The Pastor's Heart with Dominic Steele

New global research associated with Harvard University suggests that people who regularly attend church tend to do better in life than people who do not. 
The Global Flourishing Study is following more than 200,000 people across 22 countries and tracking not only happiness, but meaning and purpose, relationships, character, mental and physical health, life satisfaction and material stability.
But if churches are helping people flourish, what is happening to the pastors who lead them? Senior pastors carry grief, crises, expectations and organisational responsibility that most people never see. A church may appear to be growing and successful while its pastor is quietly being depleted.
And how do we know whether a church itself is healthy? 
Valerie Ling joins us from the Center for Effective Serving to explore richer ways of recognising flourishing in pastors, churches and the communities they serve.
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On the surface, some are drawn by beauty, history, liturgy, mystery, masculinity, discipline and Orthodoxy’s claim to be the original church. 
But John Diacos says beneath many of the surface attractions lies something much more spiritually dangerous.
John was converted from Orthodoxy to a clear faith in Jesus Christ 50 years ago, has served Jesus for decades in Melbourne and is the author of Certainty for Life: An Invitation for Those in Eastern Orthodoxy.
We ask: Why are evangelicals leaving for Orthodoxy? What is Orthodoxy offering that some evangelical churches seem not to offer? Where is Orthodoxy right in its critique of us? Where is it wrong? And what should pastors do when someone in our church starts drifting?
John's new book! https://certaintyforlife.com/
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For a generation of Sydney evangelicals, the Katoomba Christian Conventions weren’t just events in the calendar - they shaped church programs across the city.
In the 80s, 90s and early 2000s, thousands gathered under the circus tent and then later in packed auditoriums to hear the Bible taught, sing with conviction and be raised up for ministry.
But how did Katoomba become such an influence in Sydney evangelicalism? What decisions shaped its extraordinary impact? And what lessons are there for today. 
We start a new occasional oral history series on the Pastor’s Heart, with former Katoomba Chairs Philip Jensen, David Cook and Al Stewart, reflecting on Katoomba’s phenomenal influence, the priority of expository preaching, the importance of guarding the platform and why “we teach the Bible” became a defining conviction.

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New research suggests that around 70% of those who attended church regularly at age 11 are no longer attending by their late twenties, with the most vulnerable years stretching from around age 10 through to 25. 
Dean of Students at Youthworks College Ruth Lukabyo explores why young people disengage, how inherited faith becomes owned faith and what churches can do to better navigate the critical transitions from childhood to adulthood. 
We discuss the practical changes pastors, parents and churches can make to help more young people keep following Jesus for the long haul.
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Tony Payne provocatively argues that while evangelicalism has successfully recovered expository preaching and every-member ministry, we have not adequately recovered every-member word ministry. 
Tony argues that the Reformation remains unfinished, that we haven’t fully thought through the implications of the priesthood of all believers, and that passages like Ephesians 4, Hebrews and especially 1 Corinthians 11-14 may need to be read rather differently than many of us have assumed.
Tony asks, have we trained people to serve on teams, but not trained them to speak God’s word to one another?
It’s a challenge that reaches into some of our most fundamental assumptions about Christian ministry. 
We discuss prophecy, the ministry of women, the role of the pastor-teacher, preaching and discipleship, and what it would actually look like for the word of Christ to reverberate through a congregation rather than stopping at the pulpit.
To purchase: matthiasmedia.com.au/products/let-the-word-dwell-richly

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