Journal of Contemporary Ministry

Hughes, Philip

English

Theology and Social Sciences in Ministry Research

McMaster, Lewis

Tuovinen, Juhani

Gender and Leadership Issues in the Australian Church: leadership effectiveness - men versus women

Stevens, Kerrie

Complete Issue

  
 
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About This Journal 
 
Editorial Board 
The Editorial Board of the Journal of Contemporary Ministry is comprised of: 
Professor Emeritus, The Rev Gary 
D. Bouma, AM - Monash University; 
Chair of Harvest Bible College 
Academic Board; Sociologist; 
Anglican Priest, prolific author. 
Rev Dr Peter Carblis – Senior 
Chaplain, Churches of Christ in NSW; 
former principal Tabor NSW, 
Australia. 
Rev Prof Darren Cronshaw – Head 
of Research and Professor of 
Missional Leadership, Australian 
College of Ministries (SCD); Pastor, 
Auburn Life Baptist Church; 
Honorary Research Fellow, 
University of Divinity, Australia. 
Rev Dr Kevin Giles - Published 
author; Anglican minister; adjunct 
lecturer for many years for Harvest 
Bible College, Australia 
Rev Dr David Jakobsen - Assistant 
Professor Aalborg University, 
Denmark 
Rev Dr Julie Ma - Associate Professor 
of Missions and Intercultural Studies, 
Undergraduate College of Theology 
and Ministry, Oral Roberts University, 
Tulsa, OK, USA. 
Rev Dr Cheryl McCallum - Principal, 
Eastern College Australia, Australia. 
Dr Soong-Chan Rah – Milton B. 
Engebretson Professor of Church 
Growth and Evangelism, North Park 
Theological Seminary, Chicago, USA.  
Rev Dr Michelle Sanders - Head of 
Art and Community Development,  
Eastern College Australia; Missional 
church planter and Pastor, 
Kaleidoscope Community, Melbourne, 
Australia; Founder and Director of 
Art and Soul; Artist and Author. 
Assoc Prof Juhani Tuovinen - 
Australian Institute of Business, 
Adelaide, Australia; Senior Research 
Fellow, Global Centre for Work-
Applied Learning, Adelaide, Australia. 
 
  
 
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Editorial Team 
The Editorial Team of the Journal of Contemporary Ministry is comprised of: 
 
 
Dr Jon Newton - (Dean of Postgraduate Studies and Research, 
Harvest Bible College); Editor.  
 
 
 
Ms Kerrie Stevens - (College Librarian, Harvest Bible College); 
Journal Manager, Layout Editor.  
 
 
 
Dr Astrid Staley - (Adjunct faculty, Harvest Bible College); Section 
Editor for Pastoral Reflections and Student Articles, Layout Editor. 
 
 
 
Rev Dr Clayton Coombs - (Academic Dean, Planetshakers College); 
Book Review Editor. 
 
 
The Journal of Contemporary Ministry will act as a place for reporting research and 
discussing issues related to contemporary ministry, including related theological and 
biblical questions. 
Its goals are to:                 
o Stimulate informed discussion regarding issues faced by contemporary Christian 
churches and ministries worldwide; 
o Encourage research, including empirical research, into diverse forms and 
contexts of contemporary ministry and the practical, theological and biblical 
issues that arise from ministry practice; 
o Enable students and graduates in postgraduate Ministry programs to speak to a 
wider audience; 
o Build the credibility of Ministry as a field of study and research. 
 
