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.

It sounds so simple. And yet it’s clear from the statistics (National Church Life) that people in some congregations are reporting much growth in faith, while people in others are reporting not much at all.

And isn’t it what we all want: For the sheep that God has given us the task of being under shepherds for - to report that they have grown significantly in faith this year?

Tom Harricks and Roger Cunningham are two of the ministers featured in a new report for the Anglican Church in Sydney (https://j.mp/35UXjt5) who have achieved better than average results.

We could have talked to the report authors. But we’ve chosen to interview the report subjects and find out what the key ingredients are… so we can learn from them and steal from their recipes.

I’m a little concerned, spiritually concerned, that for some of my friends (perhaps for up to a third of our churches) we are letting the excuses to not come physically to church get in the way.

Unless you are in a high risk group you should go back to church and help serve again in building up your local expression of Jesus’ body.

It's a spiritual temperature check as we take the pulse on the relationship between church involvement in local missions and support for overseas missions.

We discuss the factors that contribute to the evangelistic heartbeat of a local Church, how Church size and denomination impacts their mission involvement and what this means for how we lead our Churches.

There’s been a drop in post COVID attendance at church across the world. For some the issues are health, others head (anxiety etc) and for others it’s an issue of the heart.

Antony Barraclough has been researching the patterns and reasons for modern church attendance by committed Christians. He works to diagnose the issues and suggest some ways forward.

The average Christian gives only 2.5% But the first step in getting our churches finances right is getting the church leader’s hearts and finances right.

How do we create a dual audience church? How do we do church live and well, simultaneously for both those physically in the room audience and at the same time for those linking in via online stream.