Workshop speakers
Ecosystem Workshops

Belongs in Community
Speakers: Tim Clemens – Senior Pastor @ Grace City Church
& Tony Payne – Ministry Trainer and Writer-in-residence at Campus Bible Study (UNSW).
Workshop Description: Belonging in community’ is about more than newcomer integration and membership processes (although not less). In this seminar, we’ll look at the theological foundations of Christian community, and explore the practical implications of this not just for newcomers and new members, but for the ongoing life of our church communities.
About Tim Clemens
Tim led the team that planted Grace City Church in Waterloo, an inner city suburb of Sydney, in 2015. Tim is married to Emma and they have two young children, Brooke and Tyler.
About Tony Payne
Tony Payne has worked in Christian ministry, focusing on writing and publishing, for over 35 years. He is the author of many books, Bible studies and other resources, including The Trellis and the Vine, The Course of Your Life, and Learn the Gospel (forthcoming). With his wife Ali, he has five children and eight grandchildren.

Loving God
Speaker: Charles Cleworth – Director of Magnification @ Grace City Church
Trevor Hodge – Magnification Pastor @ EV Church
Andrew Heard – Senior Pastor @ EV Church
Workshop Description:To reach Australia for Christ, it will not be enough to have churches who just intellectually understand the Gospel. We will need churches whose love for God is uncontainable – that overflows in joy filled gatherings, compelling witness and humble service. But without deliberate care and attention, this aspect, or purpose, of our church’s life can easily grow cold. With Andrew Heard (EV Church) we will develop an understanding of the purpose area of loving God, its critical contributions to the church ecosystem, and discuss how to nurture healthy growth in our church and leadership teams. Then we will press into the practicalities of leading and developing this ministry area in churches of all different sizes and contexts with Charles Cleworth (Grace City Church).
About Charles Cleworth
Charles is married to Ash and they have three children—two girls and a son who’s with the Lord. He’s a graduate of Moore Theological College and was part of the team that planted Grace City Church in 2014. He’s an all or nothing kind of guy, which applies not only to his deep desire to see people won for the gospel and churches planted, but also to his love for swimming, cycling, coffee, books, music, and—occasionally—running.
About Trevor Hodge
Trevor has been involved and invested in corporate worship and music ministry for almost 25 years - including church leadership, theological study, training and songwriting. He leads the Magnification team at EV Church, Erina, and is a part of the Magnify network, which seeks to help churches across Australia nurture means and moments to make much of God. Trevor is married to Fiona - they have two boys in primary school and a 10mth old groodle who everyone acknowledges is the real boss of the family.
About Andrew Heard
Andrew has been involved in Christian ministry for over 25 years. In 1996, together with his wife Cathie established a new church on the Central Coast of NSW called Central Coast Evangelical Church (now EV Church). In 2005 he was elected the founding President of a new association of churches called the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches. This association contains churches in most states of Australia with more being added each year. In 2009 he became a founding director of Geneva Push. He is married to Cathie and they have 4 grown children.

On Mission
Speakers: Dave Roberston – Mission Pastor @ Hunter Bible Church
Josh Allen – Lead Pastor @ Laneway Church
Workshop Description: We all want our church to be ‘on mission’. But how exactly do we go about that? In this session we’ll begin to think about what it might look like for your church to keep being a part of Jesus’ great work in seeking and saving the lost. We’ll cover topics such as developing key mission outcomes, mobilising the flock for mission on a local and global scale, and building intentional pathways for people to become Christians.
About Dave Robertson
Dave and his wife Katie live in Newcastle and have been married for 9 years. He has been working in Mission at Hunter Bible Church for the past 8 years.
About Josh Allen
Josh and his wife Sarah met at university in Newcastle, where Josh studied and worked as a physiotherapist. Josh did an MTS apprenticeship with Hunter Bible Church and then completed a Bachelor of Divinity at Moore Theological College, before planting Laneway Church in 2016 in partnership with the Geneva Push and FIEC.