 
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The Journal of Contemporary Ministry will provide a specific forum for Harvest 
Bible College research students and faculty, and other interested people, to publish the 
results of their research. 
It will also provide a potential publishing venue for paper presenters at Harvest’s 
annual research conference. 
The Journal of Contemporary Ministry will contain these kinds of material: 
o Peer-reviewed articles based on scholarly research (empirical or theological) 
into diverse forms and contexts of contemporary ministry, and the practical, 
theological and biblical issues that arise from ministry practice; 
o Pastoral reflections and articles that contribute viewpoints, based on personal 
experience or theological reflection, on contemporary ministry issues. These may 
be responses to articles from the Journal; 
o Book reviews and/or notes of new publications related to contemporary 
ministry; 
o Articles contributed by postgraduate students, which would also be refereed but 
may not come up to the level required in the first category; 
o A list of recent doctoral research theses completed on contemporary ministry 
relevant to this journal’s focus. 
The material we invite covers such topics as: 
o Results of empirical research into aspects of contemporary Christian ministry, 
e.g. youth ministry, children’s ministry, pastoral counselling, pastoral leadership, 
intercultural ministry; 
o Theological and biblical reflection on issues that have arisen from the practices 
of contemporary Christian churches and ministries, e.g. manifestations of the 
Spirit, worship styles, leadership culture, interfaith matters, political and social 
engagement, etc; 
o Underlying theological questions that lie behind Christian ministry issues, e.g. the 
role of women’s ministry in local churches, ethnic identity, ordination, 
apostleship; 
o Proposals for new expressions or forms of Christian ministry based on social 
analysis, e.g. how to reach specific sub-cultures. 
The Journal of Contemporary Ministry is indexed in Informit's Humanities & Social 
Sciences Collection database. 
 
For further information, please visit the journal website 
www.journalofcontemporaryministry.com  


About This Journal

Coombs, Clayton

Book Reviews

Warner, Richard

 
ISSN 2205-0442                                                                                JCMin Number 3 (2017) 
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Reflecting on 40 years of Christian Ministry   
Ps Richard Warner  
M.Th(Remah); BMin(UMAN)  
Contact: richard@lighthouse.org.au  
 
Richard Warner and Pauline have been married for 48 years. They herald from the 
UK having immigrated to Australia at the call of God in 1969. From the outset they 
have unstintingly served God and the Church of Jesus Christ. Their journey includes 
Western Australia, New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and for the last 36 
years, Victoria. The blessing of God has certainly been on their ministry having seen 
growth and fruitfulness in every situation they have found themselves. Their story 
is breathtaking, and yet surprisingly, they are not showing signs of slowing down. 
Richard here gives us a few snapshots of their journey revealing some precious 
jewels of leadership and spiritual growth to boot. These reflections are like Richard 
himself, dynamic, focused, exciting and inspirational. Read on and be blessed! 
 
I have three immediate reflections as I look back over the last 40 years. First, 
that the grace of God has been super-abundant upon me; second, that I am most 
unworthy, unlikely and undeserving; and finally, that I have failed Jesus so much, 
yet despite this, He has used me. You may not want to read any further as these 
preludes, may preclude any incentive to discover anything worthwhile. But 
maybe I’ll add a couple more things of interest 
At the age of 4-5 years, I was a beggar-boy in the slums of Birmingham UK, 
then dumped into an orphanage for eleven years wondering who I was, and what 
life was about. A brief relationship at the end of WW 2 between a cognitively 
impaired woman and a whimsical man (who worked little), produced me! There 
began a journey not unlike Saroo in the “Lion” movie, but my plight was sadder 
in many respects.  
 
