SYDNEY (ANS) -- Karl Faase has a real vision to impact Australia with the Gospel. He has had a varied career and most people will know him as the identity of ‘Face to Face’ a profile chat show..... So, what has been his journey? Martin Johnson tells us.
 


In his final year of his four-year ministry degree at Morling, the Australian Baptist theological college in New South Wales, Karl Faase took part in a two-day retreat. As part of the retreat, students were asked to do a reflection exercise.

“At the end of the two days I had a very real sense that God was giving me a clear and personal vision to impact Australia for Jesus,” said Karl. “I didn’t understand this as a promise that would happen nor did I think this was something that only I could do. Rather it was just a very clear call that the decisions I made in my life should be aligned with this vision from God,” Karl continued.

“As I look at what God has enabled me to do since those two-days of retreat, I get a very real sense that I am moving towards the goal that God placed on my life all those years ago,” said Karl. 
 
 
Karl Faase’s daytime job (as he calls it) is as Senior Pastor of Gymea Baptist Church in Sydney’s south however he is probably best known as the host of ‘Face to Face’ a Christian television chat show and the voice behind over 400, one minute radio spots which air around Australia.

Face to Face started life as a Network TEN show produced for the network by Christian Television Australia (CTA) but now airs on the Australian Christian Channel.

Each ‘Face to Face’ episode features two guests who are interviewed about their faith. At the end of the show, guest commentator Richard Quadrio, a Sydney based minister, joins Karl and the two guests.

“Richard’s job is to watch the first two interviews and then try and bring it all together and back to the Bible,” said Karl. “Not that we deliberately stay away from Biblical themes – after all, that’s the whole aim of the show, but Richard always finds a link between sometimes very unconnected guests and their stories and brings them together. He usually has a few friendly jabs at me as well – but that’s all part of the fun,” Karl said.

“Everyone loves a good story and we chose people to come on the show who are not only Christians, but who also have an unusual element to their story. Sometimes it’s a story of real hardship or sickness or maybe its just dealing with external issues that most of us would have difficulty in facing. I suppose we look to inspire our audience as they listen to our guests,” said Karl.

The current series of Face to Face airs on Monday nights at 7.30pm on the Australian Christian Channel with two repeats during the week. (The program is also shown on Shine TV in New Zealand and UCB TV in the UK) Guests in the new series include Colin Buchanan, Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen, singer Marina Prior, Pastor Chris Pringle from Christian City Church and NSW Police Commissioner, Andrew Scipione.

Rural background
Karl grew up in Tambar Springs, a small country town about 100kms south-east of Gunnedah in northern NSW.

“My Dad, Hans Faase, followed his sister out from Germany after the war and was offered a job on a property owned by Colin Strang. Dad had never worked on the land before, having trained in youth and social work in Germany. He travelled to Sydney for English lessons and met Florence Tutt. They married and moved back to Tambar Springs,” Karl said.

“Mum was a regular attender at the local Anglican Church. The minister often spoke about Jesus being ‘the light of the world’. My Dad went with Mum one Sunday, heard the message and they both accepted Jesus Christ as their saviour. Dad enrolled in a Bible correspondence course at Moore College and got involved with the local CEBS group (Church of England Boys Society) where he put his youth and social work training into use,” Karl said.

“He was thinking of going into the ministry, but they were invited by the Anglican Bishop of Armidale, Clive Kerle, to become house parents at Coventry Home in Armidale. This was an Anglican Children’s home which also became my home until I was 17. I made a commitment of faith at an outdoor evangelistic mission at The Entrance when I was 11,” said Karl.

After leaving school, Karl worked for Commercial Banking Company of Sydney in Lithgow before completing an Associate Diploma of Social Welfare in Newcastle. He then accepted a position as youth worker at Beecroft Uniting Church in Sydney’s north-west.

“While working at Beecroft I felt called to the ministry and enrolled in Morling College. I then moved to Hornsby Baptist where I worked for four years,” Karl said.

Developing Young Leaders
In 1989 Karl accepted a call to Syndal Baptist in Victoria as Youth Minister. During his time in college and his ministry at Syndal, Karl was asked to consider involvement in a wider ministry and attended ‘Singapore 87’, a conference for young leaders.

This led to an invitation to Lausanne II in Manila and then an invitation to join the Victoria State Lausanne committee. It was his work on this committee that led Karl and Stephen Hale, the then director of Anglican Youth ministry in Melbourne to set up the 1994 ‘Emerging Leaders in Evangelism’ conference.

Karl and Stephen then travelled to the USA to meet with Leighton Ford to discuss bringing the Arrow Leadership Program, founded by Dr Ford, back to Australia.

Since its inception in 1995, Arrow Australia has been involved in developing more than 200 Christian leaders in Australia, some of whom are now leading Australia’s largest Churches, key mission organisations and denominational structures.


Back to Sydney
In 1994, Karl accepted a call from Gymea Baptist Church in Sydney to join them as Associate Minister. As he left the Syndal church, Jenny Brown, wife of Senior Minister Bill Brown and a good friend, suggested to Karl that he should look at getting involved in Christian media.

“I thanked her for her faith in me, but thought to myself, ‘that’s never going to happen’,” Karl said.

Despite Karl’s hesitancy, his move back to Sydney aroused the interest of the Christian Television Association of NSW (CTA). “They thought I might be a potential host for a series of weekly programs they produced for the Seven Network. ‘Challenges’ aired at 10am on a Friday morning so it wasn’t a bad timeslot,” said Karl. “I hadn’t set out to be involved in Christian media, but somehow it began to happen.”

