Chip Lunch

Every year Soul Revival packs up and heads to Waterslea Youthworks Conference Centre for five days of Week Away. Joel, Gemma, Brayden and Ethan hit the road to cover petrol station rankings, packing tips for girls' cabins and newborns alike, the best Week Away weather, what to expect from speaker Dave Jensen's series on Life on Purpose, why trivia is getting a shake-up, and a very important high-f...

A guy on a building site said it about Nico after knowing him for four weeks: he really lives it. Not as a compliment you'd fish for. Just something a 16-year-old apprentice said out loud because it was obvious. Part 2 of Nico's Chip Lunch conversation picks up where Part 1 left off: with a Dutch migrant couple who arrived in Sydney in 1982 with no car, no connections, and a faith that had never r...

Nico has been in Australia for 44 years. He got married in August, skipped the honeymoon, packed everything into boxes, and landed in Sydney on the 15 October 1982. He's never looked back, and he'll tell you it was God's hand the whole way. Joel and Braden sit down with Nico for a wide-ranging conversation that's part history lesson, part immigration story, part quiet testimony. He takes takes the...

Joel and Brayden pull producer Hudson out from behind the desk and onto the couch for a catch-up episode that goes deeper than anyone planned. What starts with fast food chip rankings and AI in marketing gradually becomes one of the most honest conversations the show has had about the everyday struggle of the Christian walk. Joel shares what it's like to coach an under-12s football team and realis...

Kezia grew up as a pastor's kid in a church full of elderly people, then she went to KYCK in Year & and thought: there are people my age who believe this. Kezia joins Joel and Ethan for a conversation that's funny, fresh, and surprisingly wise for someone still figuring out what comes next. She talks about growing up in a congregation where she was surrounded by grandparent-aged friends, learn...

Erin doesn't have all the answers. She's not a deep diver, not an academic, not someone who can study her way through the hard questions. What she has instead is a childlike trust in a God who she knows is real, who she knows is there, and who she knows has it — even when she doesn't understand. Part 2 of Erin's Chip Lunch conversation picks up where Part 1 left off. After years of drifting in and...

Erin never had a lightning bolt moment. No dramatic conversion, no single day she can point to and say, "that's when everything changed." What she has instead is something just as compelling: a winding, honest, up-and-down story of a faith that kept finding her, even when she wasn't looking for it. In Part 1 of her Chip Lunch conversation, Erin joins Joel and Brayden from the Cronulla gathering an...

In his first year as principal at Shire Christian School, David was diagnosed with leukemia. He had a three-year-old son, a daughter in primary school, a wife in her 30s, and a faith he'd spent years building on paper. None of that made the hospital bed easier. Part 2 of David's Chip Lunch conversation picks up where Part 1 left off — and it goes somewhere unexpected. Before the leukemia, there's...

Part 1 of David Stonestreet's story sees us learn how he grew up Catholic, attended mass every Sunday, and knew the Bible had always been there, he just hadn't really read it. Then in Year 11, he and a friend started flipping through the New Testament over landline phone calls from Gosford to the North Shore, pointing each other to verses they were finding for the first time. What they were stumbl...

Kim has spent over 30 years quietly serving at Miranda Congregational Church: organising, caring, showing up. She's the kind of person who makes things run without needing the credit. And on this episode of Chip Lunch, she finally gets to sit in the chair and tell her story. It's a story shaped by a hardworking dad who didn't believe in sleeping in, a mum who dragged the family to church late ever...

What does it actually look like to carry your faith into a secular workplace? In this episode of Chip Lunch, Joel and Tim sit down with Aurelia — a law student, globetrotter, and follower of Jesus. Aurelia unpacks what it means to bring God into the everyday rhythms of a legal career. From chatting about church with fellow clerks to gently opting out of party culture without being preachy, she sha...

Four years after her first appearance on Chip Lunch, Aurelia is back—and she's been busy. Since we last heard from her, Aurelia's been studying law and psychology at UNSW, shocking rats in labs (ethically, she promises), hiking glaciers in Iceland during snowstorms, attending a future leaders intensive at Cambridge, and spending six months studying transnational law at King's College London: a dre...

