A training culture for the next generation:  Healthy Churches producing new ministers for the next generation.

Across the world, the number of candidates putting themselves forward for gospel ministry is in decline. Many churches are feeling the pinch—struggling to find leaders and often looking elsewhere to fill ministry gaps. 

Yet healthy churches don’t just maintain ministry; they reproduce it. They raise up and send out the next generation of gospel workers.

This week in Sydney, a group of evangelical movement leaders from across the globe have gathered to sharpen one another in this task: creating a culture of training that will multiply gospel workers for the decades ahead. 

The shift they are calling for is from passively plotting decline to actively asking, What are we going to do?—and then taking decisive steps toward it.

We’re joined this afternoon by three of those symposium participants. From the UK, Robin Sydserff of the Proclamation Trust. 

From Santiago, Chile, Matt Pope—pastor and trainer of pastors in five Latin American countries, formerly of St Ebbe’s in Oxford. 

And from Cleveland, Ohio, Marty Sweeny—pastor for training at Old North Church and long-time champion of multiplying ministry apprentices.

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In the past month, two of the most respected evangelical training institutions in the world have closed or announced closure of their campuses.

In July, Spurgeon’s College in London—a pillar of Baptist theological education for nearly 170 years—closed, citing financial strain and a dramatic decline in student numbers. 

A few weeks earlier, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) in Chicago —long regarded as a flagship seminary of North American evangelicalism— said they would shut down its Illinois campus and relocate to Canada, merging with Trinity Western University in British Columbia.

TEDS student numbers have dropped from 750 to 400 fulltime equivalents. 

These are not isolated incidents. Across the UK, Australia, and globally, churches are asking:

Where will the next generation of gospel workers come from?

Orlando Saer—lead pastor of Christ Church Southampton, Chair of the Reach UK South church planting network, and Chair of 9:38, a UK ministry seeking to raise up gospel workers, has helped lead the Yarnton Consultation, the most comprehensive look yet at the state of ministry recruitment in the UK.

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What change would a leader and church need to make for a congregation, denomination or movement to grow by five percent annual conversion growth. 

The Gospel Coalition pulled together a mini summit of evangelical movement leaders from across Australia in June.

That gathering set an aspirational goal of doubling the number of evangelicals over twenty years. 

They said a key way to do it is by pursuing a target of seeing five percent of the average attendance saved each year. 

David Jensen leads the Evangelism part of the Department of Evangelism and New Churches in the Sydney Anglican Church. 

Chris Braga is senior pastor of Grace West Church at Glenmore Park in Western Sydney.

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It is an uncomfortable but important question: What place should numbers have in our thinking about ministry success?

We all want to be faithful. But what happens when the numbers are down? Do we need to change something? Or should we just continue in the same trajectory?

And should we be counting at all?

This is the tension between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. A tension between preaching the word and evaluating what’s actually working.

Phil Colgan has been the long term senior pastor of St George North Anglican in Sydney and presented on a Theology of Numbers at the recent Nexus Conference.

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We evangelicals, says Richard Coekin, have a problem—and it’s a preaching problem.

Richard Coekin says we are too often careless—his word—when it comes to application in preaching. 

We work hard on exegesis, we labour to understand the original context and the author’s intent—but then we stop short. We leave our congregations with sound doctrine, but little direction. 

Richard has just concluded 29 years as senior pastor at Dundonald Church in London and as the founding leader of the Co-Mission network across the UK capital. He now heads up Reach UK.  

Richard’s new book, Apply: How to Preach the Bible for Real Life, will be released in the UK Spring —and today he joins us to explore why good application is not an optional extra, but the very purpose of preaching.

Correction: Apply will be published by 10 of those not The Good Book Company as was stated in the program.

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We’re digging into the Bible’s teaching on sex and gender—inside and outside the Garden of Eden - relating to transgender. 

We’re asking foundational questions: Was humanity created androgynous? Does Genesis allow for more than two sexes? Is sexual difference a core part of the imago Dei? What does it mean that the man and woman were naked and felt no shame?

Dr Rob Smith lectures at Sydney Missionary and Bible College and serves with Living Faith, a pastoral ministry of the Sydney Anglican Church caring for those navigating same-sex attraction or gender incongruence. 

Rob is the author of a new book The Body God Gives.

Rob also spoke to us in February 2025 about the historic and cultural issues relating to the transgender, under the heading 'The Sexed body is the Gendered Self'.

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There are understandings/interpretations of the Bible that conflict with the conclusions of modern, empirical research - where science and the Bible are thought to be giving competing explanations of the same event or concept.

One way of reading the Bible leads to the conclusion that the Earth is 6000 years old while your local science department will tell you it is more like 4.5 billion years old.  

Were human beings created in an instant from dust, or over billions of years through a gradual, meandering evolutionary process?  

Was there a moment in our historical timeline at the curse of God on the sin of Adam and Eve when the physical nature of our universe changed?  

Were there no volcanoes or earthquakes or floods or bushfires before the curse, or has the universe operated on the same physical principles since its creation, as the conclusions of mainstream geology and astronomy suggest?

Dr Lewis Jones is an astrophysicist from North Carolina, who moved to Sydney to do post doctoral research.  Lewis is now director of the Simeon Network, the postgraduate and academic arm of the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students. 

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In a bold move, a meeting of movement leaders from across Australian Reformed Evangelicalism has resolved to work together to see their numbers double over twenty years, through seeing sinners saved.

Leaders gathered for a mini summit organised by The Gospel Coalition Australia at Sydney’s Moore Theological College last week.

Gospel Coalition Australia Chair Rory Shiner says given the unparalleled theological and missional unity between the different organisations there’s a significant window of opportunity to work productively together for God’s glory.

They agreed to work towards an effective target of growing five percent per year through conversion growth. 

The Gospel Coalition’s Rory Shiner and Sarah Kuswadi, Reach Australia’s Andrew Heard and Queensland Theological College Principal Gary Millar came straight from the Summit to our The Pastor’s Heart studio to discuss the outcomes of the day and plans for the future. 

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Andrew Heard says ministries cannot be other than outcome-focused in their work - the question is will those outcomes be good or bad? Conscious or unconscious? Specific or vague?  

He addresses critics who confuse having Biblical goals with adopting secular business practices.

Andrew Heard leads the Reach Australia movement, and pastors the influential EV Church on the Central Coast. 

• All Christians are goal-driven whether consciously or unconsciously

• Critique often conflate goals with the methods used to pursue them (which is a separate question).

• Paul in 1 Corinthians demonstrates strategic thinking while maintaining gospel integrity

• "Wise master builder" suggests skill and thoughtfulness in ministry, not just faithfulness

• Personal, transformational ministry requires organisation.

• Opposition to large churches and attempting to grow churches creates an impossible task for reaching the world. We need to own the fact that we either need much bigger churches or many more churches, or both.

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An apology and correction in regards to our episode of Tuesday 10 June 2025.

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