By the Well

26/08/2026

Venue change. All welcome!

27/07/2026

After a deep study of Matthew 17 and 18, I’ve become convinced that there are leadership principles within these chapters that are rarely engaged in modern ministry. This article seeks to address that gap by presenting a different, though often unpopular, view of biblical leadership.

Authority in the church doesn't belong exclusively to leaders, it ultimately resides in the whole body and leadership exists to serve, (remember, He that is greatest among you is the servant of all), express and steward that shared authority, not replace it. Leaders are to read and understand what the Holy Spirit is doing/activating/speaking and demonstrating in the body and then articulate it to the church.

Leadership doesn’t replace the authority of the body. It serves it, expresses it, and stewards it.

Here’s the take based on Matthew 17:24 -27 and Matthew 18.

1) Leaders don’t “own” decisions, they discern with the body.

Instead of: “The pastor has decided so that's final.”
You get: Leaders listening, weighing and recognizing what God is doing among HIS people

Practical example:
Major direction (vision, discipline, doctrine) isn't imposed from the top down
Rather, it is tested, confirmed and recognized within the community

Leadership doesn't create authority they recognize it and articulate it.

I know of many visions rotting in paddocks because the Leadership had a "vision" yet the congregation, and by default the Spirit was never on board.

2) The congregation isn’t passive, it's responsible.

The same authority to bind and loose (permit/forbid, affirm/reject) that is given to Peter in Matthew 16 is bestowed upon the church in Matthew 18:18.

The people then:
Are not spectators
Are not just followers
But are participants in discernment and accountability

The implication is that:

Spiritual responsibility doesn't stop at leadership, the whole body carries weight in truth, correction and direction.

3) Church discipline is communal, not just leadership driven

In Matthew 18 the process moves:
a) Individual
b) Small group
c) Tell it to the church

Final authority rests in the assembled body, not just leaders. Restoration is not decided behind closed doors only. It is something the body recognizes and affirms together.

Why? Because it is the body that becomes desecrated by unchecked sin.

4) Leaders activate authority by alignment, not control

When leaders act rightly and are secure in Christ, they:

Bring clarity to what God is already doing
Give voice to what the Spirit is stirring in the body
Confirm what is true and just

Their authority is then not absolute, independent or detached it is representative and responsive.

5) It guards against 2 extremes

a) Authoritarian Leadership:

“Only leaders hear God” (control)
"Questioning leadership equals rebellion

b) Leaderless chaos

"Everyone just does what they feel" (the old God told me syndrome)
"No structure, no guidance"

Leaders are still essential, God operates within a structure

The balance:
The body holds authority.
Leaders steward and express it.

6) A healthy church looks like this:
– Leaders are trusted but not untouchable
– Members are engaged but not rebellious
– Decisions feel recognised, not forced
– Correction feels corporate, not political
- Unity comes from shared submission to Christ, not hierarchy alone

Here’s the reality:

Leadership doesn’t replace the voice of the body, it amplifies it.
They don’t possess authority instead of the church, they align with it and when they act rightly, they make visible what belongs to the whole.

When this breaks down:
Leadership becomes control.
The body becomes passive.
And the church stops functioning like a body at all.

This isn’t a critique without hope, it’s an invitation.

👉 To leaders: you don’t have to carry it all. When you align with the body, you step into a weight that heaven actually backs.
👉 To the church: your voice matters. Not in rebellion, but in responsibility, discernment, and truth.

If we return to this pattern, we don’t lose authority, we recover it.

And when the body and leadership come into true alignment under Christ, He doesn’t just observe the church, He stands in the midst of it and His church becomes an unstoppable force.

26/06/2026

Matthew 17:24–27 contains a unique kind of miracle. Unlike every other miracle of Jesus, the Bible never actually records its fulfilment—we are told what Peter will find, but not that he found it. This “unfulfilled” miracle invites us to look deeper. It’s not just about provision, it’s about principle in leadership.

Genesis 41:32 – “The dream was doubled… because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.”

Matthew 17:24–27 – Peter is told he will find a coin in the mouth of a fish.

There’s a powerful leadership principle here:

God Confirms What He Establishes
In Genesis, the doubling of Pharaoh’s dream wasn’t simply repetition, it was confirmation. What God establishes, He confirms, clearly, consistently, and without confusion. Wise leadership learns to wait for that clarity and for that confirmation.