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The feeling of mental (and general) inferiority plagued me throughout my 
school years and beyond. But God used this to put a ‘vulnerability’ to Him in my 
heart, when at age 18-19 years in a little Gospel Mission in Birmingham led by 
the late Pastor Jo Griffiths, I surrendered my life to Christ, and became a brand 
new creation (2Cor. 5:17). Such was my transformation, I found a true Father, 
Friend, and family in God, Jesus and His Church, I discovered my true identity, no 
longer an orphan, lost, hopeless and without purpose. I picked up a guitar and 
taught myself to play as I worshipped, composing many songs in those first few 
months. I devoured the scriptures, began to witness, preach, serve, and do 
whatever I could as a young firebrand for Jesus.  
I never dreamed, or had any ambition to be a ‘pastor’. I was so happy serving 
in any capacity I could amongst children, youth, platform, music, and eventually 
on the church board of elders. I had masses of ‘unredeemed residual’ in me that 
involuntarily manifested in many embarrassing moments; temper, 
discouragement, foolish talk, prideful motives, lust, inferiority, and even 
rebellion. But God was gracious and merciful, leading me out of these 
strongholds by His love and power. I never asked for a ministry or position (and 
I’ve never since), but God gave me an abundance of opportunities to serve Him, 
and I learned quickly that ‘Promotion comes from the Lord’ (Ps. 75:6). 
God miraculously led me to my wonderful wife Pauline, and called us to serve 
in Australia, at first helping to pioneer the Armadale Assembly of God in Western 
Australia, then leading the WA State Youth Alive. Then, after an invasion of His 
Spirit in my life, He led me to train formally for ministry at Commonwealth Bible 
College in Katoomba, New South Wales. All of these episodes were filled with 
miracles of His grace!  
We were invited to Townsville Queensland, to assist the late David Cartledge 
(what a man!), then a brief period of itinerant ministry followed before taking on 
the struggling work at Devonport, Tasmania. In all of these ventures we saw the 
gracious hand of God in blessing and increase. I was privileged to consider three 
invitations to pastorates around the country before accepting the unrelenting 
one from Pastor Ken Magrath at Springvale, Victoria. Again, we witnessed 
phenomenal growth and blessing in those ‘heady eighties’;  planting churches, 
sending out missionaries, buying a ten-acre site  for our new church building and 
school, Lighthouse Christian College.  
Today, 36 years later, our 10 acres of land is full of school and ministry 
buildings. We have planted seven churches (some of which have their own 
daughter churches), sent out over 100 full-time workers for the Gospel, three 
more schools with three more underway, reaching thousands of young people 
with 30+ hours per week of continuous discipling for Jesus. It’s been quite a ride! 
God has seen fit to use a ‘Mr. Nobody’ and make him a ‘somebody’ for Him. But 
I’ve picked up some things on the way. Here are a few things I’ve learned since I 
thought I knew it all! 
1. Don’t Overwork - overflow!  
I don’t like working for God. I only want to work WITH Him! He came as a 
babe – Immanuel, meaning God with us. He said “Take my yoke upon you and learn 
from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” 
 
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(Mtt. 11:29). Recent statistics for Pastoral Ministry ‘burn-out’ and the like are 
horrendous and regretful. The following is a sampling of those provided by 
Expastors.com: 
o 90% of pastors are overworked; 
o 70% of pastors feel underpaid; 
o 90% feel unprepared; 
o 70% struggle with depression and discouragement; 
o 80% believe pastoral ministry has negatively affected their families; 
o 70% do not have someone they consider a close friend; 
o 50% of the ministers starting out will not last 5 years; and  
o Only 10% of ministers will actually retire as a minister in some form. 
These staggering figures suggest that Pastors are an endangered species. 
They certainly contradict the Gospel we are supposedly espousing. The yoke is 
heavy and there ain’t no rest for my soul? 
I have learned that unless God empowers us: we are not going anywhere (Ex. 
33:15); our labour is in vain (Ps. 127:1); we can do nothing (Jon. 15:5); and we 
are heading for a breakdown! I am besotted with Paul’s consoling words: 
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power 
is from God and not from us” (2Cor. 4:7); and 
“I worked harder than all of them… yet not I, but the grace of God that was 
with me” (1Cor. 15:10). 
In other words, don’t overwork – overflow! 
2. Give God Something to work with 
If it wasn’t for God supernaturally intersecting my life (and probably yours), 
then I wouldn’t be here today, certainly not on the Lord’s side. As the young 
Christian matures and ascends into leadership, a strange deceptive declension 
unfolds: 
o We preach against backsliding, yet we drift away from our moorings 
(Heb.2:1); 
o We begin in the Spirit, but end up in the flesh (Gal. 3:3); 
o We begin with ‘foolish’ and sometimes reckless abandonment, then end 
up with caution and prudence, under the guise of wisdom (1Cor. 1:21); 
o We begin with the adventure of vision, and end up with the skills of 
administration and legal compliance (Prov. 29:11); and 
o We begin with supernatural practice, and ‘drift’ into theological theory 
(Heb. 2:1). 
o Etc. etc. etc.… 
Why and how does this ‘drift’ take place? I have learned just this one thing: 
Religion Replaces Relationship 
o Religion knows about God, relationship knows God; 
o Religion works for God, relationship works with God; 
o Religion produces performance – relationship produces works of love; 
o Religion overworks, relationship overflows; 
o Religion is self-driven, relationship is God-driven; 
 
