporter of The Pastor's Heart via Patreo ..read more

Roadmap for a reset communion - with Paul Donison and Glenn Davies  The chair of Gafcon Laurent Mbunda and chair of Global South Justin Badi Arama are to meet to work out a roadmap for the resetting of the Anglican Communion.  Global South Anglicans have endorsed the Former Sydney Archbishop Glenn Davies call for the communion to be reset on biblical foundations.  The Global South have called on their Primates to work with the GAFCON Primates Council and other Orthodox leaders to reset the communion on its biblical foundations as a matter of urgency. In other Anglican news.&nbs ..read more

All the time in church there are unexpected things happening.  We or someone else makes a decision to change something which then relationally or missionally impacts another area of church life that we didn’t expect. Sometimes we put  too much attention into one area of church - and now other areas are suffering. Whatever size your church is - the church system is complex, interdependent and interconnected. Sometimes the presenting problem won’t actually be the real problem, there’s something else causing it which is not immediately obvious. Greg Lee is senior pastor of Newcastle ..read more

How do you balance the instability and chaos of external ministry with adding a foster child or adopted child to a ministry family? What are the implications of taking children in crisis into the ministry home? What motivates ministry families to become foster parents or to adopt? How do older children and the church respond? Sarah and Mat Yeo serve at Hurstville Grove Anglican Church in Sydney Matt Wilcoxen pastors St John’s Darlinghurst in inner Sydney. To purchase ‘The Forgetful Prince’: https://youthworksmedia.net/products/the-forgetful-prince Support the Show. -- Become a regular f ..read more

What is it to be #likeaman? There are not many places in the New Testament where men are spoken to specifically. Today we are thinking about being a Christian man. In the ESV and NASB the translation of 1 Corinthians 16:13 has ‘Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong’. (ESV) But what does that mean? Dominic Steele put that question to panelists at the recent Men Meeting the challenge conference: Adrian Russell, senior minister of Northmead Anglican Church. Craig Hamilton, senior minister at Pitt town. Robin Kinstead, senior minister of Figtree Anglican. And Phill ..read more

There are three different ways that the adult population of churches can grow: Adults being saved.  Christians transferring from another congregation within your denomination of switching from another denomination.  Children of members growing up in the church and taking on their parents faith for themselves. Most evangelical churches - even growing churches - are underperforming in the first and third ways. In the Sydney Anglican Church parents report that an average of only 65% of their children who grew up in church are currently professing Christ. That number hasn’t changed in ..read more

A new massive ethical question has risen up with the advent of artificial intelligence. How will people decide what kind of morality to give to their artificial intelligence creations? There will need to be a morality.  But what should it be? The market is already making different choices. Elon Musk has said he wants the AI behind X (formerly Twitter) to be morally flexible.   He wants his AI to appeal to all people: left and right, authoritarian and democratic, kind and brutal. Stephen Driscoll is the author of ‘Made in our Image - God, artificial intelligence and you’. To ord ..read more

How can a senior minister best train junior preachers (student ministers and assistant ministers) in preaching? There’s a tension we all feel: we want to be a training church raising up the next generation of leaders and yet we also want to make sure that the quality of what happens in our gatherings is high. We don’t want a Sunday morning ‘plane crash in the pulpit’, where people at church that day think‘I wish I had stayed home today’ or ‘I wish I had gone to St Bloggs down the road.’ Toby Neal is at Vine Church in Surry Hills in Sydney.  Toby says there’s been days when he sat at th ..read more

Artificial Intelligence is an oncoming tsunami that will catch all of humanity off guard. It is a change more like a wheel than a typewriter. But what will this do to our sense of self? Stephen Driscoll, in ‘Made in our Image - God, artificial intelligence and you’ says artificial intelligence may do great harm - giving more power to sinful people, governments or companies. He says artificial intelligence will likely trend towards people pleasing - giving each of us what we want now/a sense of heaven now or it may become more debauched. It may even become an existential threat to us - bec ..read more