Exciting New Ministry to Australians

Let me explain.

Overwhelming Response to Overcomers Conference

From the end of June through early July, I was in Australia speaking at an Answers in Genesis conference called Overcomers (1,500 in attendance), a Christian school conference (550 Christian school teachers), and a young people’s camp. I must say, I experienced a “different” Australia from when we first started the apologetics ministry in our home in Brisbane in 1977.

Dr. Georgia Purdom and Martyn Iles spoke with me at the Overcomers conference, and Dr. Purdom also spoke at a women’s conference in Sydney. The 1,500 seats for the Overcomers conference were sold out within three days, with many expressing dismay they couldn’t come because it was full.

At the Overcomers conference, I had so many people come to me and plead with us to bring more solid Bible and apologetics teaching to Australia.

At the Overcomers conference, I had so many people come to me and plead with us to bring more solid Bible and apologetics teaching to Australia. These people want this! They are hungry for it. After Dr. Purdom spoke at a women’s conference in Sydney, many came up and said they are tired of so much “fluff and stuff” at conferences and that they want more “meat,” as Dr. Purdom gave. They pleaded for her to come back to do more such conferences.

At the end of the Overcomers conference in Australia, we announced that Martyn and I were coming back in March 2024 to conduct a series of conferences in the capital cities in Australia, and we opened up preregistration for the Brisbane conference at that time. We had over 1,200 preregistrations! And that’s without any other marketing! We are actually renting convention centers in each city so we can have a few thousand people in attendance. The hunger is so great, we believe we will fill those. It’s just amazing.

I had never seen such a hunger like this in Australia before. It reminded me of the hunger we see in Latin America. Whenever our ministry to Latin America, headed up by Joe Owen (who resides in Mexico), runs conferences, the auditoriums are packed to overflowing. The hunger is enormous. Now, although we get thousands of people visiting the Ark and Creation Museum attractions each day and we see wonderful responses to our conferences and numerous resources, I must admit there does not seem to be the same hunger overall as we see in Latin America and as we are now seeing in Australia.

As all this happened, I kept thinking of the man from Macedonia.

Hunger for Truth in Post-Christian Australia

When we first discussed the idea with Martyn Iles, he told us that there is an incredible hunger from God’s people in Australia for Bible teaching and for being equipped to defend the Christian faith. He also said there was a phenomenal hunger for the truth in the younger generations like Generation Z.

Martyn has, in recent times, led major meetings across Australia in big convention centers in the capital cities. People flocked to those facilities, packing them out as they wanted to hear the Word of God preached, understand how to deal with the secular culture, and learn how to live in such a pagan culture. This was a grassroots movement—not from church leaders but from the people—led by a young man (Martyn) who clearly was like the men of Issachar “who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do” (1 Chronicles 12:32).

I asked Martyn why there is such a hunger as I’ve not seen before (it’s been many years since I’ve spoken at a conference in Australia). He said that from his observations, Australia, a very pagan nation, is around 15 years ahead of America regarding the secularization of the culture. For the real, dedicated Christians in Australia, they have had to learn how to live in “Babylon.” They have had to learn to be like Daniel. They are bold for their faith as they stand out. And they are passionate for their faith.

Martyn also said he’s noticed in America that many Christians snipe at each other over denominational differences and nitpick interpretations of various theological words and positions. But in Australia—without giving up orthodoxy, of course—Christians have had to learn to work with each other and be more unified as they live in “Babylon.”

Now, here is something else that’s exciting. When Martyn conducted the major conferences in Australia, he had special outreaches called “The Download” for young people, particularly Generation Z. These young people also exhibited an extreme hunger for the truth of God’s Word and being equipped. They struggle with knowing how to deal with the worldview issues of the day, like LGBT, climate change, identity, etc.

Martyn has such a heart to continue to reach these young people as well as young people in the US and other countries.

Thank you, our AiG family, for supporting us prayerfully and financially. There’s nothing more important than proclaiming the truth of God’s Word and the saving gospel to this world, as that is the only answer to all the problems we see.

I ask that you prayerfully consider supporting AiG with a gift of any size today—your support is vital to enable these impactful outreaches and help us answer the “Macedonian call”!

I trust you will be thrilled to see how your financial support is being used to help impact the younger generations who really do need to be equipped to “live in Babylon,” as our Western world (as well as other countries) is becoming more pagan daily!

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.