Four years ago, Rob appeared on Episode 36 of Chip Lunch. A lot has changed since then. Rob's back, and he's more confident, more grounded, and deeper in his faith; but the path to get there wasn't smooth. From hanging up his rugby boots after too many concussions, to moving to Tasmania for six months searching for independence and clarity, to coming back and diving into Bible college while leadin...

Julie's story spans decades: from raising three kids largely on her own with help from her mother and grandmother, to becoming the anchor of a four-generation household that almost became an ABC documentary. She shares memories of growing up with a kangaroo in the backyard, a horse named Cherokee, and a grandmother who worked so hard she couldn't make it to church until later in life. But beneath...

This conversation starts where you'd least expect, with the Winter Olympics, Law & Order marathons, and a passionate rant about moguls being terrifying. But it quickly moves into Julie's remarkable story: growing up with her mother and grandmother in Rockdale, living in the back of a shop, and eventually buying a house in Gymea Bay thanks to a kind real estate agent who lent them money interes...

The conversation with Michael Greaves continues.... Part two dives into what 19 years of youth ministry has taught Greaves about what actually matters on a Friday night. Spoiler: it's not the program. It's not whether the game works or the band sounds good. It's the friendship, based on Jesus. From feathers still turning up in church couches two months after a Home Alone 4D movie night, to the Hal...

Michael Greaves is back on Chip Lunch following a five year hiatus, and after 19 years of youth ministry, he's got a lot to say. From WWE nostalgia and the death of MTV to navigating Gen Z meme culture mid-gospel talk, we're ready for a big does of Greaves-dom. Greaves cuts through every youth leadership anxiety with a simple answer: you're not committing to being charismatic or entertaining. You'...

Marking 200 episodes of Stories of Jesus Changing Everything with Archbishop Kanishka Raffel! We welcome the Most Reverend Kanishka Raffel, Archbishop of Sydney, to share his remarkable journey from Buddhism to leading one of Australia's most influential Christian denominations. Archbishop Raffel's story begins in 1986, when a humid Sydney night and a pocket-sized Gospel of John transformed everyt...

Rachel returns for part two, sharing the origin story of her relationship with Chris, reflections on parenting three different daughters, and why consistency matters even more now than when she was youth leading. The love story begins with Chris making Rachel watch The Perfect Catch to explain that the Penrith Panthers season comes first. We hear about the legendary cheese dip incident, the mutual...

Rachel shares how youth group became her refuge during her parents' separation and shaped her entire approach to ministry and teaching. Rachel grew up as the youngest of three, waiting years to finally join youth group. When her chance came in Year 5, it coincided with her parents splitting and youth became the place where this quiet child could finally be wild and free. We discuss navigating high...

Gemma returns four years after being our very first guest, and so much has changed. With Joel and Brayden, they explore her journey from anxious early twenties to finding contentment and joy. When Gemma first appeared in 2020, she was living at home during COVID, working casually, and navigating youth ministry. Now she's married, teaching full-time, and stepped away from youth leadership to join L...

The OG3 reunite (and add in Hudson) for a year-in-review special, a look back at Schoolies, youth camp, Week Away, and standout moments of 2025. They start with this year's Schoolies where they became bingo legends winning six of twenty games in matching mint green shirts. But beyond the laughs, they discuss what makes church Schoolies meaningful: welcoming young adults into Christian community an...

Join us for Lewis's yearly update as he reflects on his journey from self-proclaimed atheism to vibrant Christian faith and youth leadership. Lewis shares how book clubs during Australia's bushfire season led to reading "Silence" and C.S. Lewis's "Mere Christianity" with friends. But intellectual arguments weren't what ultimately convinced him. It was the radical love at Soul Revival Church, where...

Emily shares what it was like sitting her HSC exams from her bedroom during lockdown — complete with a cardboard desk and online supervision. She opens up about discovering her identity in Christ rather than her marks, and how that brought peace and gratitude through the chaos. They talk about humility, resilience, and learning to trust that you’re not in control — and that’s a good thing. Emily a...

Brad takes us through his life journey from teaching himself to program at age seven, to studying aerospace engineering, transitioning into cybersecurity, and eventually helping plant Soul Revival church.  Following his accident Brad consistently points back to God's work, saying "but God and only God" has carried him through. We discuss the physics and aftermath of the accident, detailed rehabili...