Prime time media campaign
Karl’s CTA contacts led him to being asked to chair a year-long series of meetings to look at how Churches could make a more significant impact for the Gospel using media.

“We produced a report that recommended that the Churches of Australia should look seriously at using prime-time media to raise interest in ‘what Jesus said about life’,” Karl said.

“With the support of the CEO of Bible Society NSW Daniel Willis, who was looking for a way of engaging with the community around the person of Jesus, the ‘Jesus. All about life’ campaign was born,” Karl said.

Karl worked on developing the campaign with the writer and ‘Jesus. All about life’ has now run in Adelaide, Canberra/ACT and Tasmania and across NSW and WA throughout September and October, 2009. Early reports indicate it has had a significant impact in helping local churches reach out to their communities.

This year (2009) is also the 50th anniversary of the first Billy Graham Crusade that ran for four months in 1959 across Australia and New Zealand. Under his own company, Olive Tree Media, Karl hosted a one-hour television documentary Remembering ’59 that looked at the impact of the Crusade.

“As we talked to people who came to faith in 1959, we came across some moving accounts of God’s spirit in people’s lives,” said Karl.

“One of the highlights was when we interviewed Ron and Beryl Baker for the special,” said Karl. “Ron’s story of alcohol and drug addiction and then his amazing conversion, theological training and his becoming an evangelist was truly miraculous. When the program went to air, Peter Ritchard, the young counsellor who spoke to Ron when we went forward at the Sydney meetings, was watching. He hadn’t heard anything from Ron for 50 years and here was Ron, talking about his life of service to God. Peter contacted Ron and they had a marvelous re-union,” Karl said.

“We were also contacted by man in Perth who was subsequently converted under Ron Baker’s ministry and together with his two sons, has been involved in Christian ministry ever since,” said Karl.

When Craig Corkill, senior pastor of Narrara Baptist Church on the NSW Central Coast watched the DVD, he was reminded of his father’s conversion at the ’59 Crusade.

“The DVD had a significant impact on me as it was at one of the ’59 meetings that my Dad became a follower of Jesus. One of his mates from work had been witnessing to him and then invited him to one of the meetings. Dad gave his life to Jesus and continues in his faith to this day. My own faith in Jesus and calling into pastoral ministry has been very influenced by my Dad’s passion for Jesus and His good news. Dad, along with mum, have continued to share their faith and disciple people,” said Craig.

  
“The DVD has lifted my eyes to look beyond the day to day decisions of leadership, preparation for sermons, planning facilities, taking weddings and funerals. It’s lifted my eyes to dream again and pray again for God to move in power. It’s inspired me to commit myself afresh to doing whatever it takes to see God’s Kingdom extended here on the Central Coast, in our nation and beyond into the world,” concluded Craig.

Whilst Karl never set out to develop a career in Christian media, he does recognise the impact it has around Australia.

“As I got involved, I developed a growing passion to use Christian media outlets to impact the wider community with the message of Jesus,” he said. “One of the trends I have noticed over the past ten years, is that Christian radio in particular has undergone remarkable growth, to where it is reckoned that over three million people listen each week across Australia.”

Karl’s media interests and local church leadership led to the production of two DVD based courses, linked to the Jesus. All about life campaign.

“We produced a training course called ‘Getting Ready for Mission’ which is a series of short talks on DVD to help small groups and churches get ready for events such as Jesus. All about life. We also produced an ‘Alpha’ style follow-up course so that churches interested in helping people find out more about the Christian faith had a locally produced resource to use,” Karl said. “Both have been widely used around NSW and WA as churches prepared for Jesus. All about life,” he said.

Committed to the local church
In spite of his involvement with these ‘extra curricular activities’ Karl is still committed to the local church.

“If the Australian community is to be impacted by Jesus, it will be through the local church reaching into its local community,” he said. “That’s what I love about the ‘Jesus. All about life’ campaign as it enables local churches to be a part of a major, prime-time advertising campaign while at the same time reaching out to their local community about the person of Jesus,” he said.

“My heart is that the Gospel would be strong in every community through the local church. The more I can do to train potential leaders and encourage them to be active in the local church – this is the best way of resourcing our country,” he said.

Evidence of Karl’s commitment is a building program underway at Gymea Baptist Church. Planned for completion at the end of 2009, the program will double the size of the church property with a new 570 seat auditorium.

“I want to get to the end of my active ministry and look back and believe that I took and created as many opportunities as possible to impact Australia for Jesus,” he said.

“Whether that actually happens will not be for me to judge. Jesus, through his Spirit, makes the impact and others in the future will judge as to whether my ministries had any lasting impact. My task is to live a committed life of grace and integrity,” said Karl.

“One of my mottos is taken from the words of legendary Rugby League coach, Wayne Bennett. He was watching the Queensland State of origin team train and noticed some players stopping short of the designated finish line. He told them not to finish ‘three steps short’. ‘The team that finishes their training three steps short, will finish behind in the game,’ Wayne said to them. That’s my goal – never to stop three steps short,” said Karl.

Karl can be contacted via www.olivetreemedia.com.au

Martin Johnson has spent 30 years working in Christian media. After 20 years at Sydney's Wesley Mission and six years with Bible Society, he now runs his own Communications Consultancy in Sydney. During his time at Bible Society he helped develop the 'Jesus. All about life' campaign which has run across five Australian states. He can be contacted at: martin.johnson@bigpond.com http://www.martinjohnsoncommunications.com.au