Week 01 - Will faith continue to run deep?
Welcome to Faith Runs Deep! While Christian faith is often seen as having a minimal or even a negative effect on Australian history and culture, we find through this series that is not the case. People of faith have so often been the forerunners in many aspects of our culture, including business, politics, sport and philanthropy. The first episode of this series introduces a number of our guests and how they see faith running deep in Australia, and Duncan Brown shares his personal story.
26 mins
Week 02 - The God of the Second Chance
Lachlan Macquarie and his wife Elizabeth were dedicated Christians who believed in forgiveness and giving second chances. As governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821, Macquarie emancipated or set free more convicts than any governor before him. This episode of Faith Runs Deep shows how Christian faith and practice underpins many key values in Australian society. Roy Williams also tells his personal story, his self-confessed ignorance of God, and how he came to realise the truth of the Gospel.
26 mins
Week 03 - Eternity in our Hearts
The history of the treatment of the First Nations people of this nation is an awful story, full of injustice, which continues to impact lives and communities today. The Christian Church was seen as complicit and at times active in the process of colonisation. Yet, in the complexity of history, we find that the only people speaking out about the injustice of the time were Christians and those like John Gribble and Lancelot Threlkeld sought to bring the message and love of Jesus to the Indigenous people. This episode of Faith Runs Deep explores the painful past and the hope for the future that many have for reconciliation and restoration. Indigenous elder, Riverbank Frank speaks about Indigenous activist Bill Ferguson, as well as his own personal story of coming to faith in Christ and finding the stories of Jesus were not as he had once believed, hollow.
26 mins
Week 04 - The Melting Pot
Australia is a melting pot of cultures. People from all over the world have come to call Australia home and have often brought with them aspects from their own cultures. While the First Fleet was forced immigration, the free settlers that came later started waves of immigration that continue to today. This episode looks at people such as JD Lang and George Fife Angas who came to this country as people of faith, and who helped shape this nation. We also hear Tony Hoang’s incredible personal story, who as a second-generation immigrant, became a drug-dealer at 14, was jailed, came to the end of himself, and had God break into his life in a miraculous way.
26 mins
Week 05 - That Other Religion
Australia is a sports-mad nation, often showing a religious-like zeal when it comes to competition. And yet, sports has not taken the place of Christianity in Australia. This episode introduces a number of sporting professionals, both from history and today, who found winning does not deliver true fulfillment and joy. We hear from Olympian Eloise Wellings, bull rider Tim Kelly, former AFL player Shaun Hart and racing car driver Andrew Fisher. Former NRL player, Peter Gibbs, also shares his own rise and fall story and how finding faith in Jesus saved his life.
26 mins
Week 06 - The Least, the Last and the Lost
Christian faith has often motivated people to make remarkable sacrifices for others. Founder of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, John Flynn, was an outback preacher who saw a need for practical medical help for those living in the bush. His faith motivated him to find a solution, bringing about incredible innovations and inventions that served wider purposes than those he had started out with. John Flynn’s story is just one of thousands in this nation where people of faith have decided to use their life and resources to aid others. In this episode we hear from Red Frogs founder Andy Gourley, Director of Fusion on the Mornington Peninsula Gemma Bell, and Bernadette Black tells her personal story of being a teen-parent and going on to found a charity devoted to helping expecting and parenting teens around Australia.
26 mins
The Church Campaign is a specific series designed for churches to run across all their ministries – services, small group and children. It’s an opportunity to bring everyone together to explore the landscape of faith in Australia, consider how we pass faith on and how the Gospel changes lives.
The Church Campaign uses 6 of the 12 Faith Runs Deep episodes as a springboard and supplies sermon notes, children’s programs, graphics for promotions, video clips, PowerPoints and discussion guide questions.
The Church Campaign covers the following topics:
Week 1: Will faith continue to run deep? – Episode 1
Week 2: The God of the Second Chance – Episode 3
Week 3: Eternity in our Hearts – Episode 4
Week 4: The Melting Pot – Episode 5
Week 5: That Other Religion – Episode 6
Week 6: The Least, the last and the lost – Episode 7