Category: church ministry

Ben Walker is minister of Saintfield Road Presbyterian Church in South Belfast. He joins me in this episode to talk about some of the ways he and the church have been adapting their ministry during the pandemic.

There are some interesting ideas on preaching, plus, this challenging statement:

Don’t just do something, sit there!

My guest on today’s episode of the podcast is Simon Genoe: Simon is rector of Magheralin and Dollingstown Parish Church, between Moira and Lurgan. Like my ancestors, he’s from County Monaghan and worked in Lisburn Cathedral before taking up his current post. As well as serving in parish ministry, Simon is one of the leaders of New Wine Ireland.

Remember that you can can catch up with previous episodes on this blog or by visiting the podcast on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, where you can subscribe for future episodes.

This week continues the series of podcasts talking about ministry in the context of the pandemic. Today’s is Stevie Walls. Stevie is deputy head in a Belfast primary school and is an elder in Castlereagh Gospel Hall, on the edge of East Belfast.

Remember that you can can catch up with previous episodes on this blog or by visiting the podcast on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, where you can subscribe for future episodes.

My guest on this episode of the podcast is Ken Clarke. Ken is a well known and highly respected leader who has served the Church in various roles for several decades.

The focus of our conversation is a little different from other podcasts in this series that have focussed on what’s happening across a number of specific churches. Here, Ken talks about some of his reflections during this current season.

He reflects on the significance of the Easter story (‘finished work’), the opportunities for wider outreach (‘unfinished task’), and the challenge of ‘finishing well’ (a favourite theme for a man who prefers to talk about retirement than retirement.

God willing the podcast returns next week when my guests are Stevie Walls (Tuesday’s episode), and Simon Genoe (Thursday’s episode).

Today my guest on the podcast is Lesley-Ann Wilson. Lesley-Ann is minister of Ballycrochan Presbyterian Church in Bangor.

As well as having the same surname, we also trace our roots back to the same great-grandfather from Glaslough, County Monaghan.

In this conversation Lesley-Ann talks about the challenges of ‘technology fatigue’ and challenges leaders to leave space to discern where God is working and where they need to join his work.

It’s humbling that we have to put away our strategies and our agendas and take a clean sheet of paper and say, ‘OK, God, it’s over to you: what is it that we need to be doing in order to reach people with the good news of Jesus?’

God willing, you can look forward to two more episodes of the podcast next week. On Tuesday my guest will be Stevie Walls, an elder in Castlereagh Gospel Hall, and on Thursday it will be Simon Genoe, rector of the Church of Ireland parish of Magheralin and Dollingstown.

Remember that you can can catch up with previous episodes on this blog or by visiting the podcast on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, where you can subscribe for future episodes.

This is the fourth in a series of conversations with a number of church leaders around the subject of ministry and the current global pandemic.

In this episode I’m talking with James Petticrew, pastor of Westlake Church in Nyon, Switzerland (the church which I pastored for 17 years).

The plan is to post a couple of these conversations each week (Tuesdays and Thursdays). You can catch up with previous episodes on this blog or by subscribing to the podcast via Apple Podcasts or on Spotify.

On Thursday the guest will be Lesley-Ann Wilson from Ballycrochan Presbyterian Church in Bangor.

In the second part of the series of conversations on church ministry in the context of the global pandemic, my guest is Phil Emerson: Phil is lead pastor of Emmanuel Church in Lurgan.

If you would like to hear more about Phil’s story and the story of Emmanuel Church, he was a guest on the podcast about a year and a half ago and you can access the conversation here. If you’d like to catch Phil’s morning devotionals, here is the link to the Facebook page.

The plan is to post a couple of these conversations each week (on Tuesdays and Thursdays): the guest on Thursday will be Andrew Roycroft, pastor of Millisle Baptist.

Over the next few weeks the podcast will host several conversations with local church leaders that will explore some of the ways their ministry has had to adapt owing to the current pandemic. There will be contributions from a range of leaders from a number of different church backgrounds. As well as reflecting on some of what they are having to do differently, the leaders will also have the opportunity to talk a little about what might change in the new normal.

Getting the series underway is Jonny Pollock. Jonny – from Belfast – is a church planter working with Calvary Church in Loughrea, County Galway. Feel free to contact Jonny via Twitter (⁦@jonnypollock) if you would be interested in exploring some resources that help in taking church online, or find out more about Calvary Church from their website (https://www.calvarychurchloughrea.com).

The plan is that the podcast episodes will go online on Tuesdays and Thursdays: future guests include Phil Emerson and Andrew Roycroft. It’s possible to subscribe to the podcasts, including via Spotify or Apple Podcasts.