On The Pastor’s Heart, Robert Smith joins us to discuss Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling’s critique of the binary understanding of sex and gender and how we as Christian leaders can equip our churches to address these complex and controversial issues. 

Rowling’s comments in a series of tweets and an online essay have sparked an intense social media backlash. 

"It isn't enough for women to be trans allies. Women must accept and admit that there is no material difference between trans women and themselves." - J.K. Rowling. 

She’s spoken of people who have regretted their transition, and an over representation of autistic females in those wanting to transition.

We’ll bring together questions about freedom of speech, supporting and championing women and children, a biblical view of manhood and womanhood. 

Plus there’s a wider question here about social media pile-on, cancel-culture and the use of labels like “TERF” and “transphobic” to shut down conversation. 

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Check-ins, singing, 4 square meters and the way out of COVID-19.

The Australian Prime Minister says in stage three of the Post Covid-19 reopening, groups will be able to meet with no upper limit on numbers from July, but there will be a blanket rule of 4 square meters per person. 

However, all visitors to buildings will be required to checkin and provide contact details.  For churches that have had no pastoral monitoring of who is attending, this is likely to be a revolution. 

But how to handle the technological upgrade necessary? 

We are talking today with Bishop Gary Koo, who heads the Sydney Anglican COVID-19 taskforce, and two Australian IT wizards Melbourne’s Cade Embery, founder of http://www.fluro.io and Sydney’s Nick Utber, from Open Box technology and https://www.adminosaur.com/.

Subscribe at: https://www.thepastorsheart.net/podcast/check-ins-singing-4-square-meters

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We are talking Kotter's principles of change managment and how they apply to church leadership in this post COVID-19 season where the immediate steps forward may not be clear. 

We need to lead to change. But for some of us senior pastors (as things keep changing) it’s not obvious where we want to go!  And yet we need to take everyone with us.

As we move to restarting physical meetings post COVID19, for some churches it’s relatively straightforward, for others it’s going to be impossible for quite some time, but for a significant number restarting is possible - but will require a significant rearrangement. 

Peter Mayrick is back with us from Sydney’s Center for Ministry Development at Moore Theological College.

http://www.thepastorsheart.net/podcast/changepostcovid19

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The Australian Government has recommended the reopening process go through a series of stages.

New guidelines have been released for churches in NSW. But they have been changed since the original ones we discussed on The Pastor’s Heart with Bishop Michael Stead a fortnight ago.

In NSW we are at Stage 2 (50 people gatherings) and stage 3 (100 people) is expected in July.

Bishop Michael Stead is back for an extra discussion…. On social distancing and implementing the health department guidelines.

Credit: Contains an excerpt of a video from a Gondwana Choir's Webinar. The research material is produced by Prateek Bahl, Charitha de Silva, Con Doolan and Raina MacIntyre, UNSW.

Michael Stead has produced this extra paper. 

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All ministry is vulnerable during the COVID-19 season. But kids and youth ministries especially. How can we reduce that vulnerability?

Kids and youth connections have been difficult online for months now.

Kids are over Zoom after weeks of online school.

As we turn our attention to the restart, How do we regroup, recover and restart the young people ministries?

Plus how do the principles of Adaptive Change apply in the kids and youth space?

Ed Springer is a consultant with Sydney’s Anglican Youthworks.
And Dave Hopper consults for the Youth Network of the Queensland Presbyterian Church.

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In New South Wales, Australia churches are permitted to gather for meetings of 50 from Monday, but are not permitted to have communal singing.  Rob Smith, Curtis Smith & Dr Charlotte Hespe discuss. 

NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant says, "Communal singing and chanting should not occur because of the high risk of transmission of the virus. Instead, measures such as one singer standing at least three metres away from others would be safer.” 

In a special edition of The Pastor’s Heart we talk about the future of singing in church with Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Council Member, and Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame, Doctor Charlotte Hespe, Songwriter and author of ‘Come, Let us Sing’  Rob Smith and Music Director of Church by the Bridge and St. Augustine's Anglican Church, Neutral Bay, Curtis Smith.

Some of our questions we consider are: 

• Why singing matters for personal health / why singing together matters for church health.
• What does the science say about singing and the risks of droplet spread?
• What if it’s not safe to sing together? – greater good ethical dilemmas
• What if we’re prohibited from singing together? – thinking through our response
• Is singing with masks on an option?
• Reconceiving church in the short to medium term
• Singing privately / singing in families
• How do we navigate a way forward as churches?

NSW Government health department checklist:
https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/industry-guidelines/places-of-worship

Neil Foster’s helpful blogpost.
https://lawandreligionaustralia.blog/2020/05/30/worship-in-coronavirus-time-the-latest-nsw-rules/

Here's the NSW government's official media release:
https://www.nsw.gov.au/media-releases/changes-for-worship-weddings-and-funerals

Here are the NSW health department rules.
https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/_emergency/Public%20Health%20(COVID-19%20Restrictions%20on%20Gathering%20and%20Movement)%20Order%20(No%203)%202020.pdf

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The pub test of religious liberty in the post COVID-19 rebootIn New South Wales, Australia, pubs and clubs will soon be allowed to open for 50 people but churches will still be restricted to 10.Three weeks ago the Federal Government announced a three...

We are addressing how we care for and lead our congregations on the way back. We are seeing states quickly move through the different stages of opening up. 

How do we handle the fear of change, and navigate the decisions of starting to meet again. How do we help our members flourish in community while keeping a physical distance? How can we come through this stronger? What about the feelings that they and we are experiencing, and how can we support them through the next few months?

The best advice for Australian churches is still to expect a protracted period with congregations limited to 100 people, with one person per four square metres, for many Churches, this necessitates change, with congregations to be divided or planted. 

Jenny Brown heads The Family Systems Practice, is an experienced family systems therapist and the author of Growing Yourself Up. 

Nigel Fortesque is the senior minister of Christ Church St Ives.  Nigel’s survey of congregational attitudes to the reboot is here.

The Church Co
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Brian Tung says leading our churches successfully out of COVID-19 is going to be much more complex than the journey in. 

He says don’t squander the God-given opportunity to make ‘real’ change in the COVID-19 rollback. 
How do you fix it even when it’s not broken?  Note, People don’t hate change. They hate loss. How do you make the most of the productive zone of disequilibrium.  Plus how to take small risks smartly with experiments.

Brian Tung is the senior minister of St Georges Hurstville in Sydney’s South and he has a doctorate in ministry leadership.

Watch online at http://www.thepastorsheart.net/podcast/adaptiveleadership

The Church Co
thechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches. 

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Update 31 May 2020: NSW Bishop Michael Stead says that there has been an update. Here's his quote:"The 50 person limit for church gatherings in NSW is still subject to the 4m2 rule. However, NSW Heath have recently clarified that this applies to the...