Gabby:

Brendan, welcome to Shaping Futures.

Brendan:

Thanks, Gabs, great to be here.

Gabby:

It’s lovely to have you here speaking with me again, Brendan. Brendan, just reflecting on this busy time of the year and our students getting prepared, particularly our high school students, for the transition out of school, their next stage of life. And even for primarily going into high school, it’s a big change for them. Brendan, I’m just interested in your thoughts about how do we prepare our children for moving forward in the big world out there and particularly when they’re coming up against obstacles and maintaining their character, their integrity and their significance as a Christian?

Brendan:

It’s an interesting thing, Gab, as we think about what this time of year is for our society because it is something that the general population becomes aware of and we know that there’s a whole cohort of kids that are coming up to the pointy end of their schooling and, whether that’s moving out of schooling to further studies or whether it’s into workforce, we know that this is a point where so many young students, who have been shaped by various school communities, it’s where the rubber hits the road in some regards.

Brendan:

It’s an intriguing thing that this is happening at a time of their adolescent development when they’ve been through this internal process of trying to find who they are and what they believe and it is a quality inherent in young people that they are searching for meaning. It is something that we all carry throughout our lives but there seems to be this sweet spot in those teenage years where there is a desperate urge, a drive, for young people to find what their life means and who they’re going to be.

Brendan:

The role of the school is to help direct and guide students to a foundation that will carry them through that transition and through all of the questions that are going to come with stability into their adult life, their vocation, their own family life and to a future that is going to be secure and stable.

Gabby:

As a principal of a school, Brendan, how much of that responsibility do you take on? How important is that through what you’re doing here at your school?

Brendan:

That’s a great question. I am conscious of the fact that, as a leader of a school community, I do bear responsibility for the outcome that this community is trying to achieve. But I’m also very conscious that it’s not a single person’s responsibility alone. Even in the context of the influence of a home, that it’s never one factor, one point of influence. It’s about creating a whole raft of influence and so, in our school, we spend a lot of time aligning the points of contact, the points of impact so that from the beginning of our children’s experience there is a consistent message that they are hearing from all of their teachers and, hopefully, from the parents that are speaking from the same page when they’re at home.

Brendan:

Whether it’s homeroom at the beginning of the day or in an English lesson, their science or the history lesson or whether it’s Biblical studies or whether it’s the coach of the sporting team they’re involved in after school, that at every point they’re hearing or being directed to the things that are important, the quality of their character, the foundation beliefs about who they are, where their place is in the world and what their opportunities to do good and to affect the world in a positive way.

Brendan:

My job is to try and help all that choir sing in tune so that the experience of those children across the whole array is consistent and reliable and effective.

Gabby:

As a parent, one of my thoughts would be, “Well, how do I know that they’re going to hear about God here? How are they going to experience the love of Christ here at the school? Is it going to be through devotions every morning? Is it interwoven, yes, as you’re saying, with the teachers? What does that practically look like?”

Brendan:

That is one of the things that I recognise as being the responsibility of the leader of a … particularly a school of faith. For us, at Australian Christian College, we are very intentional about avoiding making any contact with spirituality or with faith simply a matter of form so we do have our Biblical Studies programme, we do have our programme of devotions but that is not Christian education for us. That’s not where it happens. The key issue for us is that Christian education happens when the life of a Christian teacher is bearing influence on the life of a student and it’s the embodying of the virtues and the qualities and the revealing of the Fruit of the Spirit in the life of that person that sparks something or that sows seed into the life of our students. From that perspective, how do we strengthen that, how do we ensure that that happens, is to build the life of the teachers, to make them not just better teachers, but better Christians.

Gabby:

It’s interesting you say that, Brendan, because that’s my experience as a young person at school. It was my sports master that had a very huge influence on me and changed my life and led me, pretty much, along that line of knowing Christ or the beginning of the relationship with Christ. Yes, I really agree with what you’re saying.

Brendan:

It can’t be dry and it can’t be formal. It needs to be personal, it needs to be authentic, and again, young people from very young, from seven, eight years of age, they have a disarming discernment about what’s real and what’s genuine and they can see when somebody’s going through the motions and they can tell when somebody is living authentically. We are intent on becoming a community that is a committed community of faith, the staff of our school, that welcome the students in as the people who will receive from that spiritual growth and that life that we share together.

Gabby:

I think that journey starts a student off as they leave and they go out into the world on such a journey that they can always go back to. It’s the foundation. I’m going to be speaking with Jason Perini. He’s quite a well known Australian director and quite a well known actor in his own right and we’re going to be speaking about his personal testimony and how he, as a young man, found the Lord quite early and that led him through to always come back to that foundation in the industry that he’s in, so it’s going to be a really interesting interview.

