The Pastor's Heart with Dominic Steele

Leading New Testament scholar Darrell Bock gives a rapid fire exploration of Luke and Acts. 
Bock, who is Senior Research Professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, outlines what first drew him to Luke and answers questions including:
Is Luke writing before or after Matthew and Mark?
What kind of historian is Luke?
How do you explain the difference between Luke’s genealogy and Matthew’s genealogy?
How do we reconcile the birth narratives in Luke and Matthew? 
What is Luke’s theology of atonement? 
What is the kingdom of God in Luke?
How does Luke use the Old Testament in ways that are different to the other Gospel writers?”
Why is the Sermon on the Plain from Luke 6 different to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 to 7?”
Plus Luke’s distinctive emphasis on the world wide expansion of the gospel, the kingdom of God, the Holy Spirit, care for the poor and the creation of one new family from Jews and Gentiles. 
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Do our sermons actually land in the lives of the people in front of us?
Do they help anxious believers, tired parents, proud leaders, compromised Christians or sceptical guests to hear, trust and obey the living Word of God?
Richard Coekin says application is part of faithful preaching itself. 
But application has dangers, it might come not really from the text, or could be overly directive. Or we could give accurate lectures that fail to shepherd the church.
Richard Coekin leads Reach UK.  Richard has just written ‘Apply the Word: A Practical Guide to Preaching with Application.’
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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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