A training culture for the next generation:  Healthy Churches producing new ministers for the next generation.

Across the world, the number of candidates putting themselves forward for gospel ministry is in decline. Many churches are feeling the pinch—struggling to find leaders and often looking elsewhere to fill ministry gaps. 

Yet healthy churches don’t just maintain ministry; they reproduce it. They raise up and send out the next generation of gospel workers.

n 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?

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. 

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 be faithful?

And should we be counting at all?

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. 

We’re digging deep into the Bible’s teaching on sex and gender—inside and outside the Garden of Eden. 

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?

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, meandering evolutionary process?  

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.

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.

An apology and correction in regards to our episode of Tuesday 10 June 2025.

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.

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 director of Reach UK — joins Dominic Steele to unpack the revolutionary approach transforming churches across Australia and the United Kingdom.

Today, with thousands of multisite 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 church leaders here learn today from the American experience?

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 Deryck Hanna, Reach Australia’s church planting and multisite specialist, for a fresh look at the multisite church model.

We explore the personnel, strategic, and pastoral complexities of multisite ministry. From varied governance models to launch strategies, leadership fit to congregational model.

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 is 1700 years since the council of Nicaea and the publication of the Nicene Creed - but what are we to make of it?

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.

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).

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.

Founder and Principle of McCrindle research, Mark McCrinde, says his report shows a new search for purpose and meaning and asks is “Australia Post Christian or are we now Post Secular?” 

Plus we compare the findings of the national McCrindle report with the recent Sydney Anglican report on Church attendance.