Faith Runs Deep - Karl Faase (Olive Tree Media) 26 August 2024

a Biblical perspective on life culture and current events this is 2020 on Vision Kyle FaZe is our guest he's the CEO of Olive Tree media you'll know him from a whole bunch of great video series kle loves to tell the stories and we're talking about not just stories for the sake of entertainment but entertaining stories that really do matter Carl let's talk about uh let's move our attention maybe to say sport you know we've just come out of the Olympic games like our most successful Olympic Games ever uh we did well in so many different areas of course some will say our national religion is Sport how do you reflect and what sort of stories have you come across over these years uh around our sporting Heritage yeah well there's some great stories of of people of faith that um great Sportsman in fact just using your phrase that the the episode on our on faith runs deep on sport is called that other religion and it's passionate in Australia but did you know that Australia's about Australia's first ever sporting world champion and uh that was in 1876 it was on the temps in London and a guy called Ned tricket who was actually the son of a convict um who went was sponsored by James punch who owned the pub in Sydney to race for the world championship in single scar and he won on the 27th of June 1876 now the interesting thing about that story I'm going to come tell you a bit more about Ned tricket in a moment but the interesting about that story is Ned tricket is my wife's great-grandfather so there's a family story in all of this he came back to Australia NE he was a rock star I mean he was you think of any well-known Sportsman in Australia and and he would have shaded him he he had his face on all pictures on all lamp posts um 30,000 people him at circular ke in Sydney when he arrived back a huge he defended his um his his world championship on the the Paramount River in New South Wales but to shorten this story he ended up going to to after he finished racing he ended up going to rockampton in rockampton he ran a pub the pub went broke he came back to Sydney and uh this is really shortening a long story he came comes back to Sydney and Ned Ned has got nine kids he's he's a past Superstar champion rockar in the in the colony he's got no income there's a there's a depression on therefore none of his friends who looked after him have much money and he's desperate and he's actually depressed in fact there were those who said he might have he looked like he was going to take his own life and he's walking around uh um the center of Sydney and he he he sees a little crowd on the corner corner on the center of Sydney and he goes over to the crowd and there is EP field and EP field was a barrister and EP field was also part of a group called open air campaigners and he was telling people about Jesus on a straight corner and Ned tricket listened a couple of times came back went back to EP Field's rooms and EP field knew who he was and EP field LED Australia's first ever sporting world champion to a relationship with Jesus and he joined the Salvation Army and he followed Jesus for the rest of his life and it's just the most remarkable story and who would have thought thought that there were Christians Church connections to our winning world championships in the history of Australia and uh what a wonderful connection that is and and it's it's actually astounding because you know when you talk about your own family connection there on your wife's side and uh being connected to him it's interesting isn't it when you talk about the power of story how these stories they get passed down from generation to generation and they're contributing to the f that we have today so lots of people will be able to reflect on their own family heritage some can trace their way all the way back to maybe the First Fleet uh but the Christian elements on that they do get passed down sometimes there's some family members who go astray but lots of family members take notice of those and that's a strengthening for their faith isn't it any reflection on that totally and one of the things that Stuart pigan used when we interviewed Stuart pigan one of the points he made was in Australia the great dynasties of faith and that's so important so that when someone comes to Faith Like Ned tricket did it's not a solo event and it's just him there are dynasties of faith that are built out of that relationship with Jesus and one of the things that we do is is share our own stories on on faith runs deep and uh we we I chatted about my dad's story so when people ask me about how didd you become a Christian Carl I often say let me tell you about my dad my dad was an immigrant came from Germany um he came by himself to his sister was already here he promised his sister who'd follow her he in his mid-20s he had no faith background at all he then went to tanar Springs we talking about muta and and burah and now we're at tambar Springs new the tambar Springs is about 100 kilometers South probably slightly east of gadar this is Northwest New South Wales he went there to help on a farm sponsored out from Germany when he's there I was born there my brother was born there my my sister as well and and and he on a farm and then the local preacher Daryl um um I've forgotten his name now but Daryl decided that he wanted to have a a mission so um Daryl Robinson invited two City Slicker preachers John Chapman and John Turner and they turned up and everybody in town including my dad turned up to listen to these City Slicker preachers and at the end of this this one night my dad talked to John Turner John Turner led him in