The Pastor's Heart with Dominic Steele – Details, episodes & analysis

What should the church pastor / staff team / church council or bishop do about the big drop in attendance?
 
A new report (bit.ly/AttendancePatterns) shows Adult Attendance in churches in Sydney is down 7% or 14% against population (over a decade). 

Adult attendance declined at approximately two-thirds of Sydney Anglican comparable church centers, and only one-third of church centers recorded an increase in attendance.

The big problem is newcomers.  We just are not reaching them.  Newcomers are down to 5.4%.

And with fewer new people joining churches, the churches that are growing are primarily growing at the expense of churches that are declining.

A noticeable decline in attendance was recorded in 2018-2019, especially in the most rapidly secularising areas of our region. 

The issues are not just external. We have internal issues. There are denominational and congregational factors at play. There are key church health characteristics that show internal health factors are lower in those regions - factors relating to congregational character and leadership. 

Geoff Bates pastors Life church in Sydney’s North West and chairs the committee that produced the Attendance Patterns Review report. 

Toby Neal pastors Vine Church in inner Sydney, which has seen remarkable growth.

Dave Jensen works at assisting churches to grow in their evangelistic temperature through Evangelism and New Churches. 

Host Dominic Steele also served on the committee that produced the report.

Anglican Aid
To find out more about supporting Anglican Aid.

Sponsor The Pastor's Heart
We look to you to financially partner with us to make The Pastor's Heart possible. Support our tax deductible appeal before 30 June.

The Church Co
thechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches. 

Advertise on The Pastor's Heart
To advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsor

Advertise on The Pastor's Heart
To advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsor

Support The Pastor's Heart
For info on how to become a regular financial supporter of The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/support

Plus how the Tanzanian Church has been built through the labors and prayers  of Australian Christians, and why prosperity gospel preachers are as wicked as witch doctors!

We are joined by Bishop Mwita Akiri from Tarime in rural Tanzania, Judith Calf who served as a missionary in theological education in Tanzania for 20 years, and Tim Swan who leads the Anglican Aid Ministry here in Australia.

To support Anglican Aid projects in Tanzania: https://anglicanaid.org.au/locations/tanzania/

Anglican Aid
To find out more about supporting Anglican Aid.

Sponsor The Pastor's Heart
We look to you to financially partner with us to make The Pastor's Heart possible. Support our tax deductible appeal before 30 June.

The Church Co
thechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches. 

Advertise on The Pastor's Heart
To advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsor

Advertise on The Pastor's Heart
To advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsor

Support The Pastor's Heart
For info on how to become a regular financial supporter of The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/support

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

Anglican Aid
To find out more about supporting Anglican Aid.

Sponsor The Pastor's Heart
We look to you to financially partner with us to make The Pastor's Heart possible. Support our tax deductible appeal before 30 June.

The Church Co
thechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches. 

Advertise on The Pastor's Heart
To advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsor

Advertise on The Pastor's Heart
To advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsor

Support The Pastor's Heart
For info on how to become a regular financial supporter of The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/support

Billions watched on as the funeral of Queen Elizabeth was broadcast around the world yesterday. What can we learn about today's funerals from this event though? What worked? What didn’t work? Is there anything our guests would have done differently? 


Joining us is David Peterson, former Principal of Oak Hill Theological College in London who is now lecturing as an adjunct faculty member at Sydney’s Moore Theological College, Rachel Ciano, who lectures in Christian History at Sydney Missionary and Bible College and Chris Braga, the Senior Pastor of Grace West Anglican Church at Glenmore Park in Sydney’s West. 


http://www.thepastorsheart.net/podcast/queens-funeral-review

Anglican Aid
To find out more about supporting Anglican Aid.

Sponsor The Pastor's Heart
We look to you to financially partner with us to make The Pastor's Heart possible. Support our tax deductible appeal before 30 June.

The Church Co
thechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches. 

Advertise on The Pastor's Heart
To advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsor

Advertise on The Pastor's Heart
To advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsor

Support The Pastor's Heart
For info on how to become a regular financial supporter of The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/support

‘When they go low, we go high.’ - That’s what Michelle Obama said. 


The former American first lady’s comments came to mind as I listened to Sydney Archbishop Kanishka Raffel give his first presidential address to the Sydney Synod since being elected during Covid. 


