Our 2024 P&A annual conference theme is “Following Christ as men and women”. Moore faculty member Andrew Leslie will unpack this topic in our morning plenary sessions. Understandably, much of our interest in the Bible’s teaching about men and women is centred on what it means in practice. In the morning plenary sessions, Moore College faculty member Andrew Leslie wants to take a step back from these practical concerns and reflect on the wisdom of this teaching. He’ll begin by exploring how the depiction of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden echoes the pattern of creation itself set out in Genesis 1. Reflecting on this pattern will shed much light on the nature of God and the complementary vocation he has given us as his image bearers. In his second talk, Andrew will take us to the New Testament where the same pattern underlays its description of Christ’s relationship to his people and the life of the church itself.
Our afternoon electives will further unpack the theme of “Following Christ as men and women”, with Clare Deeves sharing her PhD research about things to consider when men and women work together on a ministry team. Moore’s dean of Women Susan An and Senior Pastor of The Bridge Church Paul Dale will look at when we disagree with each other about complementarianism while being on the same staff team. Other electives include gender considerations in South Asian ministry; fatherhood; teaching the woman at the well in John 4; and if there are reasons for making different theological decisions than the Apostles.
More information about registration
About our speakers
Andrew Leslie
Andrew Leslie is Head of Theology, Philosophy, and Ethics, and lecturer in Christian Doctrine at Moore College. His research interests include the early development of Reformed theology and its retrieval for contemporary systematic theology, and the doctrines of Scripture, humanity and the Fall, the person of Christ and divine sovereignty. He is a graduate of Moore College, and served in parishes in North Sydney and Strathfield before being awarded his PhD at the University of Edinburgh. Andrew joined the Moore College faculty in 2013. He is married to Felicity, and they have three children: William, Tessa and Hugh.
Clare Deeves
Clare grew up in Sydney but has lived in Perth since 2005, and now considers it home. She is an assistant minister at Kallaroo Anglican Church in Perth, with particular responsibility for women and co-ordinating the church’s training. Prior to this role, Clare worked for AFES before joining the faculty at Trinity Theological College, where she still lectures in Church History. Before completing her PhD in 2023, Clare did her MDiv at Sydney Missionary and Bible College and a ThM (Church History) at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago. Her spare time is generally spent hanging out with friends, but in 2023, she added lawn bowls to her list of recreational activities and is thoroughly enjoying it.
Program
| 8:30am-9:00am | Coffee |
| 9:00am-10:30am | Plenary session 1. |
| 10:30am-11:00am | Morning tea |
| 11:00am-12:30pm | Plenary session 2 + Q&A session. |
| 12:30pm-1:30pm | Lunch |
| 1:30pm-3:00pm | Electives 1 |
| 3:00pm-3:30pm | Afternoon tea |
| 3:30pm-5:00pm | Electives 2 |
Electives
Please note: Only Clare Deeves’ electives will be livestreamed. For in-person delegates: only those who have opted for Clare Deeves’ Group 1 elective may attend her Group 2 elective. If you would only like to do Clare Deeves’ Group 1 elective, feel free to choose something else for Group 2.
Group 1: Making working together work (Part 1): The building blocks (Clare Deeves)
We know we want men and women to work well together in churches, but we also know anecdotally that it sometimes goes wrong. What are the building blocks for positive working relationships? What can senior pastors do to foster them? Where should we start our conversations about making things work? Drawing on research into the experiences of women working with their senior pastors in complementarian churches in Australia, this elective explores the main ingredients in good working relationships and the most important things to avoid.
Level: Popular.
About Clare
Clare grew up in Sydney but has lived in Perth since 2005, and now considers it home. She is an assistant minister at Kallaroo Anglican Church in Perth, with particular responsibility for women and co-ordinating the church’s training. Prior to this role, Clare worked for AFES before joining the faculty at Trinity Theological College, where she still lectures in Church History. Before completing her PhD in 2023, Clare did her MDiv at Sydney Missionary and Bible College and a ThM (Church History) at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago. Her spare time is generally spent hanging out with friends, but in 2023, she added lawn bowls to her list of recreational activities and is thoroughly enjoying it.
Group 1: South Asian family dynamics in mission and discipleship (Priya, Clive and Ben)
This elective will seek to explore gender workings in mission and discipleship among the various South Asian peoples (India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, etc) in Sydney, and how this might help gospel workers to cross cultures.
Level: Popular.
About Priya
Priya serves with her husband and children at St Marks Anglican church in Sadleir. She grew up around many South Asian and Hindu people, and it was a longing to see them know the Lord Jesus that promoted her on the journey of training for ministry. Her early appointments included supporting South Asian mission and discipleship within the local church. She currently serves as a SATYA committee member.
About Clive
Clive is married to Sarah and has three boys. God has put reaching South Asians on Clive’s heart since his university days. He helped start the Subcontinental Bible Ministry (SBM) with Priya and a few others at the University of New South Wales, which grew into a para-church fellowship and then SBM Church. Having spent more than 10 years in full-time ministry, he is now raising support (through ENC and SATYA) to equip churches in understanding Hinduism and South Asian culture, and evangelism and discipleship among South Asians.
About Ben
Ben serves as an Assistant Minister with Auburn and Newington Anglican Churches. He loves speaking to people from every nation about the Lord Jesus—how they can trust in him, and what it means to follow him. He is also Chairman of the SATYA Committee (under ENC), which seeks to champion the promotion of gospel ministry to South Asian people, with a particular focus on evangelism and discipleship of people from a Hindu background in the Sydney Anglican Diocese and beyond.
