Insight with Karl Faase

Olive Tree Media
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Hosted by Karl Faase, Insight delves into the big themes of life, faith, and culture through the power of story. Each conversation opens a window into the experiences of everyday people, leaders, thinkers, and creatives who have navigated life’s challenges and found hope along the way. Rooted in a Christian worldview but open to all, Insight aims to spark thoughtful reflection and encourage deeper engagement with the world around us.

  1. 2d ago

    Rex Rigby: The Gospel Wrapped in Western Clothes

    He was taken from his family before he could walk, told for years he'd had polio when it was actually malnutrition, and labelled "dumb" by a school system that never diagnosed his dyslexia. Decades later, Rev. Dr. Rex Rigby became the first Indigenous Australian to lead a national denomination. In this honest conversation, Rex sits down with Karl Faase to talk about childhood abuse, being removed from his family as a toddler, and the shame he carried for years - and how those wounds became the foundation for a life devoted to reconciliation, empathy, and the gospel. Rex shares his story from an abusive home in Holland Park, to a stint as a chef on Brisbane's first luxury yacht, to twelve years as General Superintendent of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, to a doctorate exploring how Western culture has often been tangled up with the gospel message delivered to Indigenous people. Along the way, he shares hard truths about the church's mixed legacy in Indigenous communities and a hopeful, hard-won vision for what an intercultural church could look like.   Rev. Dr. Rex Rigby was the first Indigenous person to serve as national head of a denomination in Australia, spending twelve years as General Superintendent of the Wesleyan Methodist Church - the longest tenure in that role. He is an elder of both the Kamilaroi and Bigambul peoples. Before entering ministry, Rex trained and worked as a chef, including a stint as the first chef aboard Brisbane's first luxury yacht. He holds a doctorate for his thesis "Social Cohesion Through the Eyes of an Indigenous Elder for the Application of the Intercultural Church," and today continues to teach at several Bible colleges.   Key Moments & Takeaways - Rex Rigby was the first Indigenous Australian to lead a national denomination, serving 12 years as General Superintendent of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. - He is an elder of both the Kamilaroi and Bigambul peoples, with ancestral ties on both sides of the Queensland/NSW border. - Removed from his family as a toddler due to abuse and neglect in the home, Rex spent three years in a home for children with disabilities - an experience that left him with a lasting sense of being unloved. - For years Rex was told he'd had polio; it wasn't until his late teens he learned his leg braces were actually the result of childhood malnutrition. - Undiagnosed dyslexia and an unstable home life meant school was a constant struggle - but Rex found his footing as an apprentice chef, eventually cooking for Brisbane's elite and serving as the first chef aboard the city's first luxury yacht. - A deep sense of calling pulled Rex out of the kitchen and into ministry, despite a rocky start in high-demand inner-city pastoral work that nearly burned him out early on. - His doctoral thesis examined how the gospel was often delivered wrapped in Western cultural assumptions - creating unnecessary shame for Indigenous believers. - Rex speaks candidly about the mixed legacy of mission work in Australia, while insisting Indigenous spirituality and Christian faith are not at odds. - He points to empathy and truth-telling as essential to reconciliation, urging people to look past the symptom to understand the cause. - Despite two bouts of cancer and a recent fall, Rex remains hopeful - still teaching, mentoring young Indigenous leaders, and working toward his vision of a genuinely intercultural church.   Find Out More Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org    Special Thanks To Excelsia University College Christian Finance  Vision Christian Media

  2. Jul 15

    Melanie Downes: Two Decades in Malawi - The "Warm Heart of Africa"