Unwise leadership, however, rushes ahead on a single impression, forces outcomes, or treats urgency as confirmation. It mistakes pressure for direction and movement for certainty. But when God establishes something, He is able to confirm it, He doesn’t need us to strive to prove it.

Provision Often Exists Before the Action
In Matthew, the coin was already in the fish before Peter ever cast the hook. Jesus didn’t create provision on the spot, He revealed it. Peter’s role wasn’t to produce, but to participate.

Unwise leadership assumes everything depends on its own ability, striving, manipulating, or overworking to manufacture results. It burns energy trying to create what God may have already prepared. But wise leadership moves in obedience, trusting that provision is often positioned ahead of action, not behind it.

Leadership Is Recognising and Responding
Great leaders discern what God has already set in place and step into it. Peter simply obeyed and discovered that the solution was waiting ahead of his obedience. That is what a wise leader does, he steps into what God has already done.

Unwise leadership either hesitates when it should act or acts without discernment. It misses timing, either through fear but usually through presumption. But wise leadership recognises the moment, responds with confidence, and aligns action with what has already been revealed.

Leadership is not always about making things happen,
sometimes it’s about recognising what has already been established and stepping into it with confidence.

Look for confirmation.
Act in obedience.
Trust that provision often precedes the need.

03/05/2026

Matthew 13:33 Another parable spake He unto them: The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.

I have struggled for decades with this parable, as the standard church interpretation—that leaven represents the gospel spreading throughout the world and becoming the church—has never sat well with me.
My main sticking point has always been the leaven. Leaven represents sin everywhere it is used in the Bible. Why would it represent the truth of the gospel here?

There are two other interpretations:
1. A warning: leaven as hypocrisy permeating the church, with the woman as a type of Jezebel
2. Israel as the woman who allows sin to permeate the nation

This leaves us with two issues:
1. Leaven is always used as an idiom of sin, hypocrisy, and corrupting influence—why would it be any different here?
2. In many parables, the primary figure introduced often points to God—so what would that imply in this case?

And that leads to a difficult question:
What would it mean for God to be “hiding” leaven (sin) in the kingdom?

This is the first parable without an interpretation, so there must be some clues in the Old Testament.

Let’s break down the key elements:
• Leaven — yeast; a symbol of sin, corruption, and human weakness (Galatians 5:9; 1 Corinthians 5:7)
• The woman — represents God’s active involvement; imagery echoes Sarah in Genesis 18
• Hid — unseen, yet quietly at work
• Three measures — about 22 kilos of flour; imagery echoes Genesis 18 and a fellowship setting
• Meal — fine ground wheat; bread material; Jesus is the bread of life (John 6:35)

These are the major elements of this parable. So when we put them together, we get this:
The kingdom of heaven is like leaven (sin), which a woman (God) took and hid (an unseen work on the cross) in three measures of meal (Jesus, the bread of life), until the whole was leavened—“He was made to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

There is a deeper hint (remez) that may point to this interpretation:
• The woman and the three measures of meal point directly to Genesis 18:6
This reflects a fellowship meal—later formalized under Moses, but first seen here with Abraham—a communal meal between God and His people.
This is the first recorded fellowship meal in the Bible. So let me ask: what is the last recorded fellowship meal?
“Take, eat; this is my body broken for you” (Matthew 26:26).

This parable may not be about the gospel permeating the whole earth and growing the church. Rather, it points to God placing our sin upon Jesus—the bread of life—at the cross, and through that act, bringing us into fellowship with Him.

09/04/2026

Having recently being involved in a Passover celebration I thought I would share with you the four cups of the Passover and where we are at as Christians.

The four cups of the Passover represent the four promises made to Israel in Exodus 6:6-7.

They are Sanctification (I will bring you out), Deliverance (I will rescue you), Redemption (I will redeem you) and Praise (I will take you as my people).

At the last supper where Jesus states, "this is the blood of the covenant, drink ye all of it" (Matthew 26:26-28), they were partaking of the 3rd cup, the cup of redemption.
In v29 Jesus states "I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until I drink it new with you in my Fathers Kingdom" or in Mark "until I drink it new in the kingdom of God" and much the same in Luke.

