Latest News #243 – Australia
May 23, 2003

Bible Society in Australia set to 'interact with culture' using prime time television

SYDNEY, Australia — A project run under the auspices of the Bible Society in Australia (New South Wales) is aiming to run a high-profile, direct response television advertising campaign to take the Christian message to the Australian marketplace.

Working under the name Christian Media Project, it has a 12 to 18-month timetable for the creation of a series of TV commercials carrying a key message and backed up by print material. The desired response will be for “the average Australian” to call the telephone number displayed – or log on to the website – to get further information.

Further resources will include a booklet explaining the Christian faith, a copy of John’s Gospel, a CD and a dedicated website.

The Christian Media Project traces its origin to the response of Rob Adsett, chairman of Christian Television, Australia, to a question about how he would use television for the Gospel if money were no object.

He drafted in Sydney Baptist minister the Rev Karl Faase to help and Mr Faase in turn gathered some leading Christian communicators and media professionals who together considered some hundreds of options.

Key to their discussions was input from those who understood where Australians were at spiritually.

“The reality is that most Australians have no understanding of what the Bible says or what Christians believe,” said Mr Faase. “This is evidenced by how the secular media treat stories about Christians or issues that Christians have a strong opinion about. Invariably such issues are trivialised, sensationalised – or both!”

In the minds of unchurched Australians it appeared to be the Church, generally regarded as ‘irrelevant and old fashioned’, that was the obstacle. Jesus, on the other hand, was widely accepted as a ‘holy man’ and ‘teacher’.

“The challenge is to make him relevant and to make his word, the Bible, relevant also,” said Mr Faase.

During meetings held throughout last year, the ‘think tank’ looked at a number of projects carried out overseas. The campaign that best fitted its vision was Campus Crusade’s media campaign Power to Change. Presenting the idea that faith in Christ can give people the ‘power to change’, this has run in Bolivia, Canada and Ireland.

Once the ‘think tank’ had decided to use Power to Change as its model and television as the medium, the Christian Media Project was born. After discussions, Daniel Willis, Chief Executive of the Bible Society in Australia (New South Wales), agreed to take it on as a project of the Bible Society.

Mr Willis, it turned out, had been struck by an innovative project in which the British and Foreign Bible Society, working with Vogue magazine, had helped to produce a sequence of fashion photographs with Biblical themes.

“It was this ‘making the Bible relevant to contemporary culture’ that interested me,” said Mr Willis. “I wanted to do this in an Australian context and when I heard about the Christian Media Project I knew we had found the vehicle to do this.”

Earlier this year, the Society appointed Martin Johnson, Corporate Communications Manager at Sydney’s Wesley Mission and a man with extensive radio, video and television experience, to head it.

A key task currently is to gather the support of the churches and para-church organisations and to raise the funds needed to buy the media time.

Meanwhile, the project team is continuing research into what the key message of the campaign will be and how it will be communicated. They are also talking to other organisations which are interested in becoming partners and are meeting Christian business people.

Based on an article by Martin Johnson, published in the Melbourne-based Christian newspaper, New Life.