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Candid conversations for the church. Host is Ardin Beech of Windsor District Baptist Church, Sydney, Australia. Co-hosted by Jonathan Hoffman.
Welcome once again to This Week at Windsor, Ardin, and my co host, Dr J. Good to have you back.
Jonathan Hoffman:Great to be back. Got away for school holidays. Did you go anywhere?
Ardin Beech:Nah. Too busy. Too busy.
Jonathan Hoffman:Too busy. Such as life in the rat race.
Ardin Beech:Although it is the the holidays are nice, though, because all of the activities and everything think go and break as well. So that is good. You do feel like everyone gets a bit of a break.
Jonathan Hoffman:Yeah. Well, we get to go as has become our tradition in July. We went out to the river arena, went to Griffith, stayed with my in laws. Great to get out into the country. That long drive, it just seems to all the stress just melts away.
Jonathan Hoffman:Things really just sort of dissipate and, yeah. Yeah. I had a few bonfires. My kids got work experience for the first time. K.
Ardin Beech:In the fields? On the plow?
Jonathan Hoffman:No. No. No. In the the gin, the cotton gin.
Ardin Beech:Oh, right.
Jonathan Hoffman:Yeah. Not the beverage in case anyone's thinking dirty thoughts. No. No. The the, my my father-in-law runs a cotton gin, the largest cotton gin in the southern hemisphere.
Jonathan Hoffman:Wow. And so, it's a big manufacturing plant that separates the cotton lint from the seed, which is then shipped off to make clothes around the world.
Ardin Beech:I remember seeing driving through, like, the cotton growing areas and all the trucks and stuff leaving. And you just see cotton all the all the way along the sides of the road like snow. It was just this magical kind of
Jonathan Hoffman:Yep. That was it was great. So, you know, my oldest son, he was in the feeder bay, and then my, my youngest son not my youngest. My, my next youngest son was was sort of at the end of the processing line, and my daughter was, cleaning. You can imagine how frustrating that is to to have to try to sweep lint away in a in a in a factory that makes lint.
Jonathan Hoffman:So, yeah. So, anyway, hats off to my kids. They really rose to rose to the challenge.
Ardin Beech:Let's talk Olympics. Where do you where does your allegiance lie?
Jonathan Hoffman:Oh, that's tough.
Ardin Beech:The country that adopted you and called you as one of its own or the one that you left?
Jonathan Hoffman:Well, I will say I I do have a place in my heart for the green and gold. And and when, you know, when Australia is is competing, I'm definitely cheering for Australia, except when they're going against America. It's just it's just hardwired in me. You know?
Ardin Beech:I get it.
Jonathan Hoffman:I'm not actively I'm not actively, you know, cheering against Australia in in any sense. But, you know, if Australia meets America, great. Fantastic. You know, I I really respect the sport culture here. I think for our size here in Australia, the actual impact that we have on the athletic stage is tremendous.
Jonathan Hoffman:So, you know, I I do really love supporting Australia, but can I tell you there's nothing like hearing the star spinning a little bit of playing to podium? I'm just it's yeah.
Ardin Beech:Who are the, I I haven't really been keeping track. Who are the Americans to watch this time around?
Mark Pentecost:Well, I think
Jonathan Hoffman:the men's basketball is gonna be interesting, actually, because in men's basketball, the world's caught up. And if you've watched if you've been following
Ardin Beech:Honestly, because we just bought American players. But
Jonathan Hoffman:Not necessarily. I mean, there there's the the game has grown globally and and it's been interesting to watch the USA team which had the dream team back in the early nineties which was one of the best teams ever assembled.
Ardin Beech:Golden era really, wasn't it?
Jonathan Hoffman:That's right. Yeah. No one else really stood a chance. They were winning games, you know, by double or triple the margin. But, here in this run up, the USA, you know, they beat South Sudan by a point.
Jonathan Hoffman:You know, they they they only beat Germany in the last, like, 2 minutes of the game. So it'll be interesting to see. I think that'll be competitive. Swimming's always competitive. I don't know who's actually you know, who the athletes are.
Jonathan Hoffman:But, yeah. Those are the ones that are really interest me. As well as gymnastics, I mean, we got KSTP next door. So, you know, gotta gotta follow some of the gymnastics.
