Dominic Steele says 'There are no rocks being thrown from this corner.'

Dominic Steele's Pastor's Heart for Sam Allberry.

I, like many Pastor’s Heart viewers, read online in the middle of the day on Monday that Sam Allberry had engaged in inappropriate relationship with a man in 2022 and that, as the statement said, while the relationship did not go as far as it could have, it was a serious breach of trust, and that Sam is currently disqualified from gospel ministry.

I immediately stopped and prayed for Sam and then wrote to him to say that I care for him, love him, have stopped to pray for him and that there are no rocks being thrown from this corner.

Full Statement from Immanuel Church Nashville

#thepastorsheart #samallberry

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In the UK there are serious signs of a narrowing pipeline into ministry recruitment and training. Fewer people are coming forward through some of the traditional routes. Traineeships are under pressure. Residential theological education is changing.

And churches are asking: where will the next generation of pastors, evangelists, church planters and ministry leaders come from?

In Australia, it is not the same story, but there is a similar question. Geoff Folland has argued that the old model of the young, full-time, residential theological student is no longer the dominant reality. Colleges face rising compliance costs, changing student profiles and tighter finances. And, churches, apprenticeships, parachurch organisations and mission agencies are now doing more of the early work of formation.

So is this a Bible college problem? A local church problem? A recruitment problem? A funding problem? Or an ecosystem problem?

Orlando Saer is Senior Pastor of Christ Church Southampton, Chair of Trustees of 9:38 and part of the team behind the Yarnton Gospel Workers Trust launched last week — a new UK initiative seeking to remove blockages and multiply gospel workers for the harvest.

Yarnton Gospel Workers Trust Link

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How should Christians respond when voluntary assisted dying is publicly framed as dignified, compassionate and courageous?

James Valentine has been rightly honoured as a much-loved broadcaster in the wake of his death last week. But alongside the tributes there’s been significant reflection on his choice to use voluntary assisted dying in the language of control, dignity, generosity and dying “his way”.

How do we honour and grieve a much-loved public figure, while still asking serious ethical and pastoral questions about voluntary assisted dying? Has the public conversation shifted from VAD as a last resort to VAD as a normal end-of-life choice?

As we think carefully about death, autonomy, compassion, medicine, conscience and Christian hope we are joined by:

• Dr Megan Best, senior researcher and professor of bioethics at the Institute of Ethics & Society at the University of Notre Dame Australia & Director of Ethicenter and
• Emeritus Professor Michael Quinlan of the University of Notre Dame. Michael is also on the board of Freedom for Faith and Ethical End of Life Care.

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Not every funeral is great. Sometimes they go too long, sometimes the gospel is not clear, sometimes the content overlaps.

How do you create a funeral service that God would be pleased with, connects well with people, honours the deceased and serves the bereaved?

David Cook is former Principal of Sydney Missionary and Bible College,
Sandy Grant is dean of St Andrew’s Cathedral Sydney,
and Gary Coleman is former chaplain to the Motor Racing Industry.

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How should Christians think about war? How does the Biblical Framework of Just War help us understand how we should react to what is happening in the Ukraine, Iran, Israel and south Lebanon.

We go back to first principles drawing on the work of Augustine of Hippo Thomas Aquinas - asking when is it right to go to war — and how must war be conducted? And how do those principles evaluate what’s happening in today’s conflicts?

Joining us are:

• John McClean, Vice Principal of Christ College Sydney,
• Rob Smith, theologian and ethicist and
• Grant Dibden, Anglican Bishop to the Australian Defence Force.

Together we explore how Just War thinking has shaped Western military ethics and whether it is quietly being sidelined.

Plus we examine what the Just War doctrine says about individuals conduct in war, in light of the controversy surrounding Australian Soldier Ben Roberts-Smith?

And how should Christians respond when the emotional weight of real-world conflict hits close

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Reach Australia

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Tinkering or transformation?

How do you change a church, like really change, not just tweak a program or update a roster, but challenge the whole model?

Kodak missed the shift to digital photography. We’ve seen huge changes in industries impacting newspapers, landline telephones, taxis, bank branches, travel agents, street directories, encyclopedias. For each the world moved on.

But have churches missed a revolution too, and if so, what is it?

Archie Poulos from Moore College’s Centre for Ministry Development says we’ve been tinkering around the edges, changing tactics without changing the operating model, especially when our structures were built for a village world while many relationships today are affinity based.

Kirsty Bucknell outlines a change framework to help us bring people with us.

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‘Authority’ and ‘care’- the two big words New Testament lecturer Peter Orr says belong together at the heart of real shepherding.

Lecturer at Sydney’s Moore Theological College, Peter Orr, has told the Nexus Conference, that one of the great confusions of our moment is confusion about the role of the pastor.

He asks whether in circles like ours, with a strong and right emphasis on every-member ministry, we accidentally downplayed the distinctiveness of the pastor?

What does it mean to say that a pastor has real authority, but that it is derived, limited and for care? How to avoid harshness, being too soft and lazy.

See also

• ‘Fight for your pastor’ by Peter Orr
• The War Zone of The Pastor’s Heart with Peter Orr

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We tackle one of the most sensitive issues facing the global church — sexuality.

Vaughan Roberts, senior minister of St Ebbe’s Oxford, speaks as both pastor and theologian. In this interview he reflects on deeply personal pastoral encounters — Christians struggling with pornography, same-sex attraction, gender incongruence, and the pain of confusing messages from churches.

In Abuaja, Nigeria, Vaughan Roberts, distributed his new book Full of Grace and Truth: The Gospel and Sexuality in the Global Church to more than 470 bishops, clergy and lay leaders of the Global Anglican Communion.

At the heart of Roberts’ argument is the argument: God is for sex. Sex is for marriage. Marriage is for life. And ultimately life is for Christ.

Roberts’ challenge cuts in two directions. He cautions revisionist Christians not to abandon biblical truth, while also urging conservatives to move beyond moralism to the transforming beauty of the gospel.

Order online

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