Meet my new Aussie Mate, Tony Llewellyn of Hotsermons

I met Tony through a mutual friend, Matt Prayer (New Hope Brisbane and History Makers Radio).

Tony is a pastor and has created a brand new resource called Hotsermons.  I’ll let you Tony tell you all about it.

Scot: Tony, first, tell us a bit about you. 

Tony: Since 1976, I have been involved in creative ministries as a guitarist, pianist, bassist, drummer, worship leader, music director, songwriter, and writer (I’ve published about a dozen books, as well as a number of drama skits).  Since 1989, I’ve been pastoring in various churches in our movement (Christian Life Churches International).  I’ve been married to my amazing wife, Alli, for 31 years, and have two grown-up children.

Scot: So what exactly is hot-sermons?

Tony: Hotsermons is a website dedicated to providing resources for under-resourced churches, their pastors, and other leaders.  So far, we are being accessed by over 160 countries.  The website is constantly growing and most of its content can be downloaded free.  The pace at which it grows is only limited by how quickly I can put stuff on it, since I’m the one doing all the coding.

Scot:  What motivates you to offer this service? 

Tony: The average church in Australia is 70-80 people, and the average church in the world is just over 50 (depending on where you get your stats from).  This means that there are a lot of under-resourced churches round the world who need help.  Often, bigger churches are focused on using their resources to build their own churches.  If they offer resources, they often charge top dollar, and it becomes a money-making exercise.  Prices are often out of the reach of small under-resourced churches.  Lots of churches may have missions programs, but mostly that means overseas.  If the church down the road is struggling, we may not notice.  We may even secretly hope that they fold completely and that their people come to our church.

Scot:  One more question.  My favorite actually:  What is the one dream you have for the kingdom? 

Tony:  Wouldn’t it be great if we had less empire building, and a lot more Kingdom building?  For at least a couple of decades, my dream (and my wife’s) has been to provide low-cost or no-cost resources to those who can’t afford them.  Each of us should be looking out not only for our own interests, but also for the interests of others (Phil 2:4).  We usually want to experience this within our own church fellowships, but we don’t always think of it in terms of being a blessing to other churches and their leaders.  Instead, we see them as the competition (as if there aren’t enough unsaved people to go around!) and get an empire-building mentality where we focus only on our own particular group.  My dream?  To make sure that I don’t buy into that mentality, and that I be a Kingdom-minded person.  I see this website as my investment in the Kingdom.