Called out of local church ministry to focus on supporting churches around the world with bigger societal issues, Andrew Cameron has published his first video series, Embracing the Fall.
After studying at Morling College, Andrew Cameron went into fulltime soccer ministry. Working with a global organisation, this ministry took him around the world. After he met his now wife, they moved to the United States and continue working with the ministry.
Ten years ago, Andrew became a pastor, first as Lead Pastor of a church in the United States. In 2016 they moved back to Sydney, and he became an Associate Pastor at Caringbah Baptist Church (CBC).
“My journey involved all different kinds of ministries on every continent,” reflects Andrew, “at CBC I was mainly responsible for youth ministry, young adult’s ministry and the Sunday evening service, which I did for seven years.”
But Andrew had a nagging feeling that something wasn’t right.
“It’s like you’re sitting in your home, and everything is fine in your home, but your aware there’s a bushfire bearing down on the city,” explains Andrew, “everything was fine at church and the ministries were fruitful and growing. But outside the church Christianity was ‘on fire’ and a lot of churches were struggling.”
Andrew felt God was calling him to step out of ministry in the local church and focus on the big societal issues that were affecting churches and Christians more broadly. So, he finished up his role at CBC and went on sabbatical in the US for six months with his family.
When he left CBC, Andrew knew God had put the message of “Embracing the Fall” on his heart, but whilst away he was able to explore what this meant and lean into where God was leading. Over this time the idea took more of a concrete form and when he returned to Sydney, he worked with a video producer from Caringbah Baptist to produce a series of short videos.
Production finished in August 2024, and the six-episode series is now available for free for use in any ministry context. The twelve-minute videos are primarily designed for use in small groups but could also be used in different ministries or mentoring relationships, or even in Sunday services.
Embracing the Fall looks at the four big issues facing Christians in the church today – leadership failures, faith deconstruction, cultural disconnection, and divisions in the church.
Each episode follows a similar format, starting with an explanation of the issue and the losses involved in it. This leads into looking for the beauty of God working in it, followed by an exploration of opportunities to respond positive to it.
“A big part of my motivation was recognising that these big issues exist and are having a significant impact on the church,” shares Andrew, “they’re all hard to talk about. And they’re hard to talk about in a positive way that can give us a sense of hope and purpose in it.”
“I wanted to make sure that I didn’t get too black and white or take a defensive posture,” explains Andrew, “I wanted to show that as Christians we’re going through some hard stuff, but there’s good evidence that God is working in His church through these issues. So, let’s be people of faith and join Him in what He’s doing.”
Embracing the Fall has been published publicly at https://inspiringfaith.au, as well as through Right Now Media, a streaming video library of bible studies, making the series accessible to over 25,000 churches in over one hundred countries for the next two years.
Locally, Lawson Wallace, Youth and Young Adults Pastor at Caringbah Baptist, has been using the resource in their weekly young adults’ meetings. The group meets weekly and find the video format very accessible and great for facilitating discussion.
“We’ve begun using Embracing the Fall at our young adults meetings and have found the content very relatable,” says Lawson, “Our group can strongly identify with the topics that Andrew covers and are finding that it’s helping them in everyday life, answering questions they or their peers have.
“We love Embracing the Fall and look forward to continuing through the series!”
The Embracing the Fall video series and study guide are available publicly and for free at https://inspiringfaith.au.
