Exponential Australia Church Leaders Podcast

Exponential Australia
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Christianity

Listen to interviews with ministry leaders and church planters committed to multiplication as they share insights, stories and lessons from their real-life experiences of planting churches and making disciples.

  1. 1d ago

    Ep 127 : BRINGING YOUR FULL SELF TO THE TABLE - Lisa Pak - Exponential Australia Church Leaders Podcast

    In this episode of the Exponential Australia Church Leaders Podcast, Charlie is joined by keynote speaker Lisa Pak, a Toronto born Korean Canadian leader serving with Finishing the Task alongside Pastor Rick Warren. Lisa shares how growing up between cultures shaped her conviction that the global church needs leaders who can bring their full selves to the table, across generations, cultures, and calling. Lisa delivers a clear challenge for leaders in a digitised world: discipleship cannot be fast tracked. You cannot microwave formation, and you cannot call convenience discipleship. She unpacks why deep disciple making requires time, self awareness, and real relational investment, and why leaders must resist the illusion of engagement created by bite sized spiritual content. The conversation then turns toward the internal gauges of the Multiplier life. Lisa calls pastors and planters back to two repeatable practices that protect long term fruitfulness: prayer that brings insight and peace, and Sabbath rhythms that keep leaders humble, human, and anchored in the Holy Spirit rather than performance. She also offers a hopeful and prophetic encouragement for Australia as a multicultural Commonwealth nation uniquely positioned for global mission and collaboration.

    34 min

  2. Jun 7

    Ep 126: WHAT YOU HOLD WILL NEVER MULTIPLY: JOEL CHELLIAH ON LAUNCHING CHURCH EXPRESSIONS AND HEALTHY LEADERSHIP - Exponential Australia Church Leaders Podcast

    In this episode of the Exponential Australia Church Leaders Podcast, Charlie sits down with Pastor Joel Chelliah, National President of the Australian Christian Churches, for a wide ranging and deeply pastoral conversation as we build toward the National Gathering on the Gold Coast. Joel reflects on the shift from state leadership into a national role, and the intentional boundaries he and Sharon have had to put in place to protect rest, marriage, and family while stewarding a growing apostolic assignment. Joel’s keynote focus for this year is launching church expressions, and he names two major barriers that repeatedly hold churches back: the lack of a discipleship leadership pipeline, and fear of the cost involved in sending and planting. He reframes planting as gaining by losing, sharing how years of costly sowing have produced lasting fruit across communities, and offers a striking picture of release: what you hold will never multiply, but what you place in God’s hands always can. The conversation then moves into the heart of healthy leadership. Joel speaks candidly about the difference between genuine Kingdom ambition and ego driven striving, shares the moment God redefined success for him as a healthy home that loves Jesus, and offers practical pastoral counsel for leaders carrying stress, burnout, or unrealistic expectations. He closes with a prayer for renewed faith across the Australian church, that leaders would leave Exponential believing again that God is doing a fresh work and that it is time to do something courageous for Him.

    32 min

  3. May 24

    Ep 125: CREATING ROOM AT THE TABLE: KATHERINE CHOW ON FINDING HIDDEN LEADERS AND BUILDING A MULTIPLICATION MINDSET - Exponential Australia Church Leaders Podcast

    In this episode of the Exponential Australia Church Leaders Podcast, Charlie is joined by Katherine Chow, Associate Vicar at Holy Trinity Brompton in London, to kick off our keynote speaker series leading into the August National Gathering. Katherine shares her journey from growing up in a Chinese church where everyone served, to practising law in New York City, and how God gradually called her into church leadership through the intentional investment of others. Katherine unpacks three simple but demanding ingredients of leader development: proximity, intentionality, and continual investment. She then brings a sharp leadership lens to one of the most common questions across the Western church: where are the leaders. Her answer is both sobering and hopeful. Many faithful leaders are serving quietly in hidden places, and many others carry latent leadership that needs to be called out beyond existing structures and biases. The conversation also explores what it looks like to build diverse teams and create psychological safety, why identifying leaders requires listening for whose voice is missing, and the costly but beautiful decision by senior leaders to create room at the table for others. Katherine closes by pointing toward the deeper question beneath all leadership development: am I a disciple worth replicating, and how might the Holy Spirit empower the church for the season ahead.

    33 min

  4. May 10

    Ep 124: MAKE CHRIST GREAT AGAIN: THE FOUNDATION FOR HEALTHY MULTIPLICATION - Derwin Gray

    In this episode of the Exponential Australia Church Leaders Podcast, Charlie sits down with Dr Derwin Gray, founding pastor of Transformation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, to explore the kind of healthy multiplication that does not simply grow churches, but forms a gospel shaped people who look like the Kingdom. Derwin shares his journey from the NFL to meeting Jesus through a teammate, and how that conversion ignited a calling toward evangelism, discipleship, and ultimately church planting. Derwin then unpacks the role Exponential played in his own pre plant season, describing a pivotal moment in Orlando where prayer and courage intersected with a call to plant. He speaks candidly about what he wishes he knew before planting, including the loneliness of leadership, the need for thick skin and a tender heart, and the urgency of making the gospel central rather than leading with Christless Christianity. At the heart of the conversation is Derwin’s conviction that a multi ethnic church is not an optional ministry lane but the clear biblical trajectory from Genesis to Revelation. He shares the practices and costs of building a truly integrated multi ethnic and multi generational church, and why the hardest people to disciple in this work can often be Christians rather than unbelievers. With a clear call for Australia to lead with gospel conviction, cross cultural competency, and Christ centred courage, Derwin closes by praying for a move of God that cannot be manufactured and for churches that shine with the glory of Jesus.

