We evangelicals, says Richard Coekin, have a problem—and it’s a preaching problem. Richard Coekin says we are too often careless—his word—when it comes to application in preaching. We work hard on exegesis, we labour to understand the original context and the author’s intent—but then we stop short. We leave our congregations with sound doctrine, but little direction. Richard has just concluded 29 years as senior pastor at Dundonald Church in London and as the founding leader of the Co-Mission ne...
Jul 15, 2025•31 min•Season 7Ep. 29
We’re digging into the Bible’s teaching on sex and gender—inside and outside the Garden of Eden - relating to transgender. We’re asking foundational questions: Was humanity created androgynous? Does Genesis allow for more than two sexes? Is sexual difference a core part of the imago Dei? What does it mean that the man and woman were naked and felt no shame? Dr Rob Smith lectures at Sydney Missionary and Bible College and serves with Living Faith , a pastoral ministry of the Sydney Anglican Churc...
Jul 08, 2025•36 min•Season 7Ep. 28
There are understandings/interpretations of the Bible that conflict with the conclusions of modern, empirical research - where science and the Bible are thought to be giving competing explanations of the same event or concept. One way of reading the Bible leads to the conclusion that the Earth is 6000 years old while your local science department will tell you it is more like 4.5 billion years old. Were human beings created in an instant from dust, or over billions of years through a gradual, me...
Jul 01, 2025•32 min•Season 7Ep. 27
In a bold move, a meeting of movement leaders from across Australian Reformed Evangelicalism has resolved to work together to see their numbers double over twenty years, through seeing sinners saved. Leaders gathered for a mini summit organised by The Gospel Coalition Australia at Sydney’s Moore Theological College last week. Gospel Coalition Australia Chair Rory Shiner says given the unparalleled theological and missional unity between the different organisations there’s a significant window of...
Jun 24, 2025•37 min•Season 7Ep. 26
Andrew Heard says ministries cannot be other than outcome-focused in their work - the question is will those outcomes be good or bad? Conscious or unconscious? Specific or vague? He addresses critics who confuse having Biblical goals with adopting secular business practices. Andrew Heard leads the Reach Australia movement, and pastors the influential EV Church on the Central Coast. • All Christians are goal-driven whether consciously or unconsciously • Critique often conflate goals with the meth...
Jun 17, 2025•31 min•Season 7Ep. 25
An apology and correction in regards to our episode of Tuesday 10 June 2025. 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 Support the show...
Jun 15, 2025•4 min
How can we create gatherings that are both warm and deep? How can we avoid gatherings that are superficial or dry. How do we embed gospel culture in our church gatherings. How do we emphasize grace, forgiveness and a welcoming atmosphere? And how to encourage authenticity and emotional intelligence in gathering leaders. Plus how do we evaluate. A Pastor’s Heart episode to watch with your staff team. Toby Neal is Senior pastor at Vine Church in Sydney. And Liv Chapman Leggett leads the gatherings...
Jun 03, 2025•40 min•Season 7Ep. 24
What happens when churches move beyond "pious passivity" to strategic intentionality in reaching the lost? Richard Coekin—founding pastor of Dundonald Church in London and pioneer of REACH UK—joins Dominic Steele to unpack the revolutionary approach transforming churches across Australia and the United Kingdom. Following on from Reach UK and Reach Australia in May, Richard candidly shares his journey from skepticism about "Pentagon language" and structured frameworks to embracing these tools as ...
May 27, 2025•33 min•Season 7Ep. 23
Live from the sidelines at the Reach Australia Conference on the Central Coast of New South Wales, we sit down with Wade Burnett from McLean Bible Church in Washington DC and Derek Hanna, Reach Australia’s church planting and multisite specialist, for a fresh look at the multisite church model. Multisite was a buzz seven years ago . Today, with thousands of campuses launched in the United States—and many hard lessons learned—the mood is more measured. What’s changed? What’s endured? And what can...
May 22, 2025•36 min•Season 7Ep. 22
This week on The Pastor’s Heart, we’re live from the Reach Australia conference at Erina on the Central Coast of New South Wales. It’s an inspiring gathering, with 1,300 church leaders from across Australia and beyond, including New Zealand, South Africa, America, and the United Kingdom, coming together for encouragement and equipping to better Reach Australia. Paul Harrington has led the Trinity Network of Churches in Adelaide for 33 years, guiding it from a single congregation of 800 to a thri...