Ardin Beech:What's, what's happening locally? What's happening at d WDBC?
Jonathan Hoffman:Well, sad news sad news. Our beloved friend, pastor, and podcast guest, Eddie Bang.
Ardin Beech:Eddie Bang. We got down 1 American.
Jonathan Hoffman:Down down 1 American. Yep. Yeah. Pastor Eddie turned in his resignation a couple weeks ago. We announced it in church a couple weeks ago.
Jonathan Hoffman:Very sad to see him go. Very appreciative for his ministry. Had a big big big impact and and, you know, just being here for about a year, wouldn't you say?
Ardin Beech:Yeah. Yeah. And everyone really loved him, you know, hope to have the best for him wherever he ends up. Yeah.
Jonathan Hoffman:Yeah. So it'll be great to see where God leads them and, where his, you know, next next ministry stop, turns out to be whenever that happens. But, yeah, very grateful for pastor Eddie. We're gonna be having a celebration service on this Sunday. It's kind of a thanksgiving service and and and I think, you know, it's not a we're not there to celebrate a, you know, a pastor.
Jonathan Hoffman:But if you read in the bible in Ephesians chapter 4, God's word says that Christ gives gifts to his church. And one of the gifts that he gives to his church is shepherds. And so, you know, it is appropriate to thank the lord for the ministry of people who've served as shepherds here at WDBC. And and that's it's in that vein. We're we're, recognizing his ministry, departure, and really trying to establish, I would say, a culture of appreciation.
Jonathan Hoffman:And, you know, we've had a number of farewells, you know. We haven't always done them well, in my opinion. So this is an opportunity for us to try to say, okay. How do we help foster that culture of appreciation and gratitude? And, we'll have a chance to do that this Sunday.
Ardin Beech:Cool. Cool. Alright. Well, we've been kind of around the world a little bit.
Jonathan Hoffman:A little bit.
Ardin Beech:Mostly America. Let's be honest. We've had a few American guests, but we're we're coming back local now. Yeah. Back to the back to the home family at WDBC.
Ardin Beech:One of our very prolific members, I must say. He's always very busy. Mark Pentecost. Thanks for joining.
Mark Pentecost:Good to be here.
Jonathan Hoffman:Really glad to have you here with us today, Mark. Thanks for taking the time to to have this conversation. Now when I first met you, my interactions with you were you were mainly a singer and and kind of a, you know, all around accomplished church musician. But tell us a little bit about sort of all the different, things you've been up to since you've been here at WDBC.
Mark Pentecost:Well, it was interesting. Yeah. With the 1st day we came to this church, you were getting inducted.
Jonathan Hoffman:Yes. Is that
Mark Pentecost:the word? I was gonna say I was gonna say induced, but
Ardin Beech:but that's not the problem.
Jonathan Hoffman:There's a few things that don't work in that.
Mark Pentecost:Or maybe that maybe there's more to that too. And, there was a I think a friend,
Jonathan Hoffman:a friend of yours was
Mark Pentecost:was, giving this giving a message about you and giving a message, and we thought, we were intrigued enough to let's go back and hear the guy himself.
Jonathan Hoffman:Well, we're glad you stoke around.
Mark Pentecost:And, I think it's been maybe 8 years. How long have you been here?
Jonathan Hoffman:I think 9.
Mark Pentecost:9 years?
Jonathan Hoffman:Yeah. Maybe going on 10.
Mark Pentecost:Sounds like a sentence, doesn't it? I got involved in music because I'd been involved, been a singer since the 19 seventies, the late 19 seventies in a gospel music band called Still Waters. And, we did a lot of gigs. We did a lot of big gigs. We did mainly Sydney gigs and, Brisbane.
Mark Pentecost:We did xplo 80 up in, Brian Willesdorf was the guest speaker there. Leon Patillo, x Santana was the had been a become a Christian. He was the guest speaker.
Ardin Beech:Yeah.
Mark Pentecost:And the other band who was on before us was, from South, I think they were from Tonga. It was a woman who had sung with Gladys Knight and the pips.
Jonathan Hoffman:Wow.
Mark Pentecost:And she'd become a Christian. And, so she was on before us. But, yeah, that was one of the one of the bigger gigs. We backed Andre Crouch one time and
Ardin Beech:Any overseas stuff? Because back then, a lot of the groups would kinda travel all over the place on the back of other stuff.