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o Religion dries you up on the inside, relationship fires you up on the inside; 
and 
o Religion leaves you condemned, relationship leaves you restored;  
o Etc. etc. etc.…  
As a Pentecostal pastor, I have a special responsibility to stay ‘alive in the 
Spirit’. To do this I must live the sort of life that the Spirit can indwell. The Spirit 
life is unpredictable, supernatural, holy, vision-filled, creative, bringing order to 
chaos, seeing as God sees, prayerful, and often contradictory to natural modus 
operandi. If one lives a life that is only filled with good business practice, well-
proven strategic planning, comprehensive risk-management policies, best 
proven leadership principles, the most lucrative marketing policies, and the 
latest sales techniques that will guarantee your targets for the month, you will 
die a slow death by disappointment and burn-out! The checkpoint to avoid such 
a tragedy is ‘Giving God something to work with’. 
What are you doing that, if God wasn’t with you, you are sure to fail? Pastors 
especially need to come back to the life of faith. God wants to work WITH you, 
but can’t if you’ve got it all tied up tuned up and wrapped up. You’re simply doing 
God’s work with worldly methods and as good as they are, they are no match for 
the mighty strategies that God provides, to pull down strongholds, invade hearts, 
change nations, and prepare us for eternal glory. 
The life of faith (spelt R.I.S.K.), is the only life that pleases God, attracts God 
and guarantees the results of God. Supernatural signs are God’s natural pleasure. 
Such a lifestyle enthuses, empowers, and encourages.  Great deterrents to burn 
out! 
3. Keep Short Accounts 
Yes, I know what it’s like to be offended and discouraged. I keep up with the 
national average; I have an offensive encounter about once every month and 
occasionally have a ‘mini-depression’ attack. I have to admit that I have had two 
occasions when I was thinking of giving it away. However, such hardships 
produced two things; firstly, they drew me closer to God – humility, surrender, 
purification etc... and secondly, they forced me to draw on great mentor 
relationships that I had already developed. 
These two actions were used by God to pull me through. He’s always 
vindicated me and lifted me out of the miry clay. I note that Jesus was insulted, 
misrepresented, let down, despised, etc. and he is ‘touched with feeling of my 
infirmities’ (Heb. 4:15). How consoling! 
There are four things that I cannot do if I hold malice and bitterness: 
1) I cannot partake of the Lord’s supper (1Cor. 11:28-32); 
2) I cannot be forgiven (Mk. 11:25); 
3) I cannot pray (Mtt. 5:23); and 
4) I cannot sleep at night (Eph. 4:16). 
Forgiveness is my God-given privilege. If I don’t forgive, I’m usurping God’s 
authority. He’s the only judge. I’d prefer a good night’s sleep!  
Conflict contains treasures; if you are humble enough to discover them.  
 
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o It challenges your views and reveals your need to improve; 
o It tests your EQ and enables it to be strengthened; 
o It gives you opportunity to draw on God’s incredible grace; 
o It tests your faith, and hones your sense of calling and identity; 
o It strengthens your resolve, to go on, endure and win; and 
o It intensifies your love for God, His work, and others. 
The last thing to do in conflict is to get bitter and unforgiving. Every conflict 
is a catalyst for either depression and darkness or growth and victory. Keep 
short accounts, and live long! 
These three keys - Don’t Overwork – Overflow, Give God Something to 
Work With, and Keep Short Accounts, are just three of so many that I have 
found not only keeping me in the 10% of pastors who will retire as a pastor, but 
more importantly, kept me fresh, relevant, and fruitful for Him. I have proved His 
word so true: 
“I have been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous 
forsaken, Nor his descendants begging bread” (Ps. 37:25); 
“The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of 
Lebanon; planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our 
God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green” (Ps. 
93:12-14); and 
“…to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead 
of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be 
called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his 
splendour” (Is. 61:3). 
 
