‘Ministry In The Blood And The Mud.’ Patrick O’Connell, NewThing Global Director on the Future Church Podcast.

My friend Patrick O’Connell is the Global Director of NewThing, the network which I and Ivy Church are privileged to be part of, which exists to partner with movement makers and catalyse reproducing disciples, leaders, churches, networks, and movements.  Here he tells the story of how he came to faith, having met his wife in a punk rock mosh pit, joined the army, he went into business and while finally successful in worldly terms when he finally after 4 years accepted an invitation to go to church and everything changed!  He went from church goer to church planter, now serving thousands of church leaders and planters worldwide through NewThing’s dream – to see a church planted in every community around the world. We discuss, among other things –  How might we help connect people far from God so they don’t just learn to cope, but receive hope.  What army life taught him about teams and sacrifice, and how that applies to the army of God and ministry ‘in the blood and the mud.’  How do we collaborate and form networks that are all […]


The Surprising Truth About What People Think About Jesus & The Church. Rachel Jordan-Wolf

EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, KNOWING JESUS. Well talk about a big vision! Dr Rachel Jordan-Wolf will be joining us at this year’s LAUNCH to talk about how it can become a reality and I loved hearing from her in advance on the podcast. Rachel is executive director of HOPE Together in the UK, having worked closely with the initiative since 2010, when she was the Church of England’s National Mission and Evangelism Advisor. “I’m committed to evangelism being at the heart of the church,’ says Rachel, “Committed to mission and to the local church in villages, towns and cities, and committed to do this together across denominations and across ethnicities to make Jesus known with words and action. We are also committed to a new generation, engaging with Millennials and with digital culture as well.” LISTEN TO THE FUTURE CHURCH PODCAST where you’ll hear how as well as being an expert on the stats and demographics from surveys that she has commissioned so we can have a great deal of hope for the future church, Rachel as a passionate evangelist herself is seeing […]


How To Avoid The Most Costly Leadership Error

Getting the wrong people on your team (or leading it!) can be one of the most expensive and stressful issues you’ll ever face. I was thrilled to hear wisdom from my friend William Vanderbloemen on how we really can do so much better at this. He is an entrepreneur, pastor, speaker, author, and CEO and founder of Vanderbloemen Search Group, which has helped thousands of churches, ministries, and faith-based organisations create a great culture and find people who will consistently make it better to achieve their God given goals. We looked at many issues on the Future Church podcast here including:


The REAL Benedict Option

Benedict rose to the challenge (calling others who would awake to it also) of another way than that offered by the Church of his day – creating alternate counterculture learning communities to live simply, biblically and faithfully. He didn’t set out to change the world and had no idea how important these little groups of faithful, obedient disciples would prove to be for generations to come. What might such ‘apostolic hubs’ look like in our day?


A LEGEND IN YOUR OWN LUNCHTIME

Now here in the West the question arises more than any time in my life whether the light of the gospel that we have been handed on, that we are to shine before all people, may be in danger of going out? The historic value of the church in society, the idea that this is a Christian nation, that the word of God has a hearing, that flame is burning down in society, in churches and, yes, believers.


New Future Church Podcast with Dr James Emery White – How To Burn Bright Without Burning Out

I think you’ll love listening to this wide ranging and prescient interviews as we discussed subjects including but not limited to Quiet Quitting in Church, Yoga, CS Lewis and what makes great literature!