The Pastor's Heart with Dominic Steele

• Unblocking the pipeline: Identifying and addressing obstacles to ministry recruitment- with Orlando Saer

  In the past month, two of the most respected evangelical training institutions in the world have closed or announced closure of their campuses.In July, Spurgeon’s College in London—a pillar of Baptist theological education for nearly 170 years—closed, citing financial strain and a dramatic decline in student numbers. A few weeks earlier, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) in Chicago —long regarded as a flagship seminary of North American evangelicalism— said they would shut down its Illinois campus and relocate to Canada, merging with Trinity Western University in British Columbia.TEDS student numbers have dropped from 750 to 400 fulltime equivalents. These are not isolated incidents. Across the UK, Australia, and globally, churches are asking:Where will the next generation of gospel workers come from?Orlando Saer—lead pastor of Christ Church Southampton, Chair of the Reach UK South church planting network, and Chair of 9:38, a UK ministry seeking to raise up gospel workers, has helped lead the Yarnton Consultation, the most comprehensive look yet at the state of ministry recruitment in the UK.The Church Cothechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches. Advertise on The Pastor's HeartTo advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsorSupport the show

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• Growing by five percent conversion growth - how might this work? - with David Jensen and Chris Braga

  What change would a leader and church need to make for a congregation, denomination or movement to grow by five percent annual conversion growth. The Gospel Coalition pulled together a mini summit of evangelical movement leaders from across Australia in June.That gathering set an aspirational goal of doubling the number of evangelicals over twenty years. They said a key way to do it is by pursuing a target of seeing five percent of the average attendance saved each year. David Jensen leads the Evangelism part of the Department of Evangelism and New Churches in the Sydney Anglican Church. Chris Braga is senior pastor of Grace West Church at Glenmore Park in Western Sydney.The Church Cothechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches. Advertise on The Pastor's HeartTo advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsorSupport the show

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• Phil Colgan: A theology of statistics

  It is an uncomfortable but important question: What place should numbers have in our thinking about ministry success?We all want to be faithful. But what happens when the numbers are down? Do we need to change something? Or should we just continue in the same trajectory?And should we be counting at all?This is the tension between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. A tension between preaching the word and evaluating what’s actually working.Phil Colgan has been the long term senior pastor of St George North Anglican in Sydney and presented on a Theology of Numbers at the recent Nexus Conference.The Church Cothechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches. Advertise on The Pastor's HeartTo advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsorSupport the show

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• The evangelical application problem - with Richard Coekin

  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 network across the UK capital. He now heads up Reach UK.  Richard’s new book, Apply: How to Preach the Bible for Real Life, will be released in the UK Spring —and today he joins us to explore why good application is not an optional extra, but the very purpose of preaching.Correction: Apply will be published by 10 of those not The Good Book Company as was stated in the program.The Church Cothechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches. Advertise on The Pastor's HeartTo advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsorSupport the show

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• Knowledge, Nakedness & Shame - Sex and Gender in and out of the garden - with Rob Smith

  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 Church caring for those navigating same-sex attraction or gender incongruence. Rob is the author of a new book The Body God Gives.Rob also spoke to us in February 2025 about the historic and cultural issues relating to the transgender, under the heading 'The Sexed body is the Gendered Self'.The Church Cothechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches. Advertise on The Pastor's HeartTo advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsorSupport the show

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