"In a word - sensational!" said Bible Society NSW CEO, Daniel Willis when asked to describe the impact of the just concluded 'Jesus. All about life' campaign across New South Wales and Western Australia.
"It was bigger than we ever thought it would be in terms of the number of churches who registered and the amount of exposure and coverage we received in local, national and international press," Daniel said.
"Throughout the almost eight weeks of the campaign, conversations about Jesus were a part of everyday life," he said. "The campaign raised an awareness of spirituality and people seemed more willing and prepared to speak about their beliefs," he said.
The 'Jesus. All about life' campaign has been six years coming to NSW and Western Australia. Developed by Bible Society NSW as a way of 'engaging with culture', the campaign has previously run in Adelaide (South Australia), Canberra and the Australian Capital Territory and across all Tasmania. It ran across Sydney, NSW and Western Australia, 'book-ending' Australia with the Gospel, during September and October, 2009.
The Western Australian campaign had been planned for 2008, but difficulties in fundraising meant that they decided to work in with NSW for a co-ord inated two-state approach.
Using prime-time media and modern marketing techniques to preach the Gospel is something relatively new for many Churches and Christian leaders in the 21st Century but 50 years ago Australians experienced the last nation wide attempt at evangelism with the four-month long Billy Graham Crusade of 1959. Dr Graham and his team were well versed in how to use the media of the day and a recent Australian produced documentary, to mark the 50th anniversary of the nation-wide Crusade, noted that it was Graham's use of the media that helped him to be so effective.
"Jesus. All about life seeks to bring a positive message to the community about the person of Jesus and the Christian message," said Karl Faase, one of the founders of the campaign. "The campaign leans on the example of the Apostle Paul in Acts 17. Rather than condemn the Athenians who met in the Areopagus, Paul used their own culture and their worship of 'the unknown God' to explain the Gospel to them," he said.
"The 'Jesus. All about life' campaign has sought to do the same over the past six years. The campaign also recognises the power of the 'word of God' to take root in people lives as seen in the Parable of the Sower of Luke 8:1-15," Karl said.
The first three campaigns (which ran in 2005, 2006 and 2008) used billboards, posters outside churches and prime-time television and radio advertising to challenge people to find out for themselves what 'Jesus said about life'.
"Rather than criticise people who don't believe in the Bible or make them feel guilty, we wanted to use this campaign to encourage them to find out for themselves what Jesus said about the things we all experience every day," said Daniel Willis.
"Our research for the first three campaigns revealed what many of us in the church already knew - that the church and Christianity were pretty low on people's list of hot topics, but that the person of Jesus was far more likely to attract people's interest," he said.
"Because we were bringing the campaign to Sydney, some say A ustralia's most sophisticated city, we decided to carry out some additional research," Daniel said. "We wanted to be sure that whatever 'creative' we used here would have the desired impact."
Bible Society commissioned McCrindle Research to look at the hot topics facing the people of Sydney and creative agency '303' to develop new print and television commercials.
"It's the Holy Grail," said 303 Managing Director, John McKie. "To be asked to work on a campaign to increase awareness of the church and Christian faith is what every agency dreams about," he said.
For Bible Society, getting the creative right for the Sydney market was only one element of the campaign.
"McCrindle Research and 303 helped us to refocus the campaign for Sydney, but the work they did behind the scenes would have had little or no impact if the key strategy of church engagement didn't work," Daniel said.
"Right from the beginning over six years ago, we knew that the only way this would work is if every denomination and local chur ch got on board in the city or state where the campaign was running," he said.
"Bringing 'Jesus. All about life' to Sydney and NSW took over two years of work, but now we can give thanks to God that for the first time ever in the history of the church in Australia, fifteen major denominations and 1,790 churches linked together under the 'Jesus. All about life' banner," Daniel said.
"Although denominationally the Catholic Church didn't come out in support of the NSW campaign, the Catholic Bishops of Wollongong, Newcastle, Broken Bay and Parramatta were all strong advocates and therefore many of their local parishes were involved," he said.
"We encouraged all of these churches to be involved in local evangelism and during the campaign, churches held 2,300 separate outreach events. Driving along Sydney's suburban streets, you saw 'Jesus. All about life' signs and banners outside churches, homes and on bus shelters," he said. "In some communities these 'Jesus. All about life' banners and signs were stolen which gave the local press a good story. This generated a whole lot more conversations about why the 'Jesus' banners in particular were the ones targeted by thieves," Daniel said.
The budget for the Sydney and NSW campaign, including the year-long lead up, was $3.1m.