I started life begging bread, useless, with poor longevity; I am finishing 
prosperous, fruitful and abounding in His grace. 
To God be all the glory! 
 
  
 
 
 


Reflecting on 40 Years of Christian Ministry

Newton, Jon K.

 
 
ISSN 2205-0442                                                                                                JCMin Number 3 (2017) 
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Editorial 
 
Focusing our Efforts  
A few weeks ago, I read an opinion piece about Contemporary Christian Music by 
Jonathan Aigner (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/ponderanew/2017/04/28/reasons-
dont-listen-christian-music-entertainment). The author was highly dismissive of 
contemporary Christian music as not even really contemporary, let alone Christian or 
theologically valid. It is “mostly unremarkable garbage”, he wrote. I was interested in 
the reasons he advanced for giving up on listening to CCM for entertainment: it’s a poor 
derivative of mainstream pop music, Christians should engage positively with secular 
culture rather than withdrawing into a kind of Christian ghetto (my phrase, not his), 
buying CCM increases its unhealthy presence and influence in church worship and “it 
perpetuates lame, bogus, or just bad theology”. Instead, Aigner urges Christians to listen 
to classical music, other pop music or just no music at all (we don’t need to constantly 
fill our heads with music just because it’s there). 
He has some legitimate points, though I think he probably overstates the case. 
However, whatever you think of Aigner’s piece, or the so-called “worship warfare” 
debate that particular engages a lot of American Christians; it raises some broader 
issues related to contemporary Christian ministry, the focus of this journal. In 
particular, how much should contemporary ministry (which for this journal is not a 
“style” of ministry but just ministry of today) be influenced by trends in society at large? 
It’s not a new issue and ministers tend to oscillate between some form of “spiritual 
purity” and some kind of contextualisation as we try to engage people “outside” the 
church world with the gospel. One of the articles in Issue 1 of this journal was critical of 
the use of visual technology in contemporary church worship. However, if the church 
only sings eighteenth century hymns to a pipe organ accompaniment, reads from the 
King James Version and preaches pure biblical exposition to a congregation dressed in 
their “Sunday best” and sitting in pews, it is danger of dying from lack of engagement 
with a rapidly changing (western) world. On the other hand, if churches are fully 
“contemporary” in the sense of “smoke machines”, loud music, casual dress, smart 
professional presentation, catchy mini-sermons and the like, they may have nothing 
significant to say to a culture that’s becoming more and more distant from its Christian 
roots.  
 
