coffee break 15 FEBRUARY 2020
A minute with ...
Season 2 of Jesus series released
Michelle Smoker
Michelle Smoker is a part of the Accounts team at Baptist Churches Western Australia (BCWA), looking after the bookkeeping for a number of Baptist churches around Western Australia, along with the camping centres. The Advocate caught up with Michelle to learn more about her. Share a little bit about yourself … I was raised on a farm in the Wheatbelt town of Kondinin. I left the farm in 2001 due to drought, moving to the South West for seven years before moving to Perth in 2009 to start work at Baptist Churches Western Australia. What led you to Baptist Churches Western Australia? In 2008, I was undertaking some casual work with V8 Supercars while working in Dunsborough. This meant on race weekends I was flying around Australia, which became quite taxing, so I decided that I would move to Perth to be closer to the airport. Then a friend of mine shared about a job at BCWA, which was a perfect fit – being able to serve in ministry with churches in WA. You’re passionate about seeing churches released to minister to their communities. How does the bookkeeping you do tie in with this? For me, doing the bookkeeping for churches is not just a desk job – I feel I am a part of each church. And if I can take some of the load off the pastoral team, then it frees them up to reach their communities, which means I am impacting communities as well.
Olive Tree Media released a new season of Jesus the Game Changer in late 2019. The new season is focused on the spread of Christianity from a backwater in the Roman Empire to being a truly global faith – geographically and ethnically. While the first season of Jesus the Game Changer focused on helping Christians and the wider community understand the influence of the life and teaching of Jesus, the second season is about the mission of the church. Olive Tree Media CEO, Karl Faase, emphasised that this season’s focus was to motivate and inspire the local church to “make Jesus’ last words their first priority”. Olive Tree Media Chair, Greg Hammond OAM, spoke of the heart and motivation of this ministry at a celebration event. “The past five years have seen Olive Tree Media be a catalyst for the proclamation of the gospel, particularly through the production of high-quality and well-researched resources to help equip the people of God,” Greg said. Greg appreciated the ministry of Karl Faase and his wife Jane, and commended their “passion fuelled by their love for Jesus, their love for the people of God and a love for those who do not yet know Jesus as Lord and Saviour”. During the evening, Jane, producer of Jesus the Game Changer, shared some of the stories from the making of this new
season. She spoke of the team filming overseas for 68 days out of 100, travelling to 11 countries and 65 different locations, as well as interviewing 50 different guests. There were challenging times of sickness and a cancelled flight, which resulted in a ten hour overnight drive to Chicago. There were many wonderful moments of filming, including having Westminster Abbey to themselves before it opened to the public; visiting Lord’s Cricket Ground, The British Museum and the stone churches of Lalibela in Ethiopia; and then enjoying up to two metres of snow in Minnesota. Karl shared the plan to run a campaign across Australian churches in May 2020, using the new series to inspire and motivate local churches to evangelism and mission. The evening concluded with Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Glenn Davies praying for Olive Tree Media and the influence of Jesus the Game Changer to reach the ends of the earth. To purchase Jesus the Game Changer: To the Ends of the Earth, and to access the Bible study guides, visit jesusthegamechanger.com
Has technology helped to release churches in this area? Yes, this means that churches can send everything through to us digitally and we receive it instantly and can process it easier. With the Xero accounting software churches can see things live, so they can go online and see exactly where they are at. How do you separate yourself effectively from work and rest? This one is a work in progress. Some days are good and some days are not. But when I leave the office each day, I walk out and tell myself, “My day is done,” and then I go and enjoy life and do things for myself, like walking, cooking, gardening and puzzles. What do you think God has been trying to say to you lately? All things take time and know that my time is not always God’s time, so I have to trust in God’s time and believe in the promises that He has given us.
Photo: Olive Tree Media
Q. Who was the greatest comedian in the Bible? A. Samson. He brought the house down.
Olive Tree Media’s Karl Faase being filmed for the new season of Jesus the Game Changer in Lindisfarne, a tidal island off the north-east coast of England.
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