a prayer and he wrote down a little you know me Memoir he wrote himself that everything was different everything was different and uh and you know that changed our family's life and our family's trajectory it changed my life to move into the ministry I'm in it changed our kids lives you know my children their children you know and there's there's please God it would be a dasty of Faith but now there's just a fabulous fabulous story of Faith where somebody in this tiny little church in the back blocks of nowh where everybody would say has made a huge I think made a deep impact on my dad and therefore changed our family that's part of our story wonderful insight and so much value on the choices we make because those choices are going to affect the generations to come when those stories are passed down hey lovely talking about your visits into the Outback I know you love the Outback and you're about to go to an old stamping ground of mine one of my old hometowns Long Reach is uh due for an Unearthed event when's that coming up 14th of October and if you if you're if you're from Long Reach or anywhere near it you should be there just let people know how these events work and Ne the local churches all work together we basically partner with local churches it's not just us turning up to run an event and so the the key churches in Long Reach are going to be involved and they'll invite people and people from the community it's a pretty pretty simple event we have colum Buchanon the country music star come and uh he he's he does he always throws in a couple of these kid songs but it's just it's him as a country music artist and he he does and then we have somebody who will tell their story and in Long Reach we'll have Tim Kelly now that's that Tim Kelly's story is on faith runs deep and he'll I'll just tattoo him we'll do an interview and he'll tell his story stop for us we stop for the news but we're back to talking about Tim Kelly the world champion bull rider give us your insights here into his Amazing Story well the amazing amazing thing Neil was that I when we started this a friend of mine who lives in a regional area and he heard about us producing Faith runs deep and he said ah can I help it all and I said Duncan do you know a bull rider he said Yeah Tim Kelly's your man and Tim Tim lives at kingaroy we went to kingaroy and interviewed him on his e Farm where he runs a bull riding school actually so Neil if radio gets a bit tiresome for you and bull riding looks like an option Tim Kelly's your for for learning how to ride Bulls but Tim grew up riding bulls as a just basically as a young kid and he ended up going because there's bull riding and there's saddle Bron riding and he went to the Calgary Stampede as a Young Man U Back in the 70s and actually won the world saddle Bron championship at the Calgary sede I mean it's just massive and he comes back came back to Australia and he rode all over R in in in Western West and Queensland and New South Wales and is actually quite well known I mean people turn up when we have Tim Kelly we people turn up to listen to Tim Kelly because he's well known in those circles and uh but but Tim was was doing was very successful and uh and went to there was a million-dollar radio that was held being held between Sydney and Melbourne and all these riders came out from America because of the amount of money that was available this was in the 80s and uh and and and Tim you know I said Tim what would you like then he said well you know during the day and pick as much as I could at night and then get up the next day and be riding again that was his whole life and yet it it just was pretty Hollow and he saw these with his Rodeo on that these few the sure these American guys weren't going to the pub getting smashed with everybody else they going to a hall and and they were going to a meeting and he's like I I I don't know what those guys have got but I'm going to find out what those guys have got and he turned up at the hall there was a a biker telling his story and Tim thought if that guy if God can help that guy God can help me and uh he he gave his life to Jesus and then for the from then on became someone who would who would share his faith in the rodeo circuit uh and and continues to do that and uh you know when Tim's fans turn up NE uh they all have big hats and big belt buckles we' we got a story of young guy who who heard that Tim was coming to one of our Gatherings and for one of our one Earth events he just started going out with a girl who's part of a church in Northern New South Wales and he said to his girlfriend do you mind if I go to this and because the girlfriend's parents good Baptist Family were a bit unsure about this their daughter going out with this guy and this young guy who wasn't a Christian he turned up he listened to Tim Kelly because and he came because he saw the flyer and Tim Kelly's name was on the flyer and he said can I go to this they all turn up he gives his life to Jesus and he's met with the pastor s and just a fabulous story so we're seeing stories of Faith as we une Earth stories like Tim Kelly we actually find people who want to take steps of Faith I've just discovered that his wild ways earned him the the reputation with the nickname the Aussie drinking machine so there's a certain sense isn't there in which uh you know there's some things that do characterize our Outback and people do relate to that and so when there's a transformation story like that uh people do want to catch a hold of it they want to at least before they decide to change their own way actually find out what it's done for someone else so this is a game the power of story isn't it