Mark Pentecost:Yeah. No. We we couldn't afford over going overseas.
Jonathan Hoffman:What's something that most people wouldn't know or understand or appreciate about being in a singing group where you're performing, you know, at various venues. Is there a kind of take us behind the curtain a little bit. Is there a part about that that you really enjoyed or something that you missed maybe as you as you reflect on that?
Mark Pentecost:Yeah. We're not I mean, I was the lead singer. I had a very good relationship with a guy called Sid who was a great guitarist and songwriter, and we had some original stuff. And he he stayed my best friend till now. So we've known each other, I don't know, for how many years.
Mark Pentecost:You know, since the since the mid seventies. And we had 2 great backing female singers. I I think just music is just such a pleasurable thing. When you're playing together for that long, you get really tight.
Jonathan Hoffman:Mhmm.
Mark Pentecost:And, you know, you you you're in the groove and everyone knows their parts. It's like you've rehearsed, and you've you've done so many live gigs for so long that you can, it just takes you to another level. It's a challenge, but it takes you to another level of enjoyment, you know. And, but, you know, we we were straight up and down. I mean, we we did an earth we did a song by earth wind and fire.
Mark Pentecost:I wrote a song. He'd wrote some songs. We would we were different at the at the time, and, you know, people we had good conversations.
Ardin Beech:Let's go back a little bit to the beginning and just talk about how you came to faith. How how did that happen?
Mark Pentecost:Well, it does involve Billy Graham. So he'd come out in this 59 crusade, and then either 68 or 69, I think. You were
Jonathan Hoffman:in school then, Richard?
Ardin Beech:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Year 12. Yep.
Ardin Beech:Just finishing.
Mark Pentecost:He wishes. Yeah. So my mom and dad, we went to Church of Christ. We're brought up in the Church of Christ, and then, I remember I was only I don't know, 10 or 11, maybe. And I remember going so we all went.
Mark Pentecost:The family went. Mom and dad were Christians, obviously, and so we went. And I'm pretty sure it was Randwick Racecourse. And we were up in the in the stand, and then he Billy Graham gave the invitation. And a lot of the things he it was the holy spirit.
Mark Pentecost:I think a lot of the things had, you know, made sense. I've been brought up in Sunday school as we did in those days, and he issued the challenge. I think I struggled for about 2 minutes. Mhmm. I was sort of getting up my seat, getting sitting down, you know, just little fluctuations and, then I finally walked down and if I remember the thing, the hymn was his famous hymn of invitation which is, Just
Jonathan Hoffman:as I am. Right?
Mark Pentecost:Just as I am. Yeah. Exactly. And so that's how I became a Christian. You've got a good memory.
Mark Pentecost:I was about to not remember what that was, actually.
Jonathan Hoffman:I feel like as a graduate of Wheaton College, and I took half my classes in the Billy Graham Center where they have a music into the Billy Graham Crusade. Yeah. Yeah. But he real
Mark Pentecost:I would love to hear that.
Jonathan Hoffman:Degree back if I didn't get that right. Oh, that's right. Yeah.
Mark Pentecost:They forever vanished.
Ardin Beech:There wouldn't be many of his caliber, surely.
Mark Pentecost:Oh, no.
Ardin Beech:No. In terms of impact. No.
Jonathan Hoffman:No. It was I feel like and I you know, what am I? I'm a child grabbing at mysteries here. But I feel like if you look at that and try to replicate it, you you never will. I mean, that was something that God must have ordained for his church for that particular generation, you know.
Jonathan Hoffman:The Bible talks about the gospel going to the four corners of the earth. I mean, that has to be a huge part of that. Right? Mhmm.
Mark Pentecost:Yeah. And I think, you know, he learned his craft as a door to door to door salesman selling brushes, I think, wasn't it? Yeah. And, so he'd get a lot of knockbacks since and that one. But I I think the other thing that he was able to do, he was very well read, and he often would relate he would talk about current affairs, didn't he?
Ardin Beech:Mhmm.