Archbishop Raffel’s ‘Do you see the crowds’ address at Oran Park was mission driven and gospel focused, particularly asking how to reach the new housing estates where 30 new churches are needed to reach the hundreds of thousands of people who are moving into the Greenfields areas to the west of Sydney. There was no mention of Brisbane. 


It was a stunning contrast to the address South East Queensland Archbishop Phillip Aspinall gave. It was a hand grenade presentation, attacking evangelicals and Sydney Anglicans, which has so far led to the resignations of two of his ministers and the splitting of two Brisbane congregations.


The second minister to resign in Brisbane is Peter Judge Mears.  


St Johns Wishart Rector Peter Judge Mears is our guest on The Pastor’s Heart. St John’s Wishart spent Sunday processing the news and the invitation to join the new Southside Anglican Church. This church is the second congregation of the new Diocese of the Southern Cross, created as a lifeboat to support orthodox Christians forced out by revisionist Bishops.

Anglican Aid
To find out more about supporting Anglican Aid.

Sponsor The Pastor's Heart
We look to you to financially partner with us to make The Pastor's Heart possible. Support our tax deductible appeal before 30 June.

The Church Co
thechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches. 

Advertise on The Pastor's Heart
To advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsor

Advertise on The Pastor's Heart
To advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsor

Support The Pastor's Heart
For info on how to become a regular financial supporter of The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/support

In the second half of the 20th century, one man dominated gospel advocacy in Sydney. John Chapman. 

John Chapman was director of Evangelism for the Sydney Anglican Church, and played a significant role in shaping attitudes to preaching, evangelism and a series of controversies. 

Baden Stace, the senior minister of St Stephen’s Normanhurst, has recently published a work showcasing the impact of John Chapman, but it also gives a window into issues evangelicals in Sydney face in the later part of the 20th century. He covers topics such as the controversies about preaching, the place of evangelism in church life, social justice, and what role each of us plays in the evangelistic process. 

Link to purchase: https://bit.ly/3TFzSe1

Anglican Aid
To find out more about supporting Anglican Aid.

Sponsor The Pastor's Heart
We look to you to financially partner with us to make The Pastor's Heart possible. Support our tax deductible appeal before 30 June.

The Church Co
thechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches. 

Advertise on The Pastor's Heart
To advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsor

Advertise on The Pastor's Heart
To advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsor

Support The Pastor's Heart
For info on how to become a regular financial supporter of The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/support

How can we as church leaders develop and implement plans to care for people affected by disability - so that they can hear the gospel clearly and engage in Christian fellowship. 

What are the theological foundations for disability ministry? 

How do we in our hearts/attitudes welcome or distance those with disability? 

What language should we use?  

How do we include people on the autism spectrum? What are the complexities welcoming people with mental health challenges? 

Louise Gosbell is Principal of Mary Andrew’s College in Sydney and has worked with the Sydney Anglican Social Issues Committee to produce a set of guidelines to help churches. 

Download the Guidelines: https://bit.ly/3R1VgZ8

Anglican Aid
To find out more about supporting Anglican Aid.

Sponsor The Pastor's Heart
We look to you to financially partner with us to make The Pastor's Heart possible. Support our tax deductible appeal before 30 June.

The Church Co
thechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches. 

Advertise on The Pastor's Heart
To advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsor

Advertise on The Pastor's Heart
To advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsor

Support The Pastor's Heart
For info on how to become a regular financial supporter of The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/support

Gafcon Australia Chair Richard Condie has responded to revisionist critics, labeling them as false teachers who have rejected Biblical and Anglican doctrine, and are responsible for the current Australian church schism. 

Gafcon has formed an Anglican lifeboat for faithful Christians, the ‘Diocese of the Southern Cross’ announced at the big GAFCON Australasia Conference, this week in Canberra.

It will be a new ‘safe place for gospel ministry’ for ministers and churches who can’t work under bishops who are false teachers. 

Bishop Condie has rejected the Primate of Australia’s statement that the new Southern Cross Diocese is not Anglican. 

Bishop Condie says the Anglican Communion and the Anglican Church in Australia is broken.

Bishop Condie has called on the revisionist bishops to return to biblical orthodoxy, and says if they repented, he would be the first to vote for the closing down of the Diocese of the Southern Cross. 

At the Australian General Synod in May, only ten of Australia’s Bishops affirmed that marriage in God’s sight is only between a man and a woman. 

The Archbishop of Sydney Kanishka Raffel said in response the national church is in a precarious position. 