so you you have someone who tells their story and then others go well you know what I'm discovering that you know the sort of life I'm living is empty too and he's here's a different direction to go is that just let me take you just theologically here for a moment is this a part of the Gospel presentation that you can just tell the stories of people like this because it is a part of the the testimony we have as believers yeah because one of the things I talk about when when I speak at these un events is that that the Christian faith is transformational because often what people think about is that you know it's like good advice how to live a better life Kell's living a much better life than you as a drinking machine but the point is that it's not about it's not good advice it's good news and the good news person of Jesus and that's what makes a difference some because people come to to he St sttion that that story something else what happens Jesus comes and changes go ni that's going to make you a better person now that's a fa isation by the power of God Carle a little bit uh a little bit um fuzzy around the edges uh with your phone there just uh just check where you're holding that just for a moment in case that's something to do with uh the way the phone is or where you are in the room or how that might uh that might be but I know that there'll be a lot of people looking forward to hearing you tell the story of Tim Kelly and you're about to visit Long Reach in Queensland I think I think you said the 14th of October and no doubt there'll be listeners to our conversation right now saying where am I going to be able to hear this so is there is there a particular venue you've already got planned when you visit Long Reach that that material is coming together and let you know exactly where where that is like right now I can't tell you the venue is but that's all coming together and it be ready to long okay that's all coming together hey we got a little issue with this audio I'm going to try and see if we can take a few moments to see if we can fix that and uh so just bear with us uh some more great stories still to come hey Carl let's move on there's plenty of stories to tell we don't want to miss talking about maybe you know the people who have been helping to shape the values of our nation uh the things like um our politicians and the early Governors and such things these are the sorts of stories you're interested in too yeah because one of one of those that that helped enormously in in um shaping who we are is one of our earlier Governors Lan mcari in New South Wales and Lan mcari came out with his wife Elizabeth and I'll really shorten this story up quite a bit but he was a Christian guy he he and he and his wife Elizabeth were re the Bible together and asking what is it to be a Christian Governor now that's It's tricky to ask what is it to be a a Christian politician but when when you're the governor of a penal colony what does that mean and one of the things that became really important to him was if God gave me a second chance if God gave gave me this idea of uh forgiveness for my past shouldn't I extend that to other people so Governor blle the the governor before L mcquarry uh emancipated it's a long word which basically means gave freedom to but he gave freedom to or emancipated two convicts L mcari emancipated 1550 convicts now it was all about this notion of a a of a fresh start of a of a new opportunity now the Intriguing thing is you know I said right back in the beginning if people been with us all way through this conversation Neil I said right back in the beginning that people saw the convicts as not those who had committed a crime but those who had criminal character and and so there was this notion that you couldn't actually be redeemed and that was almost a part of the philosophical thinking of why they sent them so far from England because they they were irredeemable people L mcari said no nobody's irredeemable God redeemed me and God can redeem other people now I think if now L mcar is not a perfect story there's some a bunch of things about L mcquarry as a young man and then some couple of decisions when he was governor so no one's pretending that these people are perfect but he recognized that God gave him a second chance and he wanted to do that for other people and therefore I think set in our culture that that notion about giving everybody free a Second Chance kind of this this notion that that we do believe that you do get a second chance in life that's part of our culture as our our nation and I I think you look back to Lo mcari and say that could be part of that even after Lo mcari if you go a few more years Neil everyone listen to us if you especially live drive around country New South Wales places in Victoria places in Queensland you'll know that you drive into towns and people listening think about this you'll often Drive in country town and you'll see four churches they're about the same size and they look like they're about the same age and they look pretty similar so why would we have all those churches and one of the things that Stuart pigan discovered and told us about is a thing called the 1836 Church act now a governor after Lo mcari a few years after Lo mcari was a guy called Richard Burke he was a high Church Anglican but Richard Burke actually believed that if you're going to build a good community and a good Society you need religion to be a part of that and if you're going to have religion and Faith being a part of that you're going to have to help that be created they also Richard Burke and others also didn't like the fact that England was so sectarian there was a big