May 20, 2025•39 min•Season 7Ep. 21
It is 1700 years since the council of Nicaea and the publication of the Nicene Creed - but what are we to make of it? It was the twentieth of May in the year 325 that the Council of Nicaea first met. Pope Francis said ‘The Nicene Creed is a powerful sign of unity among Christians.’ The 17 hundredth anniversary of the Council of Nicaea - is being used - by the Roman Catholic Church to push the idea that ‘All Christians are Nicene Christians.’ However the difficulty is that while we say the same w...
May 13, 2025•31 min•Season 7Ep. 20
We explore the findings of the Your Story Research Report — a significant national study that listens to the voices of more than 400 young people as they reflect on their spiritual journeys. We find out who and what has, and is, shaping young people’s faith from their childhood, though to adolescence, to right now. There are insights into the eight “faith journeys” —from Embracing to Reconstructing to Disengaging— highlighting the importance of relationships, trust, and belonging in shaping fait...
May 06, 2025•32 min•Season 7Ep. 20
For decades, the trend across Western countries seemed one-way: away from faith in Jesus Christ. But could the tide be turning? Evangelist and author Glen Scrivener outlines signs of a "quiet revival" emerging, particularly among young people in the United Kingdom (and how things are different in Australia). Drawing on new research from the UK Bible Society and reflecting on wider cultural shifts, Glen discusses why the story of secularisation may not be as inevitable as once thought — and why a...
Apr 29, 2025•30 min•Season 7Ep. 19
The death of Pope Francis marks a pivotal moment for Roman Catholics. What does this transition mean for the future of Catholicism and how should Protestants respond? From Vatican City, Leonardo Di Chirico offers a firsthand perspective on reactions in Rome, while Rachel Ciano provides historical context from Sydney. Many Protestant leaders have referred to Francis as a "brother in Christ," but Francis's final public act—granting indulgences during Easter—epitomizes the theological chasm between...
Apr 22, 2025•29 min•Season 7Ep. 18
New South Wales’ Conversion Practices Ban Act has just come into effect — along with guidelines from Anti-Discrimination NSW that many Christian leaders believe overstep the legal boundaries and impact ordinary pastoral ministry. We are joined by legal expert Associate Professor Neil Foster, South Sydney Bishop Michael Stead, and Summer Hill Anglican Assistant Minister Simon Swadling. Together, we unpack the implications of the new law for Christian preaching, prayer, counselling, and disciplesh...
Apr 22, 2025•38 min•Season 7Ep. 17
The new McCrindle report ‘An undercurrent of faith’ says: Those turning to Christian faith are not who we might expect - it’s especially older people, the recently widowed and recently separated or divorced. The move is most on away from Christian identity in outer suburbia and regional areas. Australians are still turning to Christianity in large numbers, despite a decline in Christian affiliation. While 85,000 15-24 year olds have moved towards Christianity in the last five years, that’s drama...
Apr 15, 2025•32 min•Season 7Ep. 16
The average 11-year-old spends 4.5 hours daily on non-school screens. By 15, 70% of boys regularly view pornography. This isn't harmless fun—it's rewiring young brains during critical development. The addictive nature of social media, the mental health impact on teens, distorted identity and comparison, the way the attention economy undermines discipleship. Parents (and pastors) so often feel out of their depth. Marshall Ballantine-Jones created the Digihelp school curriculum addressing sexualis...
Apr 08, 2025•31 min•Season 7Ep. 15
Today we review the 50 year impact of The University of New South Wales’ Campus Bible Study on Christian ministries across Australia and around the world - in raising up gospel workers, sending missionaries, planting churches and in Christian publishing. Former Anglican Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen led the ministry for thirty years till 2005. Since then Paul Grimmond and Carl Matthei have been senior chaplains. Alan Stewart started studying at the University of New South Wales just two years af...
Apr 01, 2025•29 min•Season 7Ep. 14
Proclamation is for every Christian, one’s Christian faith is always public and a command is not needed to link faith to speech. 'I believed therefore I spoke' - That’s what the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:13. And yet it’s a verse hardly referred to in the last few decades in discussions over who is responsible for evangelism. Chris Braga of Grace West Anglican Church Sydney told the Nexus Conference in Sydney that 2 Corinthians 4:13 shows that there’s a spiritual reflex that internal f...
Mar 27, 2025•25 min•Season 7Ep. 13
Pastors facing up to our imposter syndrome - navigating the noise that leads us to make bad decisions. As Pastors, we feel the pressure to have the right answers to people’s questions. We want to be able to navigate the complexities of life and church and land everyone safely at the other end. People share with us and the hardest parts of their lives, they trust us with their most private issues, and time and their money. And they trust us that we will handle the most complex relationship diffic...