    37 min

  5. Apr 26

    Ep 123: DESIGNING NEW FRONT DOORS FOR MISSION - Renée Oduko - Exponential Australia Church Leaders Podcast

    In this episode of the Exponential Australia Church Leaders Podcast, Charlie is joined by Renée Oduko, co leader of the Disciple Makers initiative, for a thoughtful and practical conversation on how churches and church planters can reach spiritually curious people who may never walk through a church door first. Renée shares her international journey through London and New York, and how those years shaped a deep conviction to build “third spaces” where community and trust can form before belief. Renée unpacks the big idea behind Disciple Makers: creating pre church pathways that help move people from online curiosity to real world connection, through simple relational environments like run clubs, socials, and Alpha launch moments. She explains why this is a slower, more human approach to mission, and how churches can mobilise people beyond Sunday teams to disciple neighbours Monday to Saturday. The conversation also explores what Renée sees in the data and in stories on the ground, including a growing openness to faith, a mistrust of institutions but not of Jesus followers, and the importance of making sure the journey feels like a genuine invitation rather than a process. With practical steps for getting started, this episode will encourage leaders to design new front doors into their community and engage the harvest with creativity, patience, and collaboration across the city. Disciple Makers website - https://disciplemakers.com.au/

    33 min

  6. Apr 12

    Ep 122: PASSING ON GOOD THINGS: THIRD SPACES, SPIRITUAL FAMILY, AND THE MARGINS - Luke Montgomery - Exponential Australia Church Leaders Podcast

    In this episode of the Exponential Australia Church Leaders Podcast, Charlie sits down with Luke “Monty” Montgomery, founder of Neighbourhood, to explore what it looks like to build Kingdom “third spaces” that reach people who may never walk into a traditional church building. Monty shares his journey from Sydney to Ipswich, his passion for low socioeconomic and multicultural communities, and why Neighbourhood exists as a network of meeting places, including a cafe, barber, and martial arts spaces, designed to bring people from all walks of life into real community. The conversation goes deep into Monty’s heart for youth justice and the work Neighbourhood is doing inside juvenile detention centres, where dozens of young people each week opt into Bible studies and mentoring, and where the greatest need is not programs but spiritual family. Monty offers a strong challenge to the Australian church to recover one of its greatest strengths, the intergenerational family of God, and to empower the innovators and pioneers already sitting in our congregations to build new front doors into their cities. For more on Neighbourhood, check out http://Nbhd.org.au and follow @our_nbhd_

    38 min

  7. Mar 29

    Ep 121: THE AGE OF MIGRATION: THE MIGRANT CHURCH & THE FUTURE OF MULTIPLICATION IN AUSTRALIA - David Ng

    In this episode of the Exponential Australia Church Leaders Podcast, Charlie is joined by David Ng for a timely conversation on migration, the changing Christian landscape, and the remarkable role of migrant churches in shaping the future of the church in Australia. David shares from his lived experience across five continents and his work with diaspora communities, helping leaders understand why we are living in an age of migration and how this is reshaping both society and the church. Together they explore the growth of immigrant churches, the intergenerational tensions that can emerge within them, and the reality many have called the silent exodus, where second generation believers quietly drift away. David offers a clear challenge to Australian leaders to move beyond assumptions and into relationships, learning from one another as the one body of Christ, and developing strategies that include migrant churches as a vital part of the mission and multiplication future. David also introduces the Thriving Immigrant Church Initiative Australia, a learning journey designed to help immigrant churches strengthen intergenerational health and grow their gospel impact beyond their own ethnic boundaries. It is a hopeful and practical conversation for denominational leaders, planters, and local pastors who want to better understand the multiplying migrant church and partner well in what God is doing across multicultural Australia.

    33 min

  8. Mar 15

    Ep 120: FROM SCARCITY TO STEWARDSHIP - Martine Wilson & Nick Wood - Exponential Australia Church Leaders Podcast

    In this episode of the Exponential Australia Church Leaders Podcast, Charlie sits down with Martine Wilson (Generosity Path) and Nick Wood (The Bridge Church, Sydney) for an honest and practical conversation about generosity, money, and the mission of God in Australia. Martine Wilson serves as Oceania Regional Director with Generosity Path, helping churches and parachurch orgs across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific grow cultures of whole-life generosity rooted in discipleship and mission. In this conversation she explores why churches often avoid talking about money, how cultural messages of scarcity shape Christians more than we realise, and why generosity must be formed at the level of the heart - not driven by guilt, pressure, or fundraising agendas.She is joined by Nick Wood, Assistant Pastor and Discipleship Director at The Bridge Church, who shares how Bridge are intentionally discipling believers in this area of faith and embedding generosity into their broader discipleship pathway, including doing the Journey of Generosity (JOG) course in their Connect Groups in 2025.Generosity Path supports pastors and church planters through resources like the Journey of Generosity course (JOG), leader coaching, and practical church stories that help form joyful, open-handed disciples. You can explore more at:• https://generositypath.org/what-is-a-jog/• https://generositypath.org/regions/oceania/ (to see testimonials from Pastors in Oceania and upcoming Zoom sessions for church leaders wanting to find out more)Preview Session 1 of the Journey of Generosity here : https://videos.generositypath.org/videos/0691d2b11f1ee4c38f/session-1

    34 min
See All (127)

About

Listen to interviews with ministry leaders and church planters committed to multiplication as they share insights, stories and lessons from their real-life experiences of planting churches and making disciples.

Information

You Might Also Like