divide between the Catholics and the anglicans and the anglicans the Church of England connected to the government and he was most unhappy about that but he wanted to see Faith be given an opportunity in a new emerging culture culture like Australia so he started the 1836 Church act you you what that was Neil that if you were in a community somewhere and you were a gathering of anglicans Catholics Wesleyan or methodists or Presbyterians the government would build your church for you and literally probably thousands of churches were built over a generation because of the 1836 Church Act and why do we have that amazing asset across Australia of all all of those Church buildings it was down to someone who said faith and religion is important to make this nation a great nation so the government working with churches to build social cohesion and Harmony in communities uh with as you say that need for religion which is good for society uh some some of us might be praying that those sorts of times will return again because right now and I'll just get a little comment from you here because right now it seems seem to be that churches are being ignored and avoided when it comes to the social cohesion and the flourishing of our society and there does seem to be and you don't have to look too deep to see that things not going so well in so many areas do you think there's some sort of Need for those stories to be told in such a way that it might even promote the same sort of government and church connections I look I don't think we're going to get the government paying for the building of our churches again but here the problem is if you go back back to the the pre-1950s Christian faith was quite Central to who we were as a nation then the 60s and70s sexual Revolution Vietnam War social Revolution there was this this whole sense of you know church now well that's that's the past era if you want to be a person of Faith you want to be a Christian knock yourself out but but you're now a bit irrelevant to the society in which we live Neil it changed again in the early 2000s and it changed from being irrelevant to being dangerous now this often came out of people like Richard Dawkins who said that his attitude of hands-off religion in the church went down with the the 9/11 Towers soor the the World Trade Center towers collapsed after the attack on them in in 9911 now people listening to us will say well that wasn't Christians but it but the notion was this is what religion does so religion Christianity inferred became a dangerous idea and so what do you do with dangerous ideas well you pull it out of the Public Square so you pull a dangerous idea out of the out of media out of schools out of universities and in some ways that's been the result and the response of a lot of people over the lot of lot of people in political leadership now partly there's a there's a kind of ideology behind that as well because there are certain political parties with an ideology that's quite anti-faith and anti-religion and therefore anything we can do to stamp that out we will do that and and there's been some pretty noted examples of politicians that have done that I I think we're on a time of change NE but I think what we need to do is push back to remind people exactly what um going back to the beginning of what I said exactly what Roy Williams was talking about this country was built on Christian capital and uh um and Neil this is a split this little piece that I'm saying now is a split between watching Jesus the game changer how the life and teaching of Jesus Chang the world and why it matters and Faith runs deep the stories of fa Faith within this country both those are important the ideological foundations of Australia which is a country built on Christian values Tom Holland does a whole bunch of that in his book dominion and then the stories of faith that have helped make this nation what it is they are both important and both are very significant at this time and I think any politician that that feels that standing against the church is the way to build country is missing both of those pieces of that puzzle words of wisdom let's squeeze in a call here Tim in Red Bank Creek in Queensland hey Tim welcome along good day good day uh Carl um I just thinking about you driving around in that V8 Ute is it one of the last ones ever made was it he's a man who knows his youths it's not quite the last ours is a 2013 VF SS SV um but in the last one was I think 2016 but but Tim it's it's very close to the end of the runs which is a great tragedy for manufacturing in our country think I think that that's what I was touching on I'm like you're driving a piece of Australian history um I bet it Sparks a lot of conversation and and it just embodies um the result of Godly governance in um you know since Federation that we had a car industry I think we had four four manufacturers at one stage had Mitsubishi Toyota Holden and and Ford and um now we've got nothing and and the politicians and the like would have you believe that every decision they make going forward is a smart one um regardless of what sector talking about you sit back as an observer and look at where we've come I mean I've got one of the last australian-made fridges I've got a westing house fridge that don't make fridges anymore it's got an Australian made sticker on it you know like and and um we can't buy an Australian made car luckily we still make Kenworth Trucks and Volvo trucks in Australia but for how long you know that the way the way Energy prices are going I mean it to me it just it just show shows that sadly now that um the country where we're reaping the rewards of the people that