Mar 18, 2025•27 min•Season 7Ep. 12
A new study shows that training in systematic self reflection will develop resilience among ministry workers, who are at risk of stress related ill health. Self reflective resilience training is beneficial to those in ministry roles and programs in this area can minimise stress related ill health. BUT, Not all self reflection is equal. Organisational Psychologist with Sydney’s Center for Ministry Development Kirsty Bucknell has surveyed and tested a significant number of Australian Protestant Mi...
Mar 11, 2025•34 min•Season 7Ep. 11
We are hearing reports from the university campuses, from young adult ministries, and from youth groups - that there is an increasing openness to the gospel of Jesus - and there’s a new openness among young men. There’s a shift in the culture. There’s something happening that is different among young people - Especially among young men. There’s a greater biblical ignorance in the rising generation. But significantly more openness. There’s less hostility when compared to a decade ago. Walk up eva...
Mar 04, 2025•32 min•Season 7Ep. 10
As pastors we’re expressing leadership in our churches on gender and sexuality. We want to help our people think biblically - and yet with the culture moving so fast - it is an area that we feel ill equipped. On today’s Pastor’s Heart we benefit from the hard work of Sydney Missionary and Bible College Theology and Ethics lecturer Rob Smith who has just published a reworked version of his PhD under the title ‘The body God gives.’ As transgender visibility reaches new heights, we explore its hist...
Feb 25, 2025•36 min•Season 7Ep. 9
What happens when a leader operates without a clear vision. And how poetic or concrete should a vision be? How to organise things so the overall vision cascades down through every area of church life? What should our pastoral approach be to innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, laggards and the nos. Biblical vision and Leadership vision: What is the difference? Why do people mangle Proverbs 29:18? Plus infusing the church with vision, in a significant moment and especially v...
Feb 18, 2025•33 min•Season 7Ep. 8
There are claims - and you hear them every so often - that archeology has disproved this story or that in the bible, and claims from this or that scholar of particularly late dating of different bible books. How do we as evangelical pastors react/respond/answer those claims? Hans Kristensen is senior pastor of Marsfield Community Church in Sydney and is studying ancient archaeology. He suggests that there are 10 major archaelogical finds that help us to increase our confidence in the Old Testame...
Feb 11, 2025•36 min•Season 7Ep. 7
How does godliness play out differently if I am a man, a woman, a young man, a young woman, a husband or a wife? All Christians are called to live like Christ. Why does the Apostle Paul choose to write about what godliness looks like for the older and younger and for us as men and women, rather than more generally for us as people? Does our age and sex have implications for the challenges we face in living for Jesus? Are these things just human constructs or elements of divine gift? And what imp...
Feb 04, 2025•35 min•Season 7Ep. 6
Godliness vs Effectiveness - the Both/And Ministry dilemma Godliness vs Effectiveness Theology vs Pragmatics People centered vs Organisationally minded Leading from the front vs Serving others Courage to take a stand vs Quick to submit Others know I am one of them vs I am set apart to lead I lead patiently vs I lead with a sense of urgency Most Christians at some point do start to wonder if they are the real deal. What God asks of us is so far reaching, so all encompassing, that when we come up ...
Jan 28, 2025•34 min•Season 7Ep. 5
What is the work of the Lord? What is in vain if the resurrection is not true? What truly lasts and what does gospel work looks like in our daily lives? The debate over eschatology and one’s view of the new heavens and new earth. Will there be a Sydney Harbour Bridge in the new creation? And in the meantime, what should be our priorities? William Taylor is the rector of St Helens Church in London, where he is engaged in ministry to city workers. He has written the book ‘Revolutionary Work’ to ad...
Jan 21, 2025•32 min•Season 7Ep. 4
Indigenous Australians and the Christian Gospel - with Michael Duckett As we approach ‘Aboriginal Sunday’ (19 January) we focus on the progress of the gospel among the indigenous in Australia. What are the cultural changes and what openness to Jesus Christ among Indigenous Australians? Where are we seeing growth? What are the roadblocks and opportunities for the growth of the gospel among the indigenous communities? How much has to do with the soil. How much has to do with things that we can cha...
Jan 14, 2025•30 min•Season 7Ep. 3
We speak to Alistair Begg about pastors, suffering, humility and surviving long term in ministry. Alistair Begg is in Australia speaking at the Church Missionary Society conference in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. Alistair has served the people of Cleveland Ohio for 42 years at Parkside Church and has a global impact through the influential Truth for Life Ministry. We go backstage with Alistair to discuss: His teaching on 1 Peter, focusing on suffering, perseverance, trials, humility and s...
Jan 07, 2025•34 min•Season 7Ep. 2
