The One Thing

Is your church behind budget? How will you respond?

How can you cultivate a culture of generosity (without manipulation)?

What's distinct about regional ministry?

Mini episode.

If you've been pastoring for the last 2 years, this episode is for you

How should Christians relate to email, social media and productivity tech? Is digital minimalism right for ministry leaders and churches?

Is your church's Sunday attendance about 50% at the moment? How should we respond?

What is ecosystem thinking and how can it help you lead your church?

What is ecosystem thinking and how can it help you lead your church?

We wanted to see how we were doing in achieving this goal of reaching the lost, celebrate what God had done in that, and look for ways to keep seeing – under God – more people come to know Jesus. Here’s what we found.

Establish healthy patterns for 2022 that can last in the long term.

A summary of the five-part Reach Australia ministry framework.

How hard should we go this Christmas, in light of Covid tiredness and the fact that Boxing Day is a Sunday? Which Christmas songs are worth doing and which songs deserve a rest?

A worked example of using the 'now where how' planning framework for the Kids ministry area of church.

A worked example of using the 'now where how' planning framework for the Mission purpose in church.

A common mistake in church planning is to jump from 'now' to 'how' too quickly. Instead, good planning involves a deep consideration of the desired destination ('where') before jumping to the methods of getting there ('how'). Listen to this week's episode of The One Thing as you make ministry plans for 2022.

Paul and Bec Young planted Providence Bayswater in 2020. What motivated them to plant a church? Have they changed their mind about anything? Look out for the encouraging story towards the end.

Paul and Bec Young planted Providence Bayswater in 2020. What motivated them to plant a church? Have they changed their mind about anything? Look out for the encouraging story towards the end.

What should be on your church calendar next year?

Scott and Derek reflect on a new ebook titled Pastoring: Leadership and Taking Heed.

“It’s a great-granddaughter/conjoined twins/core-team-needs-a-pastor mash up”. That’s Miriam and Duncan Andrews’ description of their network’s model of church planting in Adelaide. Look out for the story of “Yuki and the Jumping Castle”.

Establish Church in Cronulla has been going for about 6 years. What have Lee and Cathra (planting couple) changed their minds about? What's been hardest? Why plant a church instead of taking a job with an existing church?

Eventually, any ministry will include difficult conversations between ministry leaders and staff members - conversations that someone won't necessarily want to hear.

More important than our 200th episode is the vision of 200 more church plants over the next 10 years

How should a ministry leader manage an underperforming staff member? Is it even ok to use the term 'underperforming' in a church context?

How should a ministry leader manage an underperforming staff member? Is it even ok to use the term 'underperforming' in a church context?

Andrew Heard lays out EV Church's 5 priorities as they approach the end of 2021:

'The staff are not a distraction to your work, the staff are your work'

"Fight for clarity for a season, so you don’t fight confusion forever."

Trying to achieve lots with a small amount of resources?

If you're enjoying Church Planting Australia, you might enjoy some of the other podcasts in the Reach Australia podcast network.

What's your church's plan for developing leaders?

Quarterlies, offsites and how to modify them for online.

On the one hand, Spurgeon said 'God save us from living in comfort while sinners are sinking in hell’ and Christmas Evans (British Evangelist) said 'I’d rather burn out than rust out in the service of the Lord’. On the other hand, Acts 20:24 pictures ministry like a marathon rather than a sprint.

Dr Jonathan Andrews offers practical advice and suggestions to help you address burnout in your ministry.

'Burnout feels like driving without tyres'

The three types of connectedness that help with health: connection to God, connection to other people and connection to self. This week's episode of The One Thing podcast explores how these three connections relate to burnout.

Burnout tends to hit us 12-18 months after the event. It's now about 12-18 months after COVID began to disrupt our ministries. How are you feeling?

What are the dangers and the benefits of listening to the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill? What does discernment look like?

Bible nudism

We just wanted to give you a heads up that one of our network podcasts, the Reach Australia podcast, just launched a new season for the month of July.

Is it time to re-assess your church announcements? How many should you have each week? How can they be more engaging? In this episode of The One Thing podcast, Alanna Glover from Emu Music offers principles for better church announcements.

What can you do to actually get your small groups humming?

'God Responsiveness' is a key, but often misunderstood, area of the church ecosystem. In this episode of The One Thing podcast, we discuss Andrew Heard's 5 dangers of God Responsiveness.

When considering church growth barriers, is it better to talk about Dunbar's number or Dunbar's effect?

Do you need a coach? What does a coach actually do? Hear Liam's experience of being coached in the Geneva Push network.

If the average Australian church is around 70, then making a second hire is a big part of many church's growth journey. In this episode of The One Thing, Mike Sams (Reach Australia church consultant) discusses apprenticeships, principles for hiring, chemistry and his own experience in Adelaide.

How important is entrepreneurial thinking in the church? How do I know if I'm entrepreneurial wired? Listen to this week's episode of The One Thing podcast.

'If you have just the women's ministry role... it can tend to be isolated. It can be that-ministry-happening-over-there, off to the side, but not integrated into the whole team.'

What is the state of Australian Christianity? Karl Faase offers an optimistic outlook in this episode of The One Thing podcast.