The campaign will use prime time media such as TV commercials to generate public interest in the life changing message of Jesus Christ. It is expected to allow churches to connect with the media message and impact their local communities in a way no other campaign has done before in Australia.
150,000 response books will be distributed alongside with the media campaign. Each book contains a Gospel of Luke, background to the Bible, answers to the key questions being asked by the community about Jesus, together with a section on how to become a Christian and find a local church.
The Christian media campaign is in fact not a brand new concept. JAAL is developed based on the success of Campus Crusade for Christ’s Power to Change campaigns which have run in Canada and most recently in Ireland. In 2002, the campaign in Ireland generated 1,000,000 hours of prayer and even ordinary people in churches got involved by visiting their neighbourhoods, offering people the booklet about the message of Christ.
The Bible Society NSW has carried out in-depth research regarding Christianity in Australia, sponsored by partners such as World Vision, Campus Crusade for Christ, Christian Television Australia and Ministry Blue.
"Christianity is widely rejected by most non-Christians as an anachronistic and undesirably rigid set of doctrines, while the Church is widely regarded as an old-fashioned organisation," the research summary reads.
Most non-Christians believe that they already live in accordance with essential Christian values, and do not need either to accept articles of Christian faith or participate in Christian worship.
The report further suggested that the challenge of the churches nowadays is to break down these negative perceptions. They have to present the articles of Christian faith as powerful truths and the Christian faith as a superior solution to secular problems.
A new opportunity was identified in the research, according to the JAAL project director and Communications Manager of Bible Society NSW, Martin Johnson.
"We carried out some extensive research which showed that in general, people are quite open to considering the teachings of Jesus," Johnson said to Assist News Service.
"It was this research that helped us come up with the name of the campaign and develop three different commercials aimed at young people from 18 to 24, young families from 25 to 39 and those in ‘mid-life’ aged from 45 to 60," he continued.
"We then used the research to create a series of different types of commercials and in testing, we found that using real people to talk about their own life experiences worked the best."
Currently, a TV commercial involving real life conversations of some young families is now in the process of being filmed.
"We worked with Heydon Films (a Melbourne based production company) and sent out flyers, e-mails and press releases to as many churches and church-based organisations in Melbourne as we could," said Johnson.
"The exciting part of the process was that although we went through a normal auditioning process- the people whom we ultimately selected were people with very real personal experiences of God and who were willing to tell others about their faith in a series of national television commercials that would be seen right around Australia," he continued.
The "Jesus - All about life" campaign will kick-off in Adelaide from 8th August. The Adelaide committee at Bible Society NSW have already enrolled over 100 churches till now. The TV ads will be completed at the end of June and will be previewed on the campaigns web site www.allaboutlife.com.au.
Eunice K. Y. Or
eunice@christiantoday.com
Christian Today Correspondant