The One Thing

If someone in your suburb wanted to find a church this Sunday… could they actually find yours?

In this episode, Pete Hughes chats with Phill Morrow, from ChristLife Presbyterian in West Toowoomba, about how to ensure your church is findable. Sometimes it’s the simple things that actually really make a difference: clear websites, signage, Google listings and welcoming spaces are all key aspects churches can’t overlook. 

• Why hospitality starts before someone walks through the door
• The hidden barriers that stop newcomers attending church
• Ideas for churches who both own and don’t own their spaces
• How small improvements can support evangelism and gospel growth

Toolbox:

Reach Digital 

The Great Dechurching by Jim Davis and Ryan P. Burge

Episode 354: Making Your Church Accessible to People With Disabilities (Louise Gosbell)

Episode 389: Welcoming In Action: Live from Kellyville Anglican Church

Secret Shopper Checklist (DO WITH A CAMERA)

Credits: 

This episode was brought to you by Exdia

The One Thing is brought to you by ⁠⁠Reach Australia⁠⁠

To pray for Reach Australia, join our ⁠⁠WhatsApp Group⁠⁠

For ideas or questions please email ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠

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Church buildings and meeting spaces communicate long before anyone hears the sermon. A confusing entrance, poor signage, or awkward gathering areas create unnecessary barriers, while thoughtful spaces can help people feel more relaxed, welcomed, and ready to connect.

In this episode:

• Why physical space matters for ministry and hospitality
• Common mistakes churches make with arrival, signage, and flow
• How spaces can reduce friction and help newcomers feel at ease
• Improving connection before and after the service
• Quick wins churches can make without major renovations

Toolbox:

Build to Last Ebook 

How to Fund Your Church Building ChurchStarter Booklet

Credits: 

This episode was brought to you by Safe Ministry Check

The One Thing is brought to you by ⁠⁠Reach Australia⁠⁠

To pray for Reach Australia, join our ⁠⁠WhatsApp Group⁠⁠

For ideas or questions please email ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠

Support Reach Australia's online library

In this episode, Derek Hanna is joined by Paul Young (planter of Providence Church Bayswater, Perth) to think about how church teams reflect on Sundays, and whether those debrief conversations are actually helping the church grow in mission, or just recycling obvious feedback.

They explore how different churches approach Sunday debriefs, what often goes wrong when they drift into planning or post-mortems, and how teams can use that time more effectively to focus on big-picture strategy, prayer, and gospel priorities.

Rather than tweaking slides or reviewing logistics, Paul argues that this time is best used to step back, pray, and work on the larger questions of mission, growth, and where God is at work in the life of the church.

In this episode:

• Why many Sunday debriefs don’t add much value
• The risk of turning debriefs into planning meetings or critique sessions
• How to shift from details to big-picture strategy and prayer
• Questions that help teams focus on mission and gospel growth
• How to use shared team time for decisions you can’t make alone

Toolbox:

Dangerous Calling by Paul David Tripp (Chapter on Glory)

The Church by Edmund Clowney

The Church on Mission by Craig Ott

Planting the Word by Erin Crider

Working Genius by Patrick Lencioni

Credits: 

This episode was brought to you by Lending Hands Mortgage Brokers

The One Thing is brought to you by ⁠⁠Reach Australia⁠⁠

To pray for Reach Australia, join our ⁠⁠WhatsApp Group⁠⁠

For ideas or questions please email ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠

Support Reach Australia's online library

Church life can get messy quickly. In this episode, Scott Sanders chats with Chris Rooleht about why having a simple serve chart can help bring clarity to ministry, showing who’s doing what, where responsibilities sit, and where people might be carrying too much.

They discuss how serve charts can help churches care for people well, identify gaps in ministry, and plan for the future.