    "I live in Africa - waiting is never an issue." That was Melanie Downes' response when a string of technical hiccups left her and her husband Tim sitting patiently in the studio long past schedule. It's a small window into a life shaped by nearly two decades as a missionary in Malawi - a life of nine-hour queues, two-day border crossings, and a faith forged in a place most of us will never see. In this episode, Karl Faase speaks with Melanie about the road that took a "goofy" Rockhampton girl to a remote Yao village with a two- and four-year-old in tow. She reflects on her father's overnight conversion, her own childhood call to mission, and the enormous cost of obedience during cyclones, a critically ill baby, and the humbling task of asking others to "hold the rope." Melanie speaks with honesty about being a woman in an Islamic community (where it took eighteen months just to be seen as "not dangerous"), what the Yao have taught her about reading the Bible, and why she and Tim have spent years deliberately working themselves out of a job. It's a conversation about courage, contextual mission, the spirit world, and the quiet power of simply staying.   Key Moments & Highlights - A "wild boy" dad meets Jesus at a crusade and changes almost overnight and a young Melanie watches her whole family transform - Her own clear moment of call as a little girl - Growing up around mission in remote Aboriginal communities and deciding, as a teenager, that missionary life was "not for us" - Backpacking the world after 9/11, landing in Malawi, and falling for the "warm heart of Africa" - Counting the cost to actually go: a critically ill newborn, Cyclone Larry, financial strain, and grieving parents - Taking a two- and four-year-old to a Yao village, and the years of language and culture learning that followed - The challenge of being an Australian woman in an Islamic community - Why relationship with the women was the "secret weapon" that opened the whole community - Rethinking the missionary: not "great white saviours," but "accepted outsiders" handing leadership to the local church - Her two books, Jump and Spirit, the Camino, and the bittersweet homecoming    Find Out More Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org    Special Thanks To Excelsia University College Christian Finance  Vision Christian Media

  3. Jul 8

    Steve Davies: How Forgiveness Healed a "Trainwreck Life"

    You've seen the Red Frogs at Schoolies, festivals and uni O-Week - the crew handing out lollies, walking people home, being the calm in the chaos. You might even know that Taylor Swift's team has called them in for support, or that Allen's donates 24 tonnes of frogs to the cause. What you don't see is the story behind one of the people who's helped build it and why he spends his life helping teens! In this episode, Karl Faase sits down with Steve Davies, whose childhood was, in his own words, a "trainwreck life." Steve speaks with raw honesty about a home marked by violence and fear, the grief of losing the men who made him feel safe, the discovery that his biological father had taken his own life, and the years he spent trying to numb a broken heart. It's also a story of an almost unthinkable forgiveness - of a stepfather, a mother, and ultimately himself! What's remarkable is that it was a Bible courageously thrown across a room that set all of this in motion. This is a powerful conversation about pain, faith, and what it really takes to re-build a life after hurt.  Listener note: this episode discusses childhood abuse, family violence and suicide. Please take care while listening.   Steve Davies is the General Manager of Red Frogs Australia - a national charity working to safeguard a generation by providing peer-to-peer support. He has also worked in business, ministry and politics.    Key moments & highlights Red Frogs today: 27 years on, from Schoolies and O-Week to concerts - plus the Taylor Swift call and Allen's 24-tonne lolly donation A childhood of conflict, gambling and never feeling safe Losing his father, then his beloved "Pop" and retreating into himself Longing for a dad when everyone else had one Stepfather Bob: favouritism, rage, violence, and being a "second-class son" Praying in a cupboard and the dark turn into becoming a bully Discovering his biological father had died by suicide Self-destruction at 17, and fleeing to Townsville after a near-fatal fight A Bible thrown at him, reading Mark then John, and "Father, forgive them" 2am at a church door: "Lord, if you're real…" and a picture of his heart being mended "I forgive you" - the call to Bob, Bob's conversion, and Steve baptising him Officiating Bob's funeral; forgiving his mother His own marriage nearly ending and a dog's death that unlocked a buried memory How Schoolies went from the "wild west" to far safer, and Red Frogs' work with the QLD Government Find Out More Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org    Special Thanks To Excelsia University College Christian Finance  Vision Christian Media