Mark Pentecost:You know, he could relate the bible Yeah. To current affairs and to tap into people's current thoughts, and the and the mood of an audience, and the state of the nation wherever he went. So he'd he he was very, very well versed, well read, and and I always remember saying he'd say, the Bible says, you know.
Jonathan Hoffman:Which is which is a fantastic point because he had a crisis of faith at one point early in his ministry. And he tells the story. You can read about it.
Mark Pentecost:If you
Jonathan Hoffman:go to the museum, it's great. I'll take you there. But
Mark Pentecost:Will you pay for us
Jonathan Hoffman:to go? It's free when you get there.
Ardin Beech:We could do it once you get there.
Mark Pentecost:We you guys could do a podcast from the Billy Graham Museum.
Jonathan Hoffman:That's true. There we go. Sponsors, are you listening? No.
Mark Pentecost:But you're right. He he was so so blessed.
Jonathan Hoffman:But he had this crisis of faith in his ministry and early in his ministry and he he tells the story. He went out back and he just you know, this thing that a lot of people wrestle with. They really do. Is the bible true? Mhmm.
Jonathan Hoffman:And and he he just had this moment. He describes it where he, you know, had a very, you know, crisis of faith, heart to heart with God and he and he said, well, God, you know, I I I see you're asking me to do whether I believe this and he said, I do. I do. And he said from that point on there's a significant change in his ministry. And so when he would say those words, the Bible says he he for Billy Graham, he was that was saying God says, you know.
Jonathan Hoffman:God is saying to us. God is saying this. God is saying that. Which I found that I find that story very interesting because a lot of people today wrestle with the same question, know. Can I trust the bible?
Jonathan Hoffman:Can I trust what it says? So, but that's a face a fascinating story of you, you know, coming to faith at a Billy Graham crusade. Mhmm. I think in, you know, one of the things about the Graham crusade was they got the word out. And when I think about you, Mark, I think you're someone who really does a great job of getting the word out, getting people excited, getting people motivated.
Jonathan Hoffman:I know you've you've done a great job with that here at WDBC. I remember the Yale Alley Cats when they came.
Mark Pentecost:Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Jonathan Hoffman:That was great. You got us involved with that about how here here we are having a group of boys choir from Yale.
Mark Pentecost:Yeah. And do do you know an interesting story about that? That they I said to them, we you know, you're gonna come to, on on your itinerary, you know, our church, and you're gonna be staying in the the the beam units over there. And I said, I'd I'd like like you to come to a service and perform, you know. And I said, this was in advance that we're in in the States, I said, you know, could you sing do you know Amazing Grace?
Mark Pentecost:Have you ever sung Amazing Grace? And they'd never sung it, and so they practiced it. And they performed it just before in New York, in a church or somewhere in New York before they arrived, and, because all this stuff is secular, you know, but they, they learned it. I hope I hope maybe they continued continued to perform it, but, and, you know, we were able to give them some Bibles. Graham gave them some Bibles.
Mark Pentecost:Remember that?
Jonathan Hoffman:Yeah. I do. Yeah. And But that's that's the kind of reach. I mean, I don't know many people who can liaise with, you know, a choir from Yale to come here perform a church.
Jonathan Hoffman:Tell us a bit about, Ukraine and FEBC.
Mark Pentecost:Yeah. Well, I think how that all started was, you know, the war broke out and some some of the guys at the fitless shed in the hobby shed, we were just saying, you know, talking about how bad it was. And, the conversation would always end with, there's nothing we can do. And that happened several times, and I thought, there's gotta be something we can do. And I remember, we support, a missionary couple in Malta, and I thought, well, hang on.
Mark Pentecost:ECM, European Christian Mission, is in Europe. So I got in touch with them. I said, do you do you have anyone as a missionary in Ukraine? And sure enough, they did. So then cut a long story short, we got in touch through ECM, Australian director.
Mark Pentecost:We got in touch with, he puts us in touch with the church in Lviv, which is very close to the Polish border. So it's in the west. It's about as far as away you can get from the eastern front line with Russia as possible. And, I didn't know at the time, but they turned out that they were a Baptist church, lo and behold. They hit the ground running.
Mark Pentecost:The day that Russia invaded, they turned the church, the whole church, downstairs, upstairs into a refugee transit center. And they were making bread, and they were allowing people to charge their radios. They they brought in bunk beds, to sleep people in transit. And ECM had a, fundraising campaign. And part of that was incredible thing where they were able to bring a coach in from Poland, and people would be 50 refugees would go on the coach overnight over to the border into Poland.