Deep in the Word
Speakers: Jon Kwan – Lead Pastor @ St David’s Forestville
Kareena Seifert – EV Church pastoral @ EV Church team
Dev Blair – Maturity Pastor @ Coast Evangelical Church
Ben Broadfoot – Maturity Pastor @ EV Church
Workshop Description: Getting your Church Deep in the Word. God grows his church by his word, so how can we as pastors lead our churches deeper and deeper into knowing God through the scriptures? Which areas of church are critical for leading a whole church in this direction? What role should Bible study groups play? Where can we find leaders to make it all happen?”
About Jon Kwan
About Kareena Seifert
Kareena has attended and served at EV Church for approximately 25 years. She has spent most of those years serving in the maturity and ministry purpose teams in a volunteer capacity - moving from being part time to a full time volunteer and onto the EV staff team. Much of her time has been spent discipling and pastoring women of all ages through Word, prayer and community, and more broadly through the area of service among EV’s morning congregations. Some of her current formal roles include co-overseeing a network of 16 women’s small groups and representing the ministry area for the morning services. Kareena is married to Dave, has two grown and married children and three grandchildren (so far).
About Dev Blair
Before moving to Forster, Dev worked in Christian camping ministry for 10 years focusing on leadership development, discipleship pipelines and team dynamics. He then completed his Bachelor of Theology at SMBC. He oversees Coast EC's purpose area of Maturity where he is responsible for looking after their small group community, leader development and runs their GAP Year and Ministry Apprenticeship programs.
About Ben Broadfoot
Ben became a Christian at Newcastle Uni in 2006 when an MTS apprentice explained the Gospel to him using Two Ways to Live. Ben and his wife Katie have three kids. Ben's been a member of the Maturity team at EV since 2016.
Serve Workshops

Rosters to teams: transforming ministry across church
Speakers: Scott Curtis – Ministry Pastor @ Hunter Bible Church
Matt Lehmann – Senior Pastor @ Trinity Church, Colonel Light Gardens
Katy Annis – Ministry Leader @ Trinity Church, Colonel Light Gardens
Workshop Description: In this workshop Scott Curtis, Matt Lehman and Katy Annis will present the why the shift from rosters to teams in well worth considering. Matt and Katy will share their story of implementing teams at Trinity Church: Colonel Light Gardens. The workshop will breakdown some key principles for implementing the shift from rosters to teams. There will also be some time for interaction to help churches apply this across different contexts and sizes.
About Scott Curtis
Scott Curtis has been on the pastoral team at Hunter Bible Church in Newcastle NSW since 2016. Since then he has been involved in overseeing the Serve Area across the whole church since that time as well planting and directing the HBC:LakeMac Campus. Scott is married to Merrin and they have a five year old and two year old girls. He is passionate about evangelism and seeing the gospel be entrusted to godly men and women until Jesus returns.
About Matt Lehmann
Matt was the planting pastor at Trinity Church Colonel Light Gardens which was planted in 2013 as part of the Trinity Network of Churches in Adelaide. By God's grace Colonel Light Gardens was able to plant Trinity Church Unley in 2018 and Trinity Church Tonsley in March of this year. Matt is passionate about creating healthy teams that do great ministry together, for God's glory.
About Katy Annis
Katy is the Ministry Leader at Trinity Church Colonel Light Gardens and is passionate about encouraging and equipping teams to serve Jesus together. Working closely with teams in the transition from 'roster to teams' has been a highlight of the last few years, Katy is also passionate about helping kids to love and serve Jesus and works as the kid's ministry leader.

Build more leaders (developing people in ministry)
Speakers: Dan Ford – Maturity and Ministry Pastor @ EV Church
Workshop Description: We all know and feel the need to have more leaders in our churches. But the problem with a lack of leaders is actually a problem of leadership development. This workshop will wrestle with fostering a culture of leadership development in every area and at every layer of ministry in our churches.
About Dan Ford
Dan came to Christ as a young adult in 2008. Married to Bec, together they have 3 children, Dominic, Olivia and Joshua, and a fourth due May 2022…any day now! Dan completed a Bachelor of Music before training for ministry at EV Church, and completed the Bachelor of Divinity at Moore Theological College. He now serves in the Ministry and Maturity areas at EV and oversees their MTS program.

Recruiting at every size
Speakers: Wayne Connor – Minister @ Dubbo Presbyterian Church
Workshop Description: In this workshop we will be thinking about the place of recruiting within the serve ecosystem. What does it mean to recruit to a vision and not just to a job? What makes a good ’serve’ conversation? Who does the recruiting? What else is involved in the recruiting process to land people in a team well? What are some tools that can help? What does this look like in a small church of under 50 people with 1 minister, a medium church with a serve team, and a large church with multiple staff working in a dedicated serve area?
About Wayne Connor
Wayne is a member of the ministry team at Dubbo Presbyterian Church in regional NSW where he has been serving for almost 20 years. His responsibilities include training and teams. Wayne is married to Jill and they have 5 children, 2 still at home. For relaxation he enjoys technology and gardening.