Brendan:

It’s such an important thing. This is why Christian schools are so important, Gab, because there was the old saying that if you give me a young person until the age of seven, I’ll give you who they are as an adult and there is truth in that, that there are foundational things that are sown very early in life, but it is through those critical years of being teenage where you explore and you test things and you want to have something verified where it can make or break. Statistics are showing that if those who find faith in that period before they reach the age of about seventeen and have the opportunity to test the authenticity of those beliefs, that’s the thing that will carry through. That will give them a foundation that lasts through the change and through the challenges and through all the things in life that can disrupt or unsettle or divert, they’ll come back to a centre course and know there is something that is sure and reliable and strong that will be the basis for their life and their decisions.

Gabby:

My belief completely, Brendan, absolutely. Brendan, thank you so much for talking with me today on Shaping Futures.

Brendan:

Always a pleasure, Gab.

Gabby:

Well, Jas, I’d just like to welcome you to Shaping Futures. Congratulations on the film Chasing Comets-

Jason:

Oh, thank you.

Gabby:

Yeah, its great, it’s looking like it’s going to be a great film for you. I just wanted to ask you, Jason, how did you become a director? What made you [crosstalk] to becoming a director?

Jason:

I just want to say, too, thank you for having me on the programme. It’s very kind of you to have a chat with me, so thank you for having me back. In answer to your question how I became a director, well, I’ve been working as an actor for about the last 10 years. With working as an actor, particularly in Australia, you have a lot of time when you’re not working and what happened was, I just started to, I guess, get a little bored or something and I just started to make some of my own things. So I would just write scenes and then act in them and part of that was, too, because I was small, I would just direct them and so what happened was I directed a few just short things of my own, little insignificant things. Some of those things got seen by other people which led me to then directing more for work and, actually, it’s something that now I kind of have a career in. But it was quite gradual. I didn’t necessarily make a strong decision to do it, it just kind of evolved.

Gabby:

Well, it evolved into it, wow, that’s [crosstalk] I think some of our families would be really interested in knowing, Jason, what was school like for you? What sort of student were you, do you think?

Jason:

I’ve been thinking about that. That’s an interesting question. I went to three different schools. Towards the end of primary school I changed to a new school but then I went through to high school and then at the end of year nine, I went to a new school, so I had a few different school experiences. I never did really well in my exams. I guess I’m a pretty slow learner so I was never the top of my class in any sense in terms of the work things but I enjoyed school. I had good friends.

Jason:

I liked going so, for me, school was always … I mean, I used to always … There were days which were hard and seasons which were hard but, overall, I really enjoyed going to school. I wasn’t always brilliant academically but, definitely, I remember at school things like art and drama that were just the things that I could spend forever doing and, as much as I wanted to be good at things like math and science, often those things are just … Yes, I didn’t quite have the natural born gifting in those areas, but I really enjoyed my time at school and I’m thankful that I had quite an enjoyable experience of school.

Gabby:

That’s great, Jason. That’s often what can happen. Those things that you love at school can be the things that mould you and shape you and end up sometimes in a career for you, as you have, becoming a director and you loved drama and theatre and that sort of thing.

Jason:

Yes, that’s right.

Gabby:

When did you become a Christian?

Jason:

I don’t know the answer of when I became a Christian. I know my parents are both Christians. My older brother and sister are Christians. My parents were missionaries in Africa and then, when my older brother was born, they came back to Australia. I always remember from a very young age … I guess the house I grew up in was just soaked with the stories of Jesus and who He was and I always thought of Jesus from a very young age as being someone … the person of Jesus I always found to be extremely attractive. I thought He would come, these storms, that He’s this very adventurous person. There was something about Him which always felt very safe and intimate to me as a young child. I think part of my parents really helped me realise that Jesus was my friend. I really thought of Him as my friend and a close friend from when I was very young.

Jason:

So, I always knew that and always went to church and then as I got older, maybe early teens, I started to realise that I actually haven’t lived a perfect life and I started to learn more about actually, well, not only is Jesus this friend who can do these adventurous great miracles, but He also came and died for me and forgave me for the things I’ve done that weren’t pleasing to God and so I started to merge my friendship with Jesus, now that He was my Saviour as well.