we put in place to govern our country I just thought you Tim you're making some good points there and uh that's interesting too because uh it is a political Insight that you're making here Tim the people who are shaping our culture and their attitudes to Faith and I guess you know if you're reflecting on uh the 200 plus years since colonization and the development of government and all of that time Carl some might be thinking oh this might be a partisan thing but um I guess there's been some strengths and some failures on both sides uh but there's always been this sort of connection to Faith even uh on conservative and Progressive politics yeah I really appreciate Tim's comment there and and interestingly we wanted to to to have some comments on both sides of the political spectrum and I wondered you know given some of the stances of much of the labor party in Australia at the moment you know would we find that and what I realized that I was demonstrating my ignorance Neil So if you go back if you go back to the late 19th century what what you actually find is that the labor party and the unions were actually driven by and dominated by Protestant Christianity and not not just you know Catholics uh the Catholic Christianity out of Ireland which there was a lot lot of that in the labor movement in the mid 20th century and the interesting thing is that um one of the people I discovered it was a guy called WG Spence now you might not have heard might not know the name WG Spence WG Spence came from the Wimer District of Victoria he started the he started the Shear's union he started the miners union he was key in the starting of the awu WG Spence was a presbyterian he was a Bible believing Sabbath observing tea toling Presbyterian and and WG Spence wasn't on his own in that space in fact one of the things that Roy Williams said to us let me give you three names from the labor movement in Australia one WG Spence just talked about second Andrew fiser who was the Prime Minister of Australia to three on three separate occasions around the the world wars and James McGowan the first labor party premier of New South Wales and Roy Williams said what did those three men have in common that before they went into politics they were the the head of the the Sunday School in each of their churches wow so so what you what you have and and even even in 1891 I think it was 1891 Steve Shor was telling me that there were like think 35 labor members voted into the New South Wales party at the New South Wales Parliament 21 of those were Protestants and the the Catholic paper writing about these Protestant politicians who were labor party members talked about the labor party being full of Bible punches and Pulpit Thumpers so that was the last time you heard the labor party described as Bible punches and Pulpit Thumpers I mean it was it said these these that whole movement was deeply influenced by Protestant Christianity well times do change and some might have that as their prayer for a labor party of the future I want to say thank you to Tim in Red Bank Creek I appreciate your call time has run out uh you're off to Long Reach uh just mentioning that you've been to Lon sester in tazzy uh you've been and done one of your Unearthed events in tumba you've been into rockampton in Queensland uh during beef week in rockampton uh you've teamed up with Colin Buchanan you mentioned he sings a few kids songs as well but uh does some great uh I guess you'd call that the worship entertainment part of your Gatherings he you you you've got a gathering coming up in Long Reach on the 14th of uh October um so how do people connect with the the lat things that you're doing Carl where's the best place for people to follow along with what you're doing maybe to subscribe to follow you on social media is there how to people follow you around and be a part of what good things you're doing so olivetree media.com do Au olivetree media.com Au all the details are there make sure you sign up for our newsletter you can actually sign up for the daily nudge the daily nudge is on uh Vision media as lots of other Christian stations but we also release that as a as a daily email so if you'd like to get a daily email from us like a Devotion to start your day all free no cost at all just go go to our our website and you can sign up for the newsletter which will keep you up to date is just a monthly prayer letter the the daily nudge so you can get a daily uh devotion between Monday to Friday and then you can look at all the all the material that we do we got a lot going on and it's really exciting and we're looking forward to both because we get into next year Neil we're we're we're right now we're going to wager in February we're going to gadar after Easter we're talking a Duo at the moment so there be a whole bunch of the une events in 2025 as well and for all these great stories that you're able to tell some of those no doubt are part of these earlier series that you've done Faith runs deep and uh the Jesus the game changer and for people who wanting to connect with those of course olivetree media.com auu and uh they make good church and small group um series to go through as well Kyle FaZe is the CEO of Olive Tree media Carl always good catching up let's do another little update sometime soon on how you're going with that you to yours and getting around the place and the Unearthed events but appreciate you very much and thank you so much for taking some time to share your heart with us today on 2020 always good to be with you thank you thanks for taking time to listen to this audio on demand from Vision Christian Media to find out more about us go to vision.org.au [Music]