Bryan J. Hickey

Thinking carefully in a messy world.

Long-form writing on theology, culture, and the Christian life — for anyone who believes deep faith and honest questions belong together.

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Daily Reading

Bible Quote of the Day

Each day brings a fresh word from Scripture — a moment to pause, reflect, and be reminded of what is true. Let this passage meet you wherever today finds you.

⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, ⁶⁹ and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
John 6:68–69 — ESV

About

You’ll find me writing at the intersection of theology and everyday life — exploring Scripture carefully, thinking about how faith is formed slowly, and asking what it looks like to follow Jesus without pretending the hard parts are easy.

By day, I work in operations at Youth Ministry Futures, a mission agency investing in well-formed, full-time, long-term youth ministry across Australia. The rest of the time, I’m reading widely, writing honestly, and trying to be a decent husband to Jane and father to our two daughters.

If you’re the kind of person who wants to think carefully about things that matter — not quick takes, not hot opinions, just honest writing — there’s a good chance something here is for you.

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Longer essays worth the time — on Scripture, culture, and what it means to take faith seriously.

Recent Posts

31 December 202531 min

When the Holy Land Becomes Holy War

Biblical Theology

The theological moves that justified the Crusades—sacralising territory, demonising enemies, silencing dissent—reappear in modern Christian Zionism. This essay traces the dangerous pattern of transforming political positions into divine mandates, then and now.

17 June 20257 min

Leadership and Love in the Letters of Paul and Pliny

New Testament

Two elite Roman-era authors. Two letters about runaway men. One upholds status. The other redefines it through love. This article compares Paul’s letter to Philemon and Pliny’s letter to Sabinianus—and what they reveal about leadership, community, and Christian witness.

Leadership and Love in the Letters of Paul and Pliny

4 May 20269 min

From Box to Productive in Thirty Minutes

Tools & Technology

A single command takes a freshly unboxed Mac to fully configured in about thirty minutes. The tool that makes it possible is called a dotfiles repo. The apps that travel with mine are the more interesting story.

From Box to Productive in Thirty Minutes

10 April 202615 min

Say It Until They Can Say It Back

Leadership

A vision addressed to your customers but not your staff is not a shared vision. It is a marketing brief delivered to the people who have to sell it without ever being sold on it themselves.

13 March 202612 min

What Derek Prince Gets Wrong About the Holy Spirit and Church History

History

Prince's quote doesn't just observe a tendency in the church — it attributes a motive. And when you press that motive against actual church history, the evidence runs almost exactly the other way.

10 March 202615 min

The God Who Does Not Grieve (And Why That Matters More Than You Think)

Hermeneutics

A God whose compassion is a reaction is a God whose compassion might fail. The doctrine of impassibility isn't the enemy of a warm, personal God. It's the foundation of one.

The God Who Does Not Grieve (And Why That Matters More Than You Think)

Notes on Reading

From the Reading Pile

Young people gathered around a fire at dusk forming relationships

5 April 2026

Relationships All the Way Down: The Operant Theology of Evangelical Youth Ministry

Mark Scanlan, Gretchen Schoon Tanis, and Ruth Lukabyo. "Roots, Threads, and Possibilities: How Learning from Some Origin Stories of Evangelical Youth Ministry Can Help Navigate a Challenging Future." Religions 16, no. 2 (2025): 1-14.

Scanlan, Tanis, and Lukabyo trace three national origin stories to a single finding: relationship building is the practice through which God has been understood to act in evangelical youth ministry for over a century.

The main entrance to Fuller Theologucal Seminary

5 April 2026

Volunteers, Professionals, and the Patterns We Inherit

Mark H. Senter III. "History of Youth Ministry Education." History of Youth Ministry Education 12, no. 2 (2014): 83—107.

A review of Senter's cyclical history of youth ministry education, tested against Australian data showing that volunteer-era patterns may no longer hold and that the cycle itself can break.

Pope waving to catholic young people at the World Youth Day parade in Sydney

3 April 2026

The Pattern the Church Keeps Missing: Youth as Agents, Not Problems

Christopher Ryan. "A Brief History of Australian Catholic Youth Ministry — Parts I & II." The Australasian Catholic Record 96(4) & 97(1): 431-444 & 30-44.

Ryan traces a century of Australian Catholic youth ministry and uncovers a recurring cycle: young people innovate, the church resists, then quietly adopts their methods. From YCW's see-judge-act to Antioch's peer-led evangelism, youth led the way.

20 March 2026

"Stop Gambling on Your Youth Ministry" says Mark DeVries

Mark DeVries. Sustainable Youth Ministry: Why Most Youth Ministry Doesn't Last and What Your Church Can Do about It. InterVarsity Press, 2008.

The problem with most youth ministry isn't the youth worker — it's the system. DeVries makes a compelling case for infrastructure over superstars, with practical frameworks that hold up remarkably well almost two decades on.

18 March 2026

When the Model Matters Less Than the Method

Ruth Webber, Andrew Singleton, Marie R. Joyce, and Arrigo Dorissa. "Models of Youth Ministry in Action: The Dynamics of Christian Youth Ministry in an Australian City." Religious Education 105, no. 2 (2010): 205—216.

A Melbourne-based study maps youth ministry activity onto Canales' typology and concludes that dynamic, youth-owned implementation matters more than which model a church adopts.

A person filling out a research questionnaire

16 March 2026

Full-Time or Forget It? The Empirical Case for Investing in Youth Ministry

Graham D. Stanton and Miriam Pepper. "The State of Play in Australian Youth Ministry: An Exploration of the Patterns and Impacts of Youth Ministry Roles in Australian Churches." Journal of Empirical Theology published online ahead of print (2025): pp.1–24.

A sobering empirical snapshot: 81% of Australian churches have no youth minister, and nearly half have zero teenagers at services. Full-time youth ministry staff are linked to better retention, but part-time roles aren't. The data paints a picture of systemic under-investment.

15 March 2026

'On a Mission': Christian Youth Workers in Australia in the 1960s–1970s by David Fagg

David Fagg. "'On a Mission': Christian Youth Workers in Australia in the 1960s–1970s." Journal of Youth and Theology 20, no. 2 (2021): pp. 234–257.

Through three case studies, Fagg shows that the pioneers who made youth ministry serious in Australia also helped split it from secular youth work. An important historical contribution with real contemporary bite.