In this episode:

• Why every church should have an serve chart
• How to spot ministry overload and unclear responsibilities
• Practical tools to help you map your teams
• Using serve charts to plan for growth, staffing, and church planting

Toolbox:

⁠Lucid Chart⁠

⁠Miro Chart⁠

⁠Guide to Church Staffing by The Unstack Group Blog Post⁠

⁠Contact Us for More Resources⁠

Credits: 

This episode was brought to you by ⁠Exdia⁠

The One Thing is brought to you by ⁠⁠⁠Reach Australia⁠⁠⁠

To pray for Reach Australia, join our ⁠⁠⁠WhatsApp Group⁠⁠⁠

For ideas or questions please email ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠

⁠Support Reach Australia's online library⁠

Most staff meetings feel like a drain. Too long, unclear, and full of talk that changes nothing. But what if your weekly meeting could actually strengthen your team, sharpen your culture, and leave people encouraged? 

In this episode, Andrew Mitchell (Executive Pastor at EV Church on NSW's Central Coast) joins Pete Hughes to unpack why great staff meetings are one of the most overlooked leadership tools in ministry, and how to run them well.

• Why the best staff meeting may not be about decisions at all
• How healthy meetings shape culture across the whole church
• A simple framework that creates energy, clarity, and momentum
• The common mistakes that make meetings frustrating and ineffective
• Practical ideas for small teams, not just large churches

Key points: 

• Why the main weekly meeting isn’t for making decisions
• How to structure a Monday meeting, from lunch to prayer to training
• The hidden cost of mixing decision-making with culture-building
• Why encouragement and shared stories aren’t optional extras
• What smaller teams can actually apply without copying everything

Toolbox:

Andrew Mitchell’s terms of reference staff meeting document 

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

Death By Meeting by Patrick Lencioni

How Do I Create a Culture of Trust In My Team? | Ep 316

Three dysfunctional types of teams and how to fix them | Ep 404

The One Thing Episode 166 – Refresh Your Staff Meetings (Part 1)

The One Thing Episode 167 – Refresh Your Staff Meetings (Part 2)

Credits: 

This episode was brought to you by Safe Ministry Check

The One Thing is brought to you by ⁠⁠Reach Australia⁠⁠

To pray for Reach Australia, join our ⁠⁠WhatsApp Group⁠⁠

For ideas or questions please email ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠

Support Reach Australia's online library

The Point Community Church in Port Macquarie, NSW was growing at 10% a year, but not many people were coming to faith. When they benchmarked themselves against other churches, the gap was noticeable: other churches were seeing 5-7x more non-Christians come through their evangelistic courses.

They asked hard questions and made a series of deliberate changes around how they invited people into their evangelism course.

Registrations jumped from 5 to 37. Around seven people came to faith, with ten more still exploring.

Derek Hanna talks with Steve Covetz (Lead Pastor) and Kate Stace (Director of Ministry Operations) about what moved the needle.

Toolbox:

Discover Magnet used by Kate and Steve

Mission ebook by Dave Jensen

Evangelism in the Local Church by Dave Jensen and Paul Brennan

Previous Reach Australia Conference Resources

Mission Consults by Reach Australia

Credits: 

This episode was brought to you by Safe Ministry Check

The One Thing is brought to you by ⁠⁠Reach Australia⁠⁠

To pray for Reach Australia, join our ⁠⁠WhatsApp Group⁠⁠

For ideas or questions please email ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠

Support Reach Australia's online library

If you stepped away for a month, would your church stall?

The hero complex in ministry rarely announces itself. It feels like diligence. Responsibility. Sacrifice. But underneath can sit something more dangerous — the quiet belief that everything depends on us.

In this episode, we explore:

• What the hero complex really is and why it shows up in gospel ministry

• The warning signs, from micromanaging to confusing busyness with fruitfulness

• How our identity in Christ steadies us when things go well or poorly

• When to say no, and how to do it with clarity

• Why building teams and sharing responsibility is part of faithful leadership

If you’ve ever felt indispensable, exhausted, or quietly resentful that others don’t carry what you carry, this conversation is for you.