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The question I want to raise is, how much actual empirical research has been done 
on such dilemmas? Do we actually know whether contemporary styles of church attract, 
keep or alienate young people, or indeed anyone? Both sides of such debates are in 
danger of parading their own preferences, anecdotes or experiences as evidence. And 
even the Bible doesn’t give us precise answers to these questions. 
The purpose of a journal like this is to provide a place for scholars and ministers to 
discuss contemporary ministry and all the issues and questions that impact on that (like 
the points above) in a way that draws on good research and scholarship. The problem is 
that there are so many issues that can be discussed and this is reflected in the range of 
topics that postgraduate students at Harvest Bible College choose to do research 
projects on as well as the topics of articles submitted to this journal and the papers 
presented at our annual research conference. When a potential Doctor of Ministry 
student contacts me, one of my first questions is (obviously), “What do you want to do 
research about?” As it is a DMin program, I automatically reject topics that are purely 
theological or biblical in nature, as there are better programs that suit such areas of 
investigation. But even within that category of ministry, there is such a broad range of 
possibilities. DMin students at Harvest are investigating such topics as pastoral care of 
same-sex-attracted people, sacred space, hearing from God, GenY and the church, 
overseas aid by local faith organisations, relationships between Christians and Jews, 
Pentecostal churches and people with long-term problems, speaking in tongues, inner 
healing, local churches and social welfare, integration of Asian migrants into Australian 
churches - and so on.  
For this reason, and to stop our resources being stretched too thin (always a danger 
with any postgraduate program), at Harvest we have chosen five research domains to 
focus on, based partly on the research interests of our five leading academics: 
1. Leadership in Local Churches and Society led by Dr Albert Haddad, Chief 
Academic Officer at Harvest, whose doctoral research was about leadership and 
change. He is the author of Arise to Lead: 5 Fundamentals to Becoming an Effective 
Leader (High Bridge Books, 2015). 
2. Ministry and Society, led by Dr Philip Hughes, Chief Supervisor at Harvest, 
author of many books and articles in his former role at Christian Research 
Association. 
3. Intercultural Ministry and Global Christianity led by Dr Ian Grant, Vice-
President Emeritus at Harvest and a leading Pentecostal missiologist. His 
doctoral research was about leadership in a cross-cultural context, specifically in 
Papua New Guinea. 
4. Wellbeing and Ministry led by Dr Nigel Pegram, Postgraduate Fellow at 
Harvest. Nigel’s doctoral research was about the role of emotional intelligence in 
the prevention of ministry burnout. He is co-author of Ministry Life Skills 
Foundations: Key Lessons in Leadership and Discipleship (Ministry Life Skills 
Centre, 2010, with Roger Tan). 
5. Issues in Pentecostal Ministry and Local Churches led by Dr Jon Newton, 
Dean of Postgraduate Studies and Research at Harvest, Editor of this journal and 
author of The Revelation Worldview: Apocalyptic Thinking in a Postmodern World 
(Wipf & Stock, 2015). Jon’s research interests include Revelation, Christian 
worldview and Australian Pentecostalism. 
 
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These are still very broad categories but we hope they will help Harvest and its 
associated entities, including this journal, to focus its research efforts. In the future, we 
may decide to present themed issues of the journal focusing on each of these domains, 
or at least to classify articles under these five headings. 
Let me introduce our authors for this issue and their articles. 
We start with a new feature: the keynote addresses at last year’s Harvest Research 
Conference. Our keynote speaker in 2016 was Rev. Professor Mark Cartledge, who 
serves as Professor of Practical Theology at Regent University in Virginia, USA. He has 
been a minister in the Church of England (UK) for over twenty-five years and has 
worked in parish ministry, overseas theological education in an Anglican seminary in 
Nigeria as well as campus ministry in the UK (Universities of Liverpool and Durham). He 
has taught in seminary (Durham) and secular University departments (Lampeter and 
Birmingham) over the last sixteen years. He is the author of several books, including 
most recently The Mediation of the Spirit (Eerdmans Publishing, 2015), which our 
journal reviewed in 2016 (Issue 2). In his addresses, he spoke to the conference theme 
“Can theology be practical?” In the first address, Cartledge discussed theory, practice, 
wisdom, spirituality and context, exploring the whole concept of “practical theology”. 
His second address was entitled “A Reflection on Renewal Methodology and the Practice 
of Research”. Here he seeks to show a renewal (i.e. Pentecostal-charismatic) perspective 
can contribute to practical theology and empirical research on the church and its 
mission for the benefit of church, academy and society. These addresses are academic in 
nature, but they underpin the kind of research that the conference and this journal wish 
to promote. 
The next section of the journal consists of four peer-reviewed articles.  
Rev. Dr Philip Hughes is the Chief Supervisor at Harvest Bible College and one of 
the most experienced researchers on Australian Christianity during his long tenure as 
chief researcher for the Christian Research Association. He has a string of publications 
to his name. In this article, “Theology and Social Sciences in Ministry Research”, he picks 
up the debate about how much Christian researchers should draw on the methods and 
findings of the social sciences. He particularly discusses an empirical research project 
about youth ministry of local churches in Australia today. Since reaching youth is a 
central concern of contemporary ministers, this article has some important conclusions. 
Professor Bruce Stevens holds the Wicking Chair of Ageing and Practical Theology 
at Charles Sturt University, Canberra (funded by the J. O. and J. N. Wicking Trust) and 
author of Crossfire! How to Survive Giving Expert Evidence as a Psychologist (Australian 
Academic Press, 2008), and Happy ever after?: A Practical Guide to Relationship 
Counselling for Clinical Psychologists (Australian Academic Press, 2011, with Dr Malise 
Arnstein). His article is entitled “Spiritual Learning: A Case Study in Entitlement”. In this 
article, Stevens explores the sense of entitlement people often have as a factor in how 
people fail to learn and grow spiritually. This article provides a different perspective for 
the contemporary Christian minister seeking to build emotional and spiritual health in 
themselves and those they serve. 
Dr Nigel Pegram is a Postgraduate Research Fellow at Harvest Bible College. In his 
article “Appreciative Inquiry - A Strategy for Being a Healthy Church”, he explores how 
Appreciative Inquiry, a strategy originally developed in the business world as a change-
management strategy, can help local churches renew themselves by tapping into what 
God is already doing in their midst. Pastors of local churches, especially those who may 
 