  4. Jul 1

    Dani Treweek: Rethinking Singleness and What the Church Gets Wrong

    In many of our churches, there's an unspoken script: grow up, find someone, get married, have kids. And if that doesn't happen - or hasn't happened yet - it can leave people quietly wondering: Is there something wrong with me? Is this just a waiting room? Dr Dani Treweek has spent over a decade thinking, writing, and living these questions. In this episode of Insight with Karl Faase, she shares her journey of growing up in Sydney's eastern suburbs, studying at Moore Theological College, and completing a PhD that became the book The Meaning of Singleness. Along the way, she's wrestled personally and academically with what it truly means to be single in the Christian life. Whether you're single, married, widowed, divorced, or leading a church community, this conversation has something important to offer. As Dani shares, the Bible's vision for singleness is far more expansive and far more hopeful than most of us have been taught.   Key Moments and Takeaways: - The "disenfranchised grief" of singleness - mourning something you've never had - The moment in a Moore College ethics lecture that changed how Dani read the Bible - What Jesus's words in Matthew 22 reveal about the eternal significance of singleness - How the Reformation accidentally devalued singleness in Protestant churches - The problems with dating apps and the deeper disembodiment crisis behind them - What Paul actually means (and doesn't mean) by the so-called "gift of singleness" - Why the church needs its single members as much as single members need the church    Resources mentioned: The Meaning of Singleness — Dani Treweek (IVP Academic) Single Ever After — Dani Treweek (IVP) Cross Related Ministry "On Sitting Alone in Church" — article by Dani Treweek    Find Out More Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org    Special Thanks To Excelsia University College Christian Finance  Vision Christian Media

  5. Jun 24

    Simon Smart: Boys, Bullying and the Manosphere

    What does it take to raise a good man in a culture that can't decide whether masculinity is a problem to be solved or a strength to be celebrated? In this episode of Insight, Karl Faase sits down with Simon Smart - a teacher, writer and Director of the Centre for Public Christianity (CPX). This is a wide-ranging, deeply personal conversation about boys, bullying, fatherlessness, the manosphere, and what it actually means to be a good man. Drawing on his own brutal boarding-school years and his book The End of Men, Simon makes the case for a richer, more compassionate model of masculinity - one rooted in the example of Jesus. Simon Smart is a teacher, writer and the Director of the Centre for Public Christianity (CPX), a media organisation working to promote a thoughtful, generous understanding of the Christian faith in Australian public life. Before CPX, Simon spent a decade teaching English and history in boys' schools, an experience that, alongside his own childhood in a tough country boarding environment, shaped his recent book The End of Men. He lives on Sydney's Northern Beaches with his wife and two adult children, and is, in his own words, "an average but enthusiastic surfer."   Key Moments and Takeaways: Simon's education in masculinity and the moment everything shifted. His slow road to faith. An unplanned path to CPX. The case for writing The End of Men. Untangling "toxic masculinity." Fatherlessness and the algorithm. What actually makes a good man.   Find Out More Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org    Special Thanks To Excelsia University College Christian Finance  Vision Christian Media

  6. Jun 17

    Rod Best: Forgiveness Isn't Enough When It Comes To Protecting Children

    What happens when the church's greatest virtue becomes its greatest blind spot? In one of the most important conversations on faith and institutional responsibility you'll hear, Karl Faase sits down with Roderick Best - a Sydney lawyer who spent decades at the coalface of child protection, and ultimately served as Senior Solicitor for Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Rod brings rare insight: the legal mind and perspective of someone who shaped national reform, and the honest thoughts of a committed Christian wrestling with what the church got wrong. This is not an easy conversation at times, but it's a necessary one. Roderick Best is a Sydney-based lawyer with over four decades of experience across private practice and government. He served as the longest-tenured senior child protection lawyer in New South Wales before being appointed Senior Solicitor to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (est. 2013) — one of the most significant public inquiries in Australian history.  A note before you listen: This conversation touches on child sexual abuse and the findings of Australia's Royal Commission. Rod speaks with care and without graphic detail, but if this is a sensitive topic for you, please be aware before listening. Key Moments and Takeaways The Royal Commission was deliberately scoped to institutional abuse — roughly 20% of all child abuse — because it was actionable. Family-based abuse, the larger problem, is far harder to legislate. Rod was not surprised by the scale of abuse uncovered — but was surprised by the diversity across denominations, and by research showing celibacy made no statistical difference to abuse rates. The key risk factor wasn't theology — it was vulnerability. Institutions working with the most vulnerable children had the highest rates of abuse. The church's instinct to "move people on" rather than report was compounded by disbelief, reputational concern, and over-powerful old-boy networks in church governance. Professor Patrick Parkinson identified the core theological error: the church drew the wrong line on forgiveness, treating it as a substitute for accountability rather than something that must coexist with structural safeguards. Rod's framework for the failure is theological: the church forgot it was operating in a post-Fall world. Forgiveness doesn't reset human nature — it requires structures that account for ongoing human frailty. Working with Children checks, introduced in the lead-up to the Commission, are already showing statistical results — particularly in reducing institutional sexual abuse. The biggest ongoing child protection issue isn't sexual abuse — it's poverty and neglect, which remain largely unaddressed. Rod still fields questions from former colleagues who say they "never understood why you go to church." Reputational damage is real and ongoing. The church's greatest asset in a fragmented, anxious society is community — but it must normalize belonging and be seen as a safe, ordinary place for ordinary people. Find Out More Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org    Special Thanks To Excelsia University College Christian Finance  Vision Christian Media

