Dave Jensen grew up as the Archbishop of Sydney's son in Newtown, surrounded by Greeks and Vietnamese and punk music and heroin. He knew what genuine Christianity looked like because everyone around him had it. He just didn't have it himself. He got a girl pregnant, married young, joined the army, had two kids, got divorced at 22, and spent the rest of his twenties in Townsville and Darwin; drinking, fighting, lying and womanising in a way that would be extraordinary if it weren't, as he puts it, just par for the course in the infantry. He called himself a Christian the whole time and would have been terrified to say otherwise. Then one hungover morning in Darwin, he opened his twin sister's laptop and a John Piper sermon clip started playing. He watched it. Then another. Then spent hours watching sermons and called his army chaplain mate Tim, who told him plainly — Dave, your name is a byword for scumbag. And then took him to Romans 5. That was it. He fell asleep in tears praying and woke up a Christian. The first thing that changed was that he loved Jesus Christ. He didn't care before. Now he did. Recorded at Soul Revival's annual Week Away camp at Waterslea, Joel and Brayden sit with Dave, now the evangelism director at ENC for a wide-ranging, funny, honest and deeply encouraging conversation. They cover his Newtown childhood, army life, what it actually costs to preach well, how he met his wife Sam, raising four boys on the Central Coast, and what he'd tell his younger Christian self. His answer: be kind to yourself. The pathway forward isn't self-loathing. It's repentance and faith, over and over, grounded in the love of Christ. Stories of Jesus Changing Everything. This is Chip Lunch.