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feel their church is somehow “stuck”, will find some stimulating ideas here that have 
been used successfully in other local churches. 
Dr Lewis McMaster is the senior pastor of Emmanuel Christian Outreach in South 
Australia. Together with a mixed gender leadership team he pioneered the development 
of two churches and two Christian Schools in rural South Australia and completed 
doctoral studies on women and church leadership in the Australian church. Dr Juhani 
Tuovinen is an Associate Professor at the Australian Institute of Business, Senior 
Research Fellow at the Global Centre for Work-Applied Learning and a freelance 
Education and Research Consultant. In their article, entitled, “Gender and Leadership 
Issues in the Australian Church: Leadership Effectiveness - Men Versus Women”, they 
draw on the National Church Life Survey from 2006 to discuss the comparative 
effectiveness of male and female church leaders. Their analysis of this research and 
other research on gender and leadership explores new dimensions of these issues. 
Our pastoral reflection for this issue comes from a pastor who is presently 
completing a term of thirty-seven years at the same church, Lighthouse Christian 
Church in Keysborough, a suburb of Melbourne. Pastor Richard Warner was born in 
the UK but migrated to Australia in pursuit of God’s call on his life. Since Richard and his 
wife, Pauline, accepted the call to what was then Springvale Assembly of God, 
Lighthouse Church has been a significant participant in the Pentecostal world in 
Melbourne, spawning a number of church plants and a multi-campus Christian school 
among other achievements. He reflects on some of the lessons he has learned in 
ministry over the long period. 
Our outstanding student paper for this issue has been written by a member of our 
Doctor of Ministry cohort, Christopher Cat. Christopher lives in Sydney and attends 
Life Church in Parramatta. The original version of this essay was written as part of a 
DMin course unit in “Theology, Hermeneutics and Research”. Christopher is researching 
how Pentecostal theology and pastoral care operate with people experiencing long-term 
suffering. In this essay, he explores four major Pentecostal writers, representing two 
different approaches to the issue of health and sickness, a key issue for Pentecostal and 
charismatic ministers. 
Two important resources for readers and students in the area of contemporary 
ministry are the book reviews and lists of relevant theses from around the globe. 
Reading these sections of our journal will help you keep abreast of developments in this 
and related fields of enquiry. 
I commend all the contents of this issue to you as discerning readers and 
adventurous, enquiring ministers. 
In closing, I also want to thank my editorial team - Kerrie Stevens, Astrid Staley and 
Clayton Coombs - for all their effort in making Issue 3 happen. 
 
 
(Dr) Jon K. Newton 
Editor 


Editorial

Cartledge, Mark J.

Can Theology Be Practical? Part II: A reflection on renewal methodology and the practice of research

Stevens, Bruce A.

Spiritual Knowing: a case study in entitlement

Staley, Astrid

The Phenomenon of Disenfranchised Grief Experienced by Those Bereaved by Suicide: A Contemporary Pastoral Response

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