DAVID ADAMS speaks with Sydney-based Christian communicator and film producer Karl Faase about Olive Tree Media’s new DVD series, Jesus The Game Changer…
“The problem with Christians today is most of them in Western nations are badgered into fearful silence,” says Christian film producer Karl Faase.
“And we need to move them into confident engagement. And the distance between those two things obviously is experience of Jesus. And the other is information that gives them confidence. And this will do that.”
Karl Faase, host and executive producer of Jesus The Game Changer, with producer Jane Faase and director Simon Hunter at the series’ launch in Sydney.
“The problem with Christians today is most of them in Western nations are badgered into fearful silence. And we need to move them into confident engagement. And the distance between those two things obviously is experience of Jesus. And the other is information that gives them confidence. And this will do that.”
– Karl Faase.
The ‘this’ he’s referring to is Olive Tree Media’s new 10 part DVD series, Jesus: The Game Changer, which the prominent Sydney-sider has recently launched as a follow-up to the 2013 successful series, Towards Belief, which looked at 10 “belief blockers” to the Christian faith.
Filmed over five months in late 2016 and early this year at various locations across the globe, the latest series provides an introduction to the person of Jesus in episode number one with subsequent DVDs examining the difference Jesus has made and influence He has had in a range of spheres – from ‘education and health’ to ‘leadership,’ forgiveness’, and ‘women and children’.
Mr Faase, executive producer and host of the series, says that while the DVDs will prove “very helpful for Christians in need of confidence in their faith and confidence that Jesus changes both the world and has changed the world and is worth following”, they’ll also be useful for people who don’t yet have a faith.
“[I]f you’re exploring faith and the ideas of faith and you’ve been a bit dismissive of it because you haven’t got good information, [it will] help with that as well.”
Mr Faase says that one of the strengths of the DVDs, which cost just under $500,000 to produce and were funded from donations from individuals and various foundations, is that they don’t just provide historical facts, but also feature people’s testimonies about their faith.
“[I]f you’re kind of more connected to people’s stories, the whole pathos idea, that’s plenty of that there as well. So it really broadens the audience….”
A great deal of research and reading went on before the team – who also included director Simon Hunter and producer (and Mr Faase’s wife) Jane Faase – decided who to feature on the DVD.
“For some people, their experience of life is what you’re looking at, so (former) Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson – we talked to him about a couple of areas in leadership and democracy, so it’s kind of his experience, almost professionally,” Mr Faase says.
“And then there are other people who have had personal experiences like, for instance, Hashim Garrett, who, as a 15-year-old was shot in the back in… Brooklyn and became a paraplegic and (it’s about) the process of him forgiving the person who shot him…
“And then there are just authors like Rodney Stark or Vishal Mangalwadi or John Ortberg – they’ve written around the areas that we wanted to cover in the series and so it’s their kind of academic background, their writing, that we were kind of looking towards.”
Others featured in the series include US radio host and author Eric Metaxas, and Miroslav Volf, professor of theology at Yale Divinity School.
Mr Faase says that one of the things that most surprised him while making the series was the extent to which the teachings of Jesus influenced the monastic movement and the influence that movement subsequently had on Western capitalism.
“What most people don’t know is that one of the great influences of capitalism was actually the growth and financial success of monasteries… And I think that there’s a whole area about the influence of the monastic movement in capitalism and then in evangelism – there’s a guy called Jaroslav Pelikan, who died a few years ago, who’s written a brilliant book called Jesus Through The Centuries and he basically says that monks and the monastic movement won Europe to Jesus…It was a remarkable thing.”
Mr Faase says he was also reinspired by the work of William Wilberforce and the Clapham Sect during the making of the series.
“They just changed England….And most people forget that William Wilberforce had two great aims in life – one, the abolition of slavery, but two, was the reformation of manners. And the reformation of manners was really all about morality. And one of his aims was to make goodness fashionable…”
Mr Faase says not only did this have a tremendous influence on the culture of the time, the changes came amid great opposition. “We forget that, [firstly], to make enormous change with the values of Jesus costs and doesn’t come cheaply. And, secondly, that the reason change happens is because people are committed to it. And I found that enormously inspiring.”
While it’s suitable to watch alone, Mr Faase says, with episodes less than half an hour, the series is also ideal for small groups.
“Because of the subject matter… it means it really lends itself to open up discussion in really positive ways,” he says.
To support its use by small groups, there is a 96 page discussion guide and an app – which contains the discussion guide, links to Bible verses, background information on the speakers, a note-taking capability and feedback option. It will also feature extended versions of the interviews with some of those featured on the DVD at a later date.
The series, which will be shown globally on cable TV, is initially being released as a DVD and digital download in Australia and New Zealand as well as the UK and North American markets but Mr Faase says it is envisaged it will be released in other markets at a later date.