Jason:

Really towards the end of high school, right towards the end, I started to realise more that, “Oh, if He’s my Saviour, then He’s also going to be my boss and in charge of my life and I can’t just do whatever I want but the best thing to do is to live for Him.” Yeah, my whole Christian life, I couldn’t tell you a time but I know the seasons of really knowing Him as my friend, then as my Saviour, then as my Lord, and then the beautiful thing of, actually, how all those things can work together, as well. Yes, I don’t have an exact day, but that’s how my progression happened throughout life.

Gabby:

For some of the [inaudible] it’s like that. It’s similar to mine, actually. It was just a journey. It was a decision that I made quite young but then it just continued on as a journey and you learn as you go along. He’s there, He’s constantly there as your best friend.

Jason:

Exactly, yes, yes, exactly.

Gabby:

I know sometimes that sort of industry that you’re in, the film industry, has it been tricky at times to maintain those Christian values in your character? [crosstalk] what could be a bit unrealistic, that sort of industry you’re in, Jason, or [crosstalk 00:15:29].

Jason:

Yes, yes, no, no. I think there’s definitely been challenges with … I’ve turned down work that would have probably been good for my career because of Christian convictions from time to time. I have occasionally found myself in very minor situations where I maybe haven’t felt comfortable doing some work because of my Christian beliefs but, on the whole really, I just don’t know how … The industry that I’m in is very unstable. It’s very unreliable. It can be very fickle and it’s also, in Australia, particularly, it’s a small industry so there’s not a lot of work. There’s a lot of reason to, I think, doubt yourself and develop low self-esteem and things like that, but I’m just so thankful that actually I have God who’s taking in all those things. He knows what the future is.

Jason:

My worth isn’t dependent on my career or my work or necessarily what other people in my industry think of me, but it’s dependent on how God sees me and then my family and close friends. There have been challenges but, overall, I think, yes, being a Christian in this industry is just an amazing blessing because it is so up and down. It can be a very stormy kind of place to work and so having that calm and constant reassurance that God has it all in control is just amazing. I don’t know how my friends who work in a similar industry to me who aren’t Christians, I don’t know how they do it, because I would just find it really, I think, a really hard road, but it’s made it all the more easier being a Christian. So, while there are hard things about it, I think, overwhelmingly, it’s actually that it’s an industry where it definitely is a benefit to know Jesus.

Gabby:

Yes, there’s always that to go to back to, isn’t there, Jason? There’s always that if you’re in a position where you are, “Oh, what do I do here? I’m at a crossroads.” You can always go back to that. You can always go back to what does Jesus say about these circumstances and what does he think about this decision that I’m going to make or about to make? Yeah, that-

Jason:

Yes, no, exactly, exactly. It means that you’ve got Jesus as this reference point for actually helping knowing that, actually, there are certain things that He probably is more for than other things but then also knowing that He’s patient and kind-spirited towards me as I often … I don’t know a lot of other Christians who work in my industry so often I feel like I’m navigating it alone a little bit and so, actually, knowing that I have Jesus who’s actually there navigating it for me and with me is a huge comfort.

Gabby:

Absolutely. That’s amazing. One other question. What’s one piece of advice that you’d give to the 13 year old version of yourself?

Jason:

That is-

Gabby:

What would you say to yourself?

Jason:

That is a great question, particularly, I think, as I think back on who I was at school. The big thing would be that take trust in Jesus would be the thing that I would tell my 13 year old self. But also, I think, one of the things that I wish I could go back and relive when I was 13 or so was just … I think there were times in my school life where I just wasn’t nice to people and I think I would go back and just tell myself that my words are powerful. When you say mean things to people, they can really be scarring to people. Then, on the flip side, actually staying positive and just cheering on friends and people you go to school with is just so great.

Jason:

I think I would go back and just tell myself to be nice to everyone, to include everyone, and if I had my chance to be 13 again I think I would try and just be a champion for all the people that I went to school with and I would look out for those people who maybe found school harder and I would just try and use my words and actions to make their day a little bit better. I think that’s what I would tell myself, to actually … Don’t underestimate how powerful it can be to just be kind to people, even people that you might not normally get along with.

Gabby:

Yeah, that’s fantastic. That’s great advice. Jason, I just want to thank you so much for talking to me today on Shaping Futures and-

Jason:

Aw, thanks, Gabby, thank you for having me.

Gabby:

… just congratulate you on all your success so far with your new movie, Chasing Comets, and it’s just been an absolute pleasure talking to you today and we’ll be praying for you, Jason, with your future endeavours. Thank you-

Jason:

Thank you, Gabby, very kind. Thank you so much and thank you for inviting me to be a part of it and thank you for, yeah, having this conversation. It’s great what you guys are doing.

Gabby:

Thanks, Jason.