Rod and Sue (slightly pregnant) with Mr Sanders in 1983 on one of the occasions he                                                   visited our home in Melbourne.

My first appointment in full time ministry in 1980 was at Blackburn Baptist Church in Melbourne.  It was the largest Baptist Church in Australia and I was given charge over the children’s, youth and young adult ministry, quite a challenge.

Even at this stage of my life, I had begun to develop the philosophy, ‘to grow the ministry, focus on growing leaders’.  Consequently I searched for two key books on leadership and on making disciples that each leader would be required to study.  My two books were ‘The Master …

                          Rod with Ray Stedman & his associate pastor Ron Ritchie
                                                    Palo Alto, California 1982 

In the early 1970s, I heard of a visit to Adelaide by Pastor Ray Stedman from Palo Alto in California. He had recently written a book called Body Life, described as “the ground breaking book that inspired a return to the principles of the New Testament Church.”   I was hungry for reality and went to hear him speak and came away deeply stirred as he spoke of his journey to restore the church’s real meaning and mission.

I was not disappointed. So much so that I went back to the church where I was worshipping and …

I will never forget the amazing initiative John Maxwell took soon after he began his ministry; an initiative that would impact my life of leadership development in a profound way.

Early in his ministry, John Maxwell took time to write down the names and addresses of one hundred of America’s best leaders so that if he would be travelling to their city, he would try and make contact with them. His strategy was to request a luncheon meeting of one hour with the leader/s so that he might ask them to give feedback to his ten top leadership questions. At the end of the hour, he would thank the …