"We had hoped the majority of this funding would have come from churches and the Christian business community, as it did in the three earlier campaigns, but it fell a fair bit short and so the board of Bible Society NSW agreed that the Society should fund the shortfall which was just over $2m," he said.
Like many things the church does, 'Jesus. All about life' had its critics. There were fake web sites and some sections of the media saw it as an opportunity for ridicule.
"We knew from the previous campaigns that people would have fun at our expense, but it was more disappointing to find that some Christians failed to understand what the campaign was about. They wanted to work from their fundamentalist ghetto and have people come to them whereas the 'Jesus. All about life' campaign is about the church getting out and engaging with the community around the name of Jesus," Daniel said.
Jesus Racing
One of the successes of this engagement has been the ministry of Jesus Racing. Andrew Fisher first approached the Bible Society at the beginning of 2007 as the campaign was developing in Tasmania.
Andrew had been racing cars off and on for a number of years and was looking at driving in the Yokohama V8 Ute series. "As a Christian I wanted to have some form or Christian symbol on my car. I thought of a fish symbol but Annie, my wife, suggested I put the 'Jesus. All about life' brand on the side of the Ute," Andrew said. "I knew Karl and Martin and the team who developed the campaign in Adelaide and so I knew it was a great fit with what I wanted to do in the Ute series," he said.
"It certainly made an impact when we lined up on the grid for the first race in what became known as the 'Jesus' car, but as people got used to it, we found that we were actively engaging with p eople around the person of Jesus. It's about the branding and interacting with people, not about handing out tracts or proselytising," said Andrew.
Andrew's profile as a racing driver has given him unprecedented opportunities to speak in schools, churches and men's conferences about why he has Jesus on his car. In the past three years he has spoken to over 50,000 students each year in state and private schools across Australia. He has also been invited to speak in gaols and detention centres.
"Whilst we're serious about motor racing, we're also very intentional about engaging with the public. At the recently held Bathurst 1000 event, we set up an elevated walkway so people could come into our pit area and look down on what was happening. This is the first time this has ever been done. We had members of our Jesus Racing team who were there to interact with the public. It was like a mini 'Jesus. All about life' campaign at the race track," said Andrew.
That Jesus Racing has had an impact is illustrated by the story of Brett Davidson. Brett was invited to hear Andrew speak at a church in Hobart in the lead up to the Tasmanian 'Jesus. All about life' campaign in 2008.
"Church was never a part of my life," said Brett. "But Andrew spoke well and I was impressed with this guy who was brazen enough to put Jesus on his car," he said.
Brett raced Go Karts as a hobby and although not a mechanic, Andrew invited Brett to be a part of the engineering team that worked on the Ute at each race event. In June this year after the V8 Ute round in Darwin, Andrew took the opportunity to talk to Brett about Christian faith.
"We'd had a few conversations before but this time Andrew expressed concern about my eternity - where was I going? I was challenged by what he said. I always thought I knew what was right and what was wrong but after accepting Jesus, I now have a new right and a new wrong," he said.
"Andrew's character challenges me - he has the knack of pulling you up in your thought processes and he taught me that having Jesus on the outside is not what it's about - it's having him on the inside, that counts," Brett said.
Brett says he still has some way to go in his relationship with God, but that he knows he has made the right decision.
What's next?
When asked 'what's next?' Daniel Willis says that this campaign has identified a number of things that he will be looking at over the next few months.
"For the first time, many churches have realised that they can work together in engaging with their local community. Some churches have told me that they will use their 'Jesus. All about life' banners throughout the year whenever they have a special series of sermons," said Daniel.
"Jesus. All about life has been a great indicator of the way in which we can facilitate Christians coming together to engage with their friends about the person of Jesus. What we have seen happen in NSW and Western Australia and in the three earlier campaigns, has demonstrated that Bible Society has an enormous amount of goodwill. This is a privilege and on e we don't take lightly. Because of that, we want to continue to help Christians engage together in meaningful outreach for Jesus," Daniel said.
Missions
Prime-time media campaign puts Jesus on the agenda
Jesus. All about life campaign runs across NSW and WA in Australia
By: Martin Johnson
Wednesday, 2 December 2009, 11:36 (EST)
Have your say on this article
Added: Friday, 4 December 2009, 8:48 (EST)
Anything which can have over 1,600 churches working together to focus attention on Jesus has to be a good thing! Well done to all the churches who put up their hand to be a part. As a Christian School community with families from over 120 churches in Sydney we were thrilled to help promote it through our blogsite.
Neil Pierson, Belrose Sydney Australia
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