Paul and Sue Harrington: Lessons on the way - Live from Reach Australia

05/20/25 • 40 min

This week on The Pastor’s Heart, we’re live from the Reach Australia conference at Erina on the Central Coast of New South Wales.

It’s an inspiring gathering, with 1,300 church leaders from across Australia and beyond, including New Zealand, South Africa, America, and the United Kingdom, coming together for encouragement and equipping to better Reach Australia.

Paul Harrington has led the Trinity Network of Churches in Adelaide for 33 years, guiding it from a single congregation of 800 to a thriving network of 13 churches with over 2,600 members.

Sue Harrington is a Reach Australia board member, has been deeply involved in supporting pastors’ wives, families, and women in ministry and runs a consultancy business.

Together, we discuss the lessons learned along the way, the emotional and practical challenges of planting daughter churches, and the role of humility and servant-hearted leadership. We explore the cost and recovery after sending, the evolving nature of church leadership, and the often overlooked but critical support needed for ministry households.

Anglican Aid
To find out more about giving tax deductibly to Anglican Aid.

The Church Co
thechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches.

Advertise on The Pastor's Heart
To advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsor

Advertise on The Pastor's Heart
To advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsor
Support The Pastor's Heart
For info on how to become a regular financial supporter of The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/support

This week on The Pastor’s Heart, we’re live from the Reach Australia conference at Erina on the Central Coast of New South Wales.

Paul Harrington has led the Trinity Network of Churches in Adelaide for 33 years, guiding it from a single congregation of 800 to a thriving network of 13 churches with over 2,600 members.

Sue Harrington is a Reach Australia board member, has been deeply involved in supporting pastors’ wives, families, and women in ministry and runs a consultancy business.

Anglican Aid
To find out more about giving tax deductibly to Anglican Aid.

The Church Co
thechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches.

Advertise on The Pastor's Heart
To advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsor

Previous Episode

‘Not so fast my friend’ - 1700 years since Nicaea - with Rachel Ciano and Leonardo Di Chirico

It is 1700 years since the council of Nicaea and the publication of the Nicene Creed - but what are we to make of it?

It was the twentieth of May in the year 325 that the Council of Nicaea first met.

Pope Francis said ‘The Nicene Creed is a powerful sign of unity among Christians.’

The 17 hundredth anniversary of the Council of Nicaea - is being used - by the Roman Catholic Church to push the idea that ‘All Christians are Nicene Christians.’

However the difficulty is that while we say the same words, Roman Catholics and Protestants mean vastly different things, and any unity is a fake unity at best.

Leonardo de Chirico is pastor of the Church Breccia di Roma and director of the Reformanda Initiative.

Rachel Ciano lectures in Christianity and History at Sydney Missionary and Bible College. She is a faculty member at the Rome scholars and leaders network, hosted by The Reformanda Initiative.

The book ‘The Nicene Creed’ is available from Matthias Media.

Anglican Aid
To find out more about giving tax deductibly to Anglican Aid.

The Church Co
thechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches.

Advertise on The Pastor's Heart
To advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsor

Next Episode

Multisite Churches: What works and what doesn't | Wade Burnett - Live from Reach Australia

Live from the sidelines at the Reach Australia Conference on the Central Coast of New South Wales, we sit down with Wade Burnett from McLean Bible Church in Washington DC and Derek Hanna, Reach Australia’s church planting and multisite specialist, for a fresh look at the multisite church model.

Multisite was a buzz seven years ago. Today, with thousands of campuses launched in the United States—and many hard lessons learned—the mood is more measured. What’s changed? What’s endured? And what can church leaders here learn today from the American experience?

We explore the personnel, strategic, and pastoral complexities of multisite ministry. From varied governance models to launch strategies, leadership fit to congregational model —

And how to decide whether we should launch a new campus, reassess a current model, or weigh multisite against church planting.

Anglican Aid
To find out more about giving tax deductibly to Anglican Aid.

The Church Co
thechurchco.com is a website and app platform built specifically for churches.

Advertise on The Pastor's Heart
To advertise on The Pastor's Heart go to thepastorsheart.net/sponsor

The Pastor's Heart with Dominic Steele - Paul and Sue Harrington: Lessons on the way - Live from Reach Australia

Transcript

Speaker 100:02:30.879

Hey , there , it is the pastor's heart and we are live from the car park at Reach Australia at Erina on the central coast of New South Wales . The big conference has just got underway . In the auditorium behind us there are300 leaders from across Australia and other countries across two sites here on the Central Coast . I've met leaders from New Zealand , from South Africa , from