As the fourth cup signified the end of the Passover, it means that this particular Passover has not ended.

Some say the Passover ended when Jesus was given the sour wine on the cross, but my dear friends, that was not a celebratory cup. The sour wine and gall were to fulfil Psalm 69:21.

So, by the grace of God, we are still in a state of Passover. This is why grace abounds, that the most unworthy of us sinners can be saved and judgement is held at bay.

It means we live in a place where the themes of deliverance, protection, freedom and praise (the 4 cups) are meant to be applied to our daily lives representing a continuous state of redemption.

Those four themes make up a great portion of Pauls writings.

In short, living in an extended Passover means that the liberation, protection and holiness experienced during the time of the miraculous escape from Egypt are a permanent framework for our daily living.

29/03/2026

12/03/2026

Matthew 12:41–42. Jesus says the men of Nineveh and the queen of the south will rise in judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they responded to truth when it was given — while His own generation did not. What troubles me is this: 𝗶𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗷𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽.
The common people largely accepted Jesus as the Messiah, yet the leadership rejected Him — and the whole generation was held accountable.

We have a commitment to truth. I’ll tell you why.

John 8:32 says, “𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲.”
This is often read as personal liberation: knowing Christ, knowing reality as God defines it, frees a person from deception, sin, and bo***ge.
But it also points to something equally important: 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝗻𝘀, 𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗼𝗿𝘀, 𝗼𝗿 𝗷𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀.

Ezekiel 33 — If the watchman warns, he is free from guilt. If he stays silent, he shares responsibility.
1 Samuel 3 — Samuel must speak the truth God gives him, even when it concerns judgment on Eli’s house. His obedience separates him from the consequences that fall on Eli’s leadership.
Revelation 18:4 — “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues.”

Truth is the mechanism by which God separates the faithful from the fallout.

John 15:22 "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse".

Shows that once truth is spoken, accountability increases. Truth places a person at a crossroads — respond or resist, blessing or judgment.

𝗧𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 — 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗮 𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.

When you commit to truth:
• 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗚𝗼𝗱’𝘀 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿
• 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
• 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗴𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁
• 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗚𝗼𝗱’𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀

It’s a courageous path, but it’s also a freeing one.

When leadership goes astray, God has a way of intervening, especially if there are truth speakers in the midst. As the truth is spoken, it not only makes the hearer accountable — allowing God to begin His judgment — but 𝗶𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗷𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘆 𝗯𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴

06/03/2026

There’s a difference between encouragement and truth that sets people free.

Too many pastors today give motivational speeches or TED-style talks, but avoid the kind of truth that actually convicts hearts and brings real freedom.

Real truth often comes from those who have let God do deep work in them—those who have submitted to His refining and allowed Him to finish the job.

So ask yourself:

Where in your life are you choosing comfort over truth?

God’s Word loves you enough to give you both.

👇 Share this with someone who values faithful, biblical teaching..

06/03/2026

Food for thought

If the 12 disciples were alive today, I’m not sure many churches would even let them apply to be the pastor.

Search committee:
“Peter, we see here you were a fisherman… do you have a theology degree?”

Peter: “No… but I did preach one sermon and 3,000 people got saved.”

Committee: “Right… but do you have at least 60 credit hours from an accredited seminary?”

Meanwhile Matthew’s over there like…
“I used to be a tax collector.”

Church board:
“Yeah… we’re gonna need you to fill out this background check and character reference form.”

Thomas walks in…
They say, “We’ve heard you struggle with doubt.”

Thomas:
“Yeah… but I saw the resurrected Jesus.”

Committee:
“Hmm… we’re really looking for someone with stronger faith and a master’s degree.”

And don’t even let Paul apply…

Half the churches would say:
“Sir… your résumé says you were once involved in persecuting Christians.”

Paul:
“Yeah… but God changed my life and I wrote half the New Testament.”

Church board:
“Right… but have you completed our denomination-approved leadership training program?”

Meanwhile Jesus is standing in the back like…

“I picked these guys on purpose.” 😏

Sometimes I wonder if we’ve gotten so good at credentialing the shepherd…

that we forget how God loves to use ordinary people.

28/02/2026

Pastor Chuck is a rare truth speaker. Talking about the weakness of what is spoken from the pulpits....false prophets