Toolbox:

Steve Waugh’s Cricket Highlights

Reach Australia’s Coaching Program

Credits: 

This episode was brought to you by Exdia 

The One Thing is brought to you by ⁠⁠Reach Australia⁠⁠

To pray for Reach Australia, join our ⁠⁠WhatsApp Group⁠⁠

For ideas or questions please email ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠

Support Reach Australia's online library

You can usually tell what’s going on in a pastor’s ministry by what’s on their bedside table. Not the books they recommend, but the ones they are actually reading, half-reading, or quietly avoiding.

Rory Shiner opens up his own reading habits and presses the question most of us avoid: are we still being shaped, or just repeating what we learned years ago?

Are we still the kind of people who are learning, so that when we open the Bible we are not simply repeating ourselves, but speaking with fresh clarity shaped by a life still being formed by God’s word?

In this episode:

• What your current reading habits reveal about your ministry
• Why finishing books is often the wrong goal
• The kind of reading that actually feeds preaching over time
• Why reading ahead matters more than scrambling each week
• What poetry, fiction, and biography give you that ministry books cannot
• How shallow reading shapes shallow instincts in people work
• Why curiosity fades in ministry and why it is worth protecting

Toolbox:

Biblical Critical Theory by Christopher Watkin

Collected Poems by Les Murray

Poems Chosen by Paul Kelly

The Discarded Image by C. S. Lewis

One Forever by Rory Shiner

Forgiven Forever by Rory Shiner

Raised Forever by Rory Shiner

The World Next Door by Rory Shiner

Credits: 

This episode was brought to you by Lending Hands Mortgage Brokers 

The One Thing is brought to you by ⁠⁠Reach Australia⁠⁠

To pray for Reach Australia, join our ⁠⁠WhatsApp Group⁠⁠

For ideas or questions please email ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠

Support Reach Australia's online library

Church planting is often treated as something only large churches can do. The latest Growth and Change report suggests otherwise. Across the Reach Australia network, smaller churches and unlikely partnerships are launching new congregations and reaching people who were never going to walk into an existing church.

This episode explores what last year’s church plants are teaching the rest of us. If most Australians still don’t know Jesus, the question isn’t whether churches feel ready to plant, but whether we are organising our ministry to reach the 95% who aren’t in church.

In this episode:

• Why new churches continue to reach new people
• The rise of partnerships between churches to plant together
• How smaller churches are multiplying through intentional leadership pipelines
• The tension between filling staff roles and sending church planters
• Practical first steps for churches wanting to move toward church planting

Toolbox:

Reach Australia’s Full Online Resources Library

Growth and Change Report 2025

Church Planting Podcast

Multiplication

Partner financially with Reach Australia

Credits: 

This episode was brought to you by Exdia 

The One Thing is brought to you by ⁠⁠Reach Australia⁠⁠

To pray for Reach Australia, join our ⁠⁠WhatsApp Group⁠⁠

For ideas or questions please email ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠

Support Reach Australia's online library

When was the last time we preached on generosity — and it wasn’t because the budget was tight?

Money is one of the clearest windows into our trust, our fears, and our worship. Yet many of us only speak about it at the AGM or when pressure rises. In this episode, we reflect on generosity not as fundraising, but as discipleship.

We talk about:

• Why giving flows from the grace of the gospel, not guilt

• How to build a culture where generosity is normal and joyful

• The risk of only addressing money in crisis moments

• How leaders can model generosity with integrity

• Practical steps to start shaping generous hearts this month

Toolbox:

Jehovah Jireh My Provider Song 

Giving Generously by Rod Irvine

Neither Poverty Nor Riches (New Studies in Biblical Theology Series) by Craig L Blomberg

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki

Gospel Patrons website

The Journey of Generosity stories

Partner financially with Reach Australia

Credits: 

This episode was brought to you by Safe Ministry Check

The One Thing is brought to you by ⁠⁠Reach Australia⁠⁠

To pray for Reach Australia, join our ⁠⁠WhatsApp Group⁠⁠

For ideas or questions please email ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠

Support Reach Australia's online library