Thousands of Christians usually gather in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney to hear from God, from missionaries and to pray for world mission.

But this year, with COVID, there were massive disruptions to the Church Missionary Society summer school, with the program having to be recast four times.

John Lovell is the new CMS General Secretary and Simon Gillham is a former missionary, now Vice Principal of Sydney’s Moore Theological College.

We are talking the changing face of world mission, the impact COVID is having on mission, but also just what happened last week, how it all played out and what the impact on the Church Missionary Society.

January is the key time of the year for welcoming newcomers in the Southern hemisphere. In the Northern hemisphere it’s August/September.

But how do we best follow up new people who are moving into the district and looking to join a church? Someone visits your church, but what’s next. What sort of ‘visitor pipeline’ should you have?

A sad note for us to end 2020 on, we speak to Dan Paterson as he processes the growing terrible scandal involving his former mentor and boss, the late International Apologist Ravi Zacharias.

What is a biblical theology of place?

Matthew says place is more than point on a map. Place contributes to making us who we are. And we contribute to making the place what it is. We are shaped by our places and we paint ourselves onto places.

Places are locations for ministries, discipleship and living for Jesus.

For many singles, Christmas and January is a very difficult and challenging time of year. A time to be endured rather than a time to be enjoyed.

It’s Christmas. But it’s also January when many of the structured church life things are in recess.

But there are things that as church leaders we can do to be a blessing to our single friends.

Dr Dani Treweek has just completed her PhD on Singleness and joins us on The Pastor’s Heart.

For us as senior pastors one of the things most important to get right is when someone comes to report domestic violence.

We often meet these issues when we are not expecting to. There’s often high emotion and high stakes.

Experienced Counsellor Magdalena Liem from Newroads Counselling talks about how do we pastor the victim well, and also the person accused of being responsible? And is there any potential way back?

The dominant topic in church staff room meetings in New South Wales today is, what to do this Sunday about singing? Should we sing without masks or not?

The NSW Government is saying, while singing is permitted, masks are recommended for the congregation, whether or not the congregation is inside or outside.

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Antony Fisher has written to Catholics saying they can sing without masks. Sydney Anglican Archbishop Glenn Davies has been more circumspect. https://j.mp/3gsfHgb

But, Decisions are clearly left to local church leaders to work out how best to apply the guidelines. Different churches are expected to make different decisions.

It seems virtually overnight Christians and Christian leaders have gone from the ‘good guys’ in the society to the ‘bad guys.’ The speed of change has blindsided us.

The new religion of sexual identity and sexual freedom is on the ascendancy. It’s proclaimed as the locus of deep and lasting meaning, where the truly authentic life is.

But secularism is not neutral. We used to work on the assumption that public square would be a neutral venue where ideas could be discussed freely. We prepared for an open market. We didn’t realise that there would be huge tariffs.

There are two competing narratives in the west, locked in a death grip. And what happens to the ‘Western Ship’ as society loses its moorings from the Christian Gospel and drifts into unchartered waters. What will a post Christian existence look like? Full of fear and empty of human kindness.

Is there any light in this darkness. Stephen McAlpine argues yes, in his book to be released in the new year, ‘Being the bad guys.’

“Victorian State Government pushes to ban Christian practices with threat of 10 years in prison” - a headline that should have every Christian leader pause.

This week - we talk with key Christian leaders from Victoria: Murray Campbell and Chris Duke along with Law Professor Neil Foster about the ramifications of this bill.

This week on The Pastor’s Heart, Dominic interviews evangelist Sam Chan about his latest book: How To Talk About Jesus (Without Being That Guy).

Written for the everyday Christian, How To Talk About Jesus provides practical ways anyone can share Jesus in a way which is relevant to today.

Dominic and Sam will explore the narratives people believe and how Jesus speaks into them, where our society is at in their understanding of Christianity and what it looks like to have a lifestyle of evangelism. Dominic will put to Sam some of the criticisms of his book, including a challenge that the truth of the cross and propitiation is lacking and if he is discounting that some might be specifically called to be evangelists.

Teens of today are less likely to grow up in a religious family or attend Church, and yet we are still seeing vibrant protestant youth ministries across many cities.

This week, Youthworks College Dean of Women Ruth Lukabyo joins us to discuss a pioneering model of youth ministry including peer groups, ministry collaboration and cultivating ministry leadership for young people.

At last weekend’s Meeting the Challenge Conference, Dominic Steele led a panel discussion of leaders in the Australian men’s ministry space, canvassing how we can win our workmates and neighbours to Jesus.

David Robinson is an Evangelist & Pastor from Scotland and now with Third Space and City Bible Forum; Grant Borg is an Evangelist and Church Planter in south western Sydney; Martyn Iles leads the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) and Tony Payne is a Christian author and publisher with Matthias Media and now back in Student Ministry at UNSW.

We talk winning our workmates, neighbours, plus leading our homes and and the battle against porn.

The report has just been released into abuse at The Crowded House, an evangelical church in Sheffield in the UK.

It’s a 98 page report exploring the spiritual abuse allegations that were leveled at the senior pastor Steve Timmis, author of the influential church leadership manual Total Church, and who was at the time the CEO of the global church planting movement Acts 29.

We speak to former The Crowded House intern Stephen McAlpine.

Marshall Ballantine Jones joins Dominic Steele to talk the dangers of social media for pastors and church communities. How do we get our hearts right? How we can use social media well? What pitfalls are there to avoid?

Today we explore the journey Tertullian to Thomas Jefferson or how the issues of Religious Liberty and Freedom of Conscience don’t actually spring out of the Enlightenment but from the pages of the New Testament.

Dr Sarah Irving Stonebraker has caused quite a splash this week with her Richard Johnston Lecture on Thursday night. Sarah is a Senior Lecturer in Modern European History, and teaches in History and Political Thought at the University of Western Sydney.

We are discussing the logistics of Christmas in COVID, with Pete Steadman and Stuart Crawshaw.

With limitations around singing, gathering and social distancing in place, today we are discussing the most effective way to connect with our communities and share the gospel. Carols, Gingerbread, Wreath Making and even Christmas services typically rely on large groups of people coming together and feeling comfortable within the Church space.

On today’s special episode of the Pastor’s Heart, we’re discussion issues surrounding religious freedom and church gatherings on the way out of COVID.

Neil James Foster, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Newcastle and Ray Galea, Senior Pastor of MBM Rooty Hill discuss an important court ruling on this in Washington DC, where Capitol Hill Baptist Church have won their legal challenge against imposed limits on congregational gatherings.

GAFCON General Secretary Archbishop Ben Kwashi joins us to give an update on his colon cancer diagnosis, parenting 74 orphan children, COVID in Africa and the future of GAFCON.

Queensland University’s Dean of Law Patrick Parkinson says we are facing a fall of Rome moment in Western Societies. Christendom is over.

We need to not put our trust in princes in the way that American evangelicals have disastrously done so.