Metrics: Measure what matters
Speakers: Peter Blanch – Director of Church Development @ Reach Australia
Tom Pattison – Resources + Consultant @ Reach Australia
Workshop Description: It’s not uncommon to feel a little wary of collecting data and using statistics in our Church setting. Perhaps we feel like we shouldn’t approach church like a business? Perhaps we have a healthy concern against pragmatics driving decisions rather than solid theology? But, metrics don’t turn a church into a business any more than measuring your heart rate turns you into a robot. And metrics never replace good theology, rather they complement it. Good theology will tell you what really matters, and then metrics can help you to determine the health of your church body in those matters. Churches can become dominated by their many activities and ministries that can assume they are healthy simply because they are so busy, or that church health is a guaranteed by-product of activity. But do you know if your church is actually healthy? What are the indicators of church health and growth?
About Peter Blanch
For the past 15 years Peter served as the Senior Pastor of Wagga Wagga Evangelical Church, however in 2022 he has started working for Reach Australia as the Director of Church Development. In this role he aims to help churches and their leaders grow in their effectiveness to reach the country for Christ.
About Tom Pattison
Tom has worked as a consultant for Reach Australia for a number of years and has already seen and helped a large number of churches to grow in ministry effectiveness. Tom also works to gather and build resources to further benefit churches, managing our podcasts and ministry grid, as well as directing the 'serve' area for Vine Church
Skills Workshops

Advanced ecosystem thinking: Using ecosystem thinking to identify blockages and opportunites
Speaker: Greg Lee – Lead Pastor @ Hunter Bible Church
Workshop Description: We hear a lot about the Ecosystem and maybe even know what it means! But how do we use Ecosystem thinking in normal church life? In this seminar we’ll look at a bunch of situations where Ecosystem thinking can be used practically to help us grow.
About Greg Lee
Greg is married to Emma and they have four kids. He has been the Senior Pastor at Hunter Bible Church (in Newcastle/ Lake Macquarie) for the past 23 years.

How to unleash 60% of your church
Speaker: Rev. Jo Gibbs
Workshop Description: 60% of the Australian church is female. As we seek to proclaim the gospel and see an increasing number of mature disciples, it is important to mobilise this 60% of the church effectively. This workshop is tailored for pastors and church teams wanting to equip and engage the women in their church, providing practical tools to be used in any ministry context.
About Jo Gibbs
After completing an MDiv at SMBC, Jo served with her family with CMS in a South Asian Muslim megacity for 11 years. Returning to Australia in 2015, she served first as the Families Minister at St John’s Beecroft before moving to St Paul’s Castle Hill as the Care and Assistant Discipleship Minister. More recently she has served as the CEO of Anglican Deaconess Ministries. Throughout her work and ministry she has focused on encouraging women for gospel ministry and is keen to see more women in our churches engaged in this important task. Jo is married to Mike and they have two kids.

Fixing the admin chaos in your church.
Speaker: Sam Jensen – Virtual Church Assist
Workshop Description: Whether you’re wanting to build (or improve) admin systems in your church, or if you’re looking to hire the right people to do so, this workshop will help you understand what’s needed and why. We’ll then provide suggestions and solutions to avoid chaotic admin and create a sense of joy and ministry-mindedness in your admin staff.
About Sam Jensen
With experience working in administrative roles in churches, as well as for both secular and christian organisations, Sam is a committed Christian who wants to help churches take care of the 'behind-the-scenes' jobs so that pastors are freed up to do their most important tasks.
Married to Dave (a pastor himself), Sam works from home where she also cares for their children. Sam started VCA to help churches and ministries flourish without the burden of disorganised and chaotic administration, as well as to help train and resource pastors and staff to increase their productivity, and subsequently their joy in the ministry/workplace. Since its inception in 2015, Sam and her team at VCA have supported over 250 churches and ministry organisations Australia-wide.

Growth Barriers
Speaker: Craig Tucker – Senior Minister @ Scots Presbyterian Church
Workshop Description: This workshop will help you think about dealing with growth barriers in church ministry and give you insights into how church size dynamics needs to change the way a churches operates and how leadership works at different sizes.
About Craig Tucker
Craig Tucker is married to Cathy and they are involved in a 4 year old church plant in the CBD of Sydney. Craig works part-time for Reach Australia in our coaching network. He is regularly voted the most easy going member of the team by the other Reach Australia staff.

