The Pastor's Heart with Dominic Steele

New research suggests that around 70% of those who attended church regularly at age 11 are no longer attending by their late twenties, with the most vulnerable years stretching from around age 10 through to 25. 
Dean of Students at Youthworks College Ruth Lukabyo explores why young people disengage, how inherited faith becomes owned faith and what churches can do to better navigate the critical transitions from childhood to adulthood. 
We discuss the practical changes pastors, parents and churches can make to help more young people keep following Jesus for the long haul.
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Tony Payne provocatively argues that while evangelicalism has successfully recovered expository preaching and every-member ministry, we have not adequately recovered every-member word ministry. 
Tony argues that the Reformation remains unfinished, that we haven’t fully thought through the implications of the priesthood of all believers, and that passages like Ephesians 4, Hebrews and especially 1 Corinthians 11-14 may need to be read rather differently than many of us have assumed.
Tony asks, have we trained people to serve on teams, but not trained them to speak God’s word to one another?
It’s a challenge that reaches into some of our most fundamental assumptions about Christian ministry. 
We discuss prophecy, the ministry of women, the role of the pastor-teacher, preaching and discipleship, and what it would actually look like for the word of Christ to reverberate through a congregation rather than stopping at the pulpit.
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What’s going on? Is this a reaction against thin, seeker-friendly evangelicalism? Spiritual nostalgia? 
Across the Western church, some younger Christians seem to be searching for deeper roots: tradition, transcendence, beauty, liturgy, sacraments and a stronger sense of connection with the historic church.
Some evangelicals have become Roman Catholic or even Orthodox. Even a church formerly affiliated with the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) in the UK has become Orthodox.
Orlando Saer, senior pastor of Christ Church Southampton, describes himself as something of a “spiritual mongrel”, shaped by Roman Catholic, high Anglican, low Anglican, independent Baptist and FIEC influences.
On sabbatical in Australia, Orlando has been thinking deeply about why Christians are longing for rootedness, transcendence and tradition, and how evangelical leaders should respond.
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The loneliest person in church may be the one standing at the pulpit.
Pastors spend their lives surrounded by people, but ministry can make real friendship strangely difficult.
Confidentiality, responsibility, expectations, perceived favouritism and the pressure to “have answers but not needs” can leave church leaders profoundly alone.
Sheridan Voysey says pastors don’t just need supervision, systems or resilience strategies. They need real friends: people they can talk to, depend on, grow with and enjoy. People who know the weight they are carrying. People they can call at 2am when everything has gone wrong.
Sheridan helps us think pastorally and practically about the lonely pastor, the friendship Jesus modelled and how churches can give leaders permission to be human. 

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