  7. Jun 10

    Simon Hood: The Recurring Question: "Will You Trust Me?"

    This episode features Simon Hood, a passionate advocate for children's ministry and faith-based creativity, sharing his journey from a puppeteer in Hornsby to a global influencer in children's evangelism. However, alongside growing a global ministry, he and his wife travelled a long road through infertility, IVF, international adoption, and living through the joys and challenges of neurodiversity.  During some of the most painful years, Simon felt God continue to ask him: "Will you trust me, even when you don't know what I am doing?" This conversation is powerful, emotional, and a helpful reminder about how to show up for people who are in grief and difficulty.  Simon Hood is the founding director of Logosdor - a global ministry serving kids worldwide. He is a professional puppeteer and creative innovator in sharing the gospel with kids through media.    Key Moments and Takeaways: - The power of creative evangelism through puppetry and media - Personal journey through infertility, adoption, and international ministry - Navigating neurodiversity, mental health, and faith in family life - The importance of movement thinking and multiplying Kingdom work - Lessons on trust, lament, and resilience in suffering   Find Out More Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org    Special Thanks To Excelsia University College Christian Finance  Vision Christian Media

  8. Jun 3

    Louise Baur: Being a Christian in the Workplace is a Significant Call

    Professor Louise Baur has spent decades helping children and families navigate the complex realities of obesity, body image, and health. In this episode of Insight, host Karl Faase explores the deeply personal and often misunderstood challenges surrounding childhood obesity - from biology and mental health to social media pressure and stigma. As both a leading pediatrician and a Christian, Louise shares how her faith shapes the way she approaches medicine, compassion, and care for vulnerable families. Together, Karl and Louise unpack the growing global obesity crisis, the impact of shame and judgment, and why Christians should lead with grace, empathy, and understanding when discussing health and body image. They also explore the rise of medications like Ozempic and the cultural pressures young people face online today. Louise also reflects on her calling to paediatric medicine, sharing how her Christian faith shapes the way she lives, works, and engages in both the workplace and the public square. This is a thoughtful and compassionate conversation about health, identity, faith, and what it means to truly care for others.   Key Moments and Takeaways The biological and environmental factors contributing to obesity across the globe The psychological and health impacts of high body weight in children The influence of social media on body image and eating disorders The importance of compassionate, stigma-free support for families The potential and challenges of medications like Ozempic and bariatric surgery The role of faith and how Christians can advocate for body positivity and health Louise's story of faith and the challenge of not being able to start a family  The role of Louise's Christian faith in her work  The future and next steps   Find Out More Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org    Special Thanks To Excelsia University College Christian Finance  Vision Christian Media

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Hosted by Karl Faase, Insight delves into the big themes of life, faith, and culture through the power of story. Each conversation opens a window into the experiences of everyday people, leaders, thinkers, and creatives who have navigated life’s challenges and found hope along the way. Rooted in a Christian worldview but open to all, Insight aims to spark thoughtful reflection and encourage deeper engagement with the world around us.

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  • Creator
    Olive Tree Media
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    21
  • Rating
    Clean
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    © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Insight with Karl Faase

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