What's the point of Kids Ministry?
Speaker: Sarah Blanch – Kids Church volunteer @ Salt Church
Andrew Horsfield – Children’s & Youth Ministries Pastor @ Hunter Bible Church
Workshop Description: Every human that steps through your church door needs to become, grow and mature as a disciple of Jesus, to God’s glory. And…  that includes kids! We often talk about the “ecosystem” of a church – but where do children and teens fit in? How can we apply the ecosystem to children’s ministry, and how can we include children’s ministry as part of the wider church ecosystem? What goals are we working towards and how do we recruit, train and develop the right people and find the right program to reach these goals? For many years, in different ministry settings, Andrew Horsfield and Sarah Blanch have been working to grow children and youth into mature disciples of Jesus. In this workshop they’ll provide a helpful picture of God’s goals for kids and work with you to develop some strategies to mature today’s kids and youth into fruitful followers of Jesus.Â
About Sarah Blanch
Sarah has been passionate about kids ministry ever since she was one! She loved being taken seriously as a child seeking to know Jesus - so she takes very seriously the task of discipling children and teens to discover Jesus in all of God’s word and grow in their love and knowledge of him as Saviour and Lord. Sarah has been involved in missions, SRE and kids/youth ministry in lots of different churches and settings and has written many kids talks and programs for children and youth. For the past 15 years she has been delighted to serve as the Children’s Ministry Director at Wagga Wagga Evangelical Church.
About Andrew Horsfield
Andrew has been building and equipping teams for Youth and Kids Ministry in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie since 2011. Having previously been a high school teacher he has jumped at the chance see kids and teens grow deep roots in the gospel so that God might transform generations of lives for kingdom work. In various teams there are currently over 100 leaders involved in discipling the 350+ kids and teens coming along to HBC, and others seeking to reach many more through SRE in locals primary and high schools.

Regional Evangelism: what needs changing (and what doesn't) to share Jesus in the bush
Speaker: Gary Eastment – Strengthen Consultant @ Reaching Australia
Bruce Bennett – Regional Coach/Consult @ Reach Australia
Workshop Description: Not many of us would disagree that contextualisation is important for Gospel ministry. But what does this mean for regional ministry? Assumptions and stereotypes abound, which can lead to poor strategy or even be a barrier to missional activity. Bruce and Gary have long experience in a variety of regional contexts, with plenty of fruitful (and no so fruitful!) evangelism to draw wisdom from. This seminar will cover topics such as:
- Why the regions are different (and why they’re really not)
- Why thinking about the regions means more than, ‘not the city’.
- How regional differences can nuance our ministry.
About Gary Eastment
Gary graduated from Moore College in 2002, after which he has served the Gospel in various school, university and church leadership roles in the Sydney and Armidale diocese. Before joining Reach Australia in January, he was Senior Minister at St Marks UNE in the glorious Northern Tablelands, leading a team ministry across church and campus contexts. He is married to Rebecca, proud dad to Harriet, Abby and Hamish.
About Bruce Bennett
Bruce is married to Robyn, they have four adult children and eight grand children. Bruce came to ministry from a farming background and has spent his entire ministry pastoring churches in country NSW. After leaving Moore college he worked in the Armidale Diocese and then moved to Orange to lead the ministry at Orange Evangelical Church. Bruce has been very involved in FIEC from its inception and began working with Reach Australia in 2019, particularly in regional and rural areas. In 2021 Bruce handed on the ministry reigns at OEC and began working with FIEC and RA. His time is split 50/50 between both organizations encouraging pastors in the FIEC network and working with RA, coaching and growing its reach into country Australia. Being a boy from the bush Bruce longs to see healthy and reproductive churches right across country Australia.

Gatherings for small churches
Speaker: Liv Chapman – Ministry Team Member @ Emu Music
Curtis Smith – Music & Gatherings Pastor @ The Bridge Church  Â
Workshop Description: God has given us everything we need to hear from and respond to him, but sometimes it can feel like our small churches lack what’s necessary to put together an effective and engaging church service. From less-than-ideal meeting spaces to out-of-tune singers, how do we best use the resources we have in crafting a service?
At this workshop, we’ll look at ways to overcome the practical and pastoral challenges of putting together a gathering for a small church, as well as making space for God’s people to flourish in that environment. We’ll think about how to build a service that facilitates genuine engagement with and response to God and his word, and how to motivate and train a small team, including the practicalities of music, technology, and the building/meeting space. Bring your questions and wisdom, and come along to learn together.
About Liv Chapman
Liv Chapman is part of the Emu Music team in Sydney. She recently returned from the UK where she worked as the Music Minister at St Ebbe's Church in Oxford, alongside her role at Emu. During the week, she manages and creates resources for Emu’s training events, looks after admin and communications, and writes and produces songs for Emu's albums. She is married to Jonty and they are part of the Bridge Church, Kirribilli, where he is a Student Minister.
About Curtis Smith
Curtis Smith is the Music & Gatherings Pastor at The Bridge Church in Sydney. This looks like overseeing music teams across 3 sites & 8 congregations, as well as planning and structuring the liturgy for their Sunday gatherings. Curtis is married to Jo and has two kids Sonny (4) and Hazel (2). Outside of family and ministry he loves to write songs, watch & play football (the one with your feet), & sit in cafes or breweries.