Revisionist Archbishop of Brisbane Phillip Aspinall, further provoked tensions in his Presidential address, with a blistering attack on evangelicals, described by one of his minister’s as hurtful, hypocritical and hateful. 

Guests on this week’s The Pastor’s Heart: 

• Richard Condie, Bishop of Tasmania and Chair of Gafcon Australia
• Glenn Davies, Bishop of the new Anglican Southern Cross Diocese and Former Archbishop of Sydney
• Foley Beach, Primate of the Anglican Church in North America, and Chair of the Gafcon Primate’s Council
• Jennifer Hercott, Member of Gafcon Australia Board and registrar of the Diocese of Central Queensland

Download ‘The Line in the Sand’ https://bit.ly/3pvzssM

http://www.thepastorsheart.net/podcast/false-teaching-revisionists-caused-the-australian-church-schism

Anglican Aid
To find out more about supporting Anglican Aid.

Sponsor The Pastor's Heart
We look to you to financially partner with us to make The Pastor's Heart possible. Support our tax deductible appeal before 30 June.

The Church Co
thechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches. 

Advertise on The Pastor's Heart
To advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsor

Advertise on The Pastor's Heart
To advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsor

Support The Pastor's Heart
For info on how to become a regular financial supporter of The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/support

In Australia, there are now two expressions of Anglicanism.

The first congregation of the new Diocese of the Southern Cross started at Beenleigh in Brisbane last  Sunday and the Diocese’s first bishop Glenn Davies will be appointed on Thursday.

Other congregations are expected to join in the next few months.

The spilt in the Australian Anglican Church follows the failure of the Bishops of the National Church to support the denomination’s traditional teaching that marriage is between a man and woman.

It follows similar splits in the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Brazil.

Peter Palmer was the minister of St George’s Anglican Church in Brisbane until serving under Brisbane Archbishop Phillip Aspinal became untenable. He had served the Bush Church Aid society for 16 years, having been involved in indigenous ministries in Wyndem WA, church and mining ministry in Coober Pedy, SA and FIFO chaplaincy to mines.

Now, Peter will pastor the new Southern Cross Anglican Church of Beenleigh and Logan.

Peter says his decision to leave the South East Queensland diocese, where he had pastored St George’s Beenleigh for six and a half years, was provoked by the national bishops’ failure to endorse biblical marriage and Archbishop Aspinall’s presidential address at the synod in Brisbane.

Archbishop Aspinall’s address was described by one of his ministers as ‘hurtful, hypocritical and hateful’.  https://bit.ly/3dAVHuJ

#gafaus22 #gafcon22

Anglican Aid
To find out more about supporting Anglican Aid.

Sponsor The Pastor's Heart
We look to you to financially partner with us to make The Pastor's Heart possible. Support our tax deductible appeal before 30 June.

Advertise on The Pastor's Heart
To advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsor

Advertise on The Pastor's Heart
To advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsor

Support The Pastor's Heart
For info on how to become a regular financial supporter of The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/support

The Anglican Communion is broken and needs to repent.

Provinces of the Anglican Communion are now free to develop their own teaching on sexuality, according to the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.

There will be no contending for the faith (cf Jude 1:3) or withdrawing fellowship from the sexually immoral.

Archbishop Justin Welby arranged the Lambeth Conference so that delegates didn’t get to vote on the most contentious issue of the day - sexuality.

Rather he wrote to delegates announcing that Lambeth 1:10 still applied, but there would be no consequences for ignoring it.

Former Archbishop of Sydney and former General Secretary of Gafcon Peter Jensen joins us to review the confusion in global Anglicanism in the wake of Lambeth22.

Gafcon’s letter to the churches: https://bit.ly/3BWUKad
Communique from the Global South: https://bit.ly/3p64FSV
Media Release from the Global South: https://bit.ly/3JUZoYh

http://www.thepastorsheart.net/podcast/peter-jensen-on-lambeth22

Anglican Aid
To find out more about supporting Anglican Aid.

Sponsor The Pastor's Heart
We look to you to financially partner with us to make The Pastor's Heart possible. Support our tax deductible appeal before 30 June.

The Church Co
thechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches. 

Advertise on The Pastor's Heart
To advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsor

Advertise on The Pastor's Heart
To advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsor

Support The Pastor's Heart
For info on how to become a regular financial supporter of The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/support