Mark Pentecost:Then they were greeted there by other other people, and then the trip back, they would load this 40 foot long coach all through the the seats and the luggage bins downstairs with food, bunks, bunk beds, and everything that they needed.
Jonathan Hoffman:Mhmm.
Mark Pentecost:And that went backwards and forwards for, I think, a couple of weeks. But what they did, what impressed me too, was that they they they would have a a queue, a 100 meters long outside the church. Right? And they had all volunteers except for the minister and his wife, Raman, and they would go along and talk to people while they were waiting about Jesus. So it was the, that were because I think I think the thing that has happened there, the remarkable thing there from there, from day 1 and until now, the people are so stressed and, mental health issues have gone through the roof.
Mark Pentecost:Families are breaking down. Husbands are on the front line. Wives is, you know, worried at home. Is he ever gonna come back? The parents of the sons and the there's about 9,000 women serving as well.
Mark Pentecost:Are they gonna come back, you know, you know, in a body bag or a casket or or whatever? And so here was a church, you know, getting in touch with the community. They they weren't just preaching on a Sunday. They turned the whole church upside down, literally, to help people and make a connection and help them physically and talk about Jesus as well because they somehow tapped into the the fact that these people needed some hope. They were looking for hope, you know.
Mark Pentecost:Your your home's being blown apart or your apartment, and your neighbors may be killed or injured. It was a very bleak outlook, you know. Remember there were the tanks rolling in. There was 40 kilometers of tanks.
Ardin Beech:Wow.
Mark Pentecost:All in a queue, in a convoy, going through, over the border. And they thought they were gonna roll into Kiev, the capital. So, they were doing something great, and then the second thing they did was, once the refugees had settled down, they decided to invite back to the church, and they would have a couple with them and give them morning tea or afternoon tea, and then, they would, talk to them about Jesus. So and then that project finished, and then somehow I don't and I can't remember how, the name FEBC came into my mind. And I knew something about them maybe 40 years ago.
Ardin Beech:What did that stand for?
Mark Pentecost:Far East Broadcasting Corporation. And then I got onto their website, and I thought, oh, here they go. They'd set up some radio stations in Ukraine 40 years ago. And then I learned more about that, you know, which is amazing what's
Ardin Beech:And you really got folks on board too because we raised like, WDBC raised quite a bit.
Mark Pentecost:Yeah. I think in the I think for ECM, we raised about 6 I think 6 about 6 and a half 1000. So we we're able to provide 700 food parcels for ECM volunteers there. And FEBC, it just took off when we had, Paul here that Sunday morning. I said, oh, can, you know, can we raise enough money for maybe a 100 radios that they could give out?
Mark Pentecost:And I thought, you know, maybe maybe in a couple of months we might do that. Well, by the end of that Sunday morning, we'd already had enough money for a 100 radios, and we ended up with being able to pay for 200.
Ardin Beech:Right.
Mark Pentecost:And they're delivering those things. I mean, they've got guys, you know, breakfast and morning announces. I've seen the footage in the reports where they have gotten in a car, driven down towards the Russian border, towards the front line, And just a bit back from the front line, they've they've given out bibles and radios to the commanders of platoons, you know. And one of the one of the commanders, said thank you very much. These guys could do with something.
Mark Pentecost:Yep. And now 2 of them, Sergei and another announcer, have been conscripted into the Ukraine army and as as chaplains. And it's tough. It's very tough. Yeah.
Mark Pentecost:Because you could be talking to 1 guy today and he's dead tomorrow, you know, or he's injured and, but they're comforting them. They're talking about Jesus, and then they had that, they set up their counseling line. They started with 3 counselors. Now there's 35 counsellors through the station that they were able to set up in Kyiv, Radio M, it's called. And they're getting 30,000 contacts by text, email, and phone calls.
Mark Pentecost:30,000 a month. That's a 1,000 a day.
Ardin Beech:Wow.
Mark Pentecost:And in February March alone, 2,000 of their listeners became Christians, and they're doing like Billy Graham used to do. He would go in, they do a lot of praying beforehand, and he would connect people who inquired to their local churches. So they are feeding all of those inquiries to local churches where people are listening. It's it's it's amazing. Yeah.
