Dear Jon Mark,
I have been thinking about our conversation regarding your desire to take your church to the next level and the matter of developing a leadership culture in your church. You are right in connecting these two issues, a fact that is usually overlooked, but is now more and more proving to be a matter of vital concern. I happen to agree with John Maxwell who said “that it all rises and falls on leadership.”

Some years ago Rick Warren studied a large number of successful churches from a variety of denominations and found one consistent characteristic that was common to them all; it was leadership. Sam …

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 …