Group 1: Same morals, different God?: When do ethical decisions become theological ones? (David Höhne)
If there are reasons for making different moral decisions from the Apostles, could there be reasons for making different theological decisions as well? Could the same reasoning strategies be applied to ethics as theology? Come along to this academic session to consider the relationship between Scripture, tradition, reason and experience for theology and ethics.
Level: Academic.
About David
David is Academic Dean, a lecturer in Christian Doctrine and Philosophy at Moore College, and the author of The Last Things: Contours of Christian theology. He has served in Anglican churches in Sydney, Canberra and the UK (honorary). Since 2007, he has been serving at Moore and in his local church. He is married to Amelia, and they have three children. He loves the smell of rain after a hot day, the sound of God’s people singing his praises, the look of joy on someone’s face when they learn something new, the taste of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and the feel of a new book.
Group 1: Working with people of differing complementarian convictions (Susan An and Paul Dale)
It can be challenging for a team to work together if the team has varying convictions on the outworking of complementarianism. But here are some principles on how it may work and what potential issues teams ought to think through.
Level: Popular.
About Susan
Susan An is Dean of Women at Moore Theological College. Her research interests include biblical singleness, the use of emotions in the Bible, complementarianism, communication in Christian culture, and Reformation church history. After becoming a Christian as a teenager, she worked as a speech pathologist while serving in various lay ministries. She then went on to complete a MTS apprenticeship and then studied at Moore College. She was an assistant pastor at The Bridge Church for seven years before she joined the faculty. Susan enjoys good coffee, the beach, Korean dramas, spending time with her nephews and seeing God grow people.
About Paul
Paul Dale is the Senior Pastor of The Bridge Church (Kirribilli, Neutral Bay and Macquarie Park), a role he’s had for 19 years. He is passionate about churches that engage both head and heart, and has a real passion for evangelism in the local community. Paul has led a large staff team for many years and has had the joy of working alongside so many gifted men and women. Paul is married to Rach, and they have five sons.
Group 2: Making working together work (Part 2): Complementarianism, teams and pitfalls (Clare Deeves)
Building on Clare’s previous elective, this elective dives deeper into three areas: complementarianism, teams and pitfalls. We’ll look at the difference complementarianism makes: is there really a difference between relating to men and relating to women on team? We’ll look closer at teams: what difference does the whole team dynamic make? What can a senior pastor do as the team grows? What happens when a team member leaves? Finally, we’ll also look at some of the situations most likely to cause trouble: the silo, the restructure and meetings.
Level: Popular.
Please note: Because of the material Clare will be covering in her electives, you cannot choose her elective in the second session unless you have attended her elective in the first session.
About Clare
Clare grew up in Sydney but has lived in Perth since 2005, and now considers it home. She is an assistant minister at Kallaroo Anglican Church in Perth, with particular responsibility for women and co-ordinating the church’s training. Prior to this role, Clare worked for AFES before joining the faculty at Trinity Theological College, where she still lectures in Church History. Before completing her PhD in 2023, Clare did her MDiv at Sydney Missionary and Bible College and a ThM (Church History) at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago. Her spare time is generally spent hanging out with friends, but in 2023, she added lawn bowls to her list of recreational activities and is thoroughly enjoying it.
Group 2: Samaritan more than sinful? Rethinking how we teach and preach about the woman at the well (Tom Habib and Talar Khatchoyan)
The woman at the well (John 4) has become a staple for sermon series, evangelistic talks and pastoral conversations. Here is a woman who, so it is said, was in every way an outsider in her culture: a woman, a Samaritan, an adulterer shunned by her own people, and someone who was looking for happiness in all the wrong places, but who found forgiveness, acceptance and real satisfaction in Jesus.
But is this really what John 4 is about? Is the woman’s sin or satisfaction really the focus of this passage? This elective will challenge some of the popular readings of the Samaritan woman, while also considering more recent feminist readings of John 4. Looking again at this precious chapter of Scripture, we will reconsider what John is saying, and how we should teach and preach about the woman at the well today.
Level: Popular academic.
About Tom
Tom is a lecturer in New Testament and Greek at Moore Theological College. His research interests include the Gospel of John, character studies in the gospels, New Testament and Graeco-Roman literature, and communicative approaches to ancient language learning. He is married to Jess and together, they have three children. They attend St Stephen’s Anglican Church in Newtown. Before serving at college, Tom was an assistant minister at Yagoona and Condell Park Anglican church.
About Talar
Talar Khatchoyan is the children’s and families minister at Naremburn Cammeray Anglican Church. She enjoys seeing new generations of believers mature in the Lord.
Group 2: Fatherhood (Paul Grimmond)
This elective will explore some of the key biblical concepts associated with fatherhood, and reflect on the implications of biblical teaching for the way healthy fathers might live and act. If you’re a father or you want to encourage someone who is a father to reflect on how to be a father in light of biblical truth, then come along.
Level: Popular.
About Paul
Paul Grimmond is Dean of Students at Moore Theological College. His research interests include pastoral issues for the general Christian public, developing resilience for ministry workers, preaching and proclamation. He is the author of Right Side Up: Life as God meant it to be, Suffering Well: The predictable surprise of Christian suffering and a book on anxiety called When the Noise Won’t Stop. He is also co-author with Phillip Jensen of The Archer and the Arrow. He is married to Cathy and together, they have three children.
