Towards Belief
Olive Tree Media

What’s standing in the way of Australians contemplating Christianity as a viable worldview? Three years ago, Sydney pastor Karl Faase and his production company Olive Tree Media commissioned social researchers McCrindle to find out. What they discovered is equal parts insightful and sad. The church, it turns out, is a major “belief blocker”: specifically, a perceived history of violence and abuse in the church, its stance on homosexuality and the general perception of the church as a dying institution. Other things they found to be standing in the way of belief were questions about suffering, miracles, the exclusivity of Christianity and the perception that it clashes with a scientific worldview.

Using these findings, Olive Tree Media went on to create a 10-part TV/DVD series called Towards Belief. Each episode of the series which first aired on the Australian Christian Channel last year responds to one of the issues identified by Australians. To get the best, most eloquent and satisfying answers, host Karl Faase takes the viewer around the world to speak with 31 leading Christian thinkers. We’re given access to Oxford’s hallowed halls to meet with Professors and leading apologists, to America to hear top academics like Stanley Hauerwas, and into the heart of Los Angeles to meet pastor of Hollywood, Erwin McManus. Among the international stars is a handful of Aussie Christians, including John Dickson and Bible Society CEO Greg Clarke.

The series, which has won awards locally and is due to be launched shortly in the UK, meets a need in the evangelism materials market. To have something so carefully tailored to the belief blockers of non-Christians in the west is unique, and hence, extremely valuable.

Available for use in large or small groups as an evangelistic or training tool, we used the DVD series at my church small group earlier in the year. The great strength of Towards Belief was the depth with which each of the belief blockers was handled. The issues were thoroughly explored, at an academic and a personal level. Watching the episodes fostered robust discussion among our group about issues which Christians are likely to overlook. As a group of believers, it was especially exciting to ‘meet’ these leading thinkers around the world on their own turf, whether it be their study, a garden at Oxford, or their church. There was a sense in which we had been given exclusive access to these people (Karl Faase certainly had!).

But the weakness of the series is perhaps the flipside of such a strength. These leading thinkers, while well known in the Christian world, are obscure, even unknown to your average Australian. While what they said was interesting, the credibility of those speaking could perhaps be lost on a non-Christian. Likewise, they sometimes seemed to be speaking about non-believers and their beliefs as if they weren’t present or listening. Though a minor issue, at times it felt like the series was more appropriate for training Christians in apologetics than evangelising non-Christians. Perhaps Olive Tree Media had this as a twin aim—but it’s a fine and difficult balance between the two. I understand the series has been shown to students in the latter years of high school who are attending Christian schools. This seems like the perfect audience—some who are Christians, others who are familiar with Christianity.

For a church or Christian organisation wanting its members to think more deeply about how to engage with their non-Christian friends and family about issues at the core of their rejection of Christianity at an intellectual level, this series is perfect. As an evangelism tool, it may still be useful if used with the right kind of (deep thinking) person.