Jonathan Hoffman:Well, that's that's a fantastic ministry. And speaking of radio, you have a bit of a pet project that you're getting ready to launch. Are we allowed to talk about it?
Mark Pentecost:Yes. Yeah.
Jonathan Hoffman:It's called Easy Listening Radio. Is that right?
Mark Pentecost:Easy Listening Radio. Yeah.
Jonathan Hoffman:Can you give us give us 60 seconds on Easy listening radio and
Ardin Beech:He's got certainly got the voice for it.
Jonathan Hoffman:That's what I was gonna say. Just wait till you see what I have in store. We'll go ahead.
Mark Pentecost:Oh, okay. So it's Australia's it's it launches officially on Monday, 2nd September. Across the country, it's Australia's newest internet radio station. It plays easy listening music, secular music. It's targeted to the demographic of people 50 plus.
Mark Pentecost:It's different. It has a positive vibe, a positive outlook. It has carefully selected playlist, and it has no bad news. I would like a dollar for every time someone has said to me, I'm just sick of the bad news. You know?
Mark Pentecost:And so we've actually tapped into the good news network, which is not Christian, but feeds us news bulletins about with inspiring stories and positive stories from all around the world. It's totally commercial free as well, and, we're going to have some spiritual content because, you know and we wanna deal with mental health. I mean, the situation in Australia is, cost of living has caused a lot of additional stress. We've got domestic violence, at record levels. We've got mental health problems that, have ramped up ever since COVID started.
Mark Pentecost:We've got a lot of other factors, and we're going to offer a positive alternative. And the the segue from good news bulletins, and that's what we say, is to talk to them about the good news of Jesus. But we need to do that in a way that won't turn them off. Because we know that listeners, if we're too heavy handed or we say things that are inappropriate, it's just too easy to turn off.
Ardin Beech:Yeah.
Mark Pentecost:And we'll never get them back again. And we're talking about people who, you know, who aren't Christians, who yes. People say, if I went to church, building would collapse. And if you're lucky, they might go to, Christmas or Easter. And, you know, secular music is the how can I say?
Mark Pentecost:It's this like the song book of our life. We've grown up. You know, we're Christians, but we've grown up with secular music, haven't we?
Jonathan Hoffman:Yeah.
Mark Pentecost:So we wanna tap into that, attract appeal to them that, have them enjoy it, bring back a lot of great memories. We're gonna do we're gonna talk about for example, in the 1st month, we're gonna do, the entire month of September, this is a giveaway, is that we're going to we're gonna celebrate the anniversary of the 1964 Beatles tour. You have heard of the Beatles?
Ardin Beech:I have indeed.
Mark Pentecost:And they never came back to Australia. So we're gonna retell that story.
Jonathan Hoffman:Well, it sounds like a fantastic endeavor, and I second Arden's comment that you have a great voice for radio. Have you heard of a gentleman named Casey Kasem?
Mark Pentecost:Oh, yeah. Yeah. Casey Kasem. Top 40 countdown.
Jonathan Hoffman:I reckon Mark Pentecost is the Australian version of Casey Kasem. I'm
Ardin Beech:Well, thanks for joining us, Mark. It was great to catch up.
Mark Pentecost:It's been a pleasure.
Ardin Beech:There's very few things I think Mark Pentecost has not done. He's quite the prolific person.
Jonathan Hoffman:I had the sense that, you know, if we actually asked him, we could have extended this podcast. He's got a
Ardin Beech:lot of stories.
Jonathan Hoffman:He's got a lot of stories and, yeah, fascinating fascinating perspective. It was really interesting hearing him talk about the grand crusade, hearing him share about, music and his approach to that. And, you know, I really admire the way that if he believes in a cause, he will back it. Awesome.
Ardin Beech:Well, thanks everyone for listening once again. Hope you enjoyed it. Do you enjoy it, doctor Jay?
Jonathan Hoffman:Always enjoyed time with you, Arlene. And before we go, what was your first job?
Ardin Beech:First job was cleaning keyboards at an Apple store.
Jonathan Hoffman:There you go. There you go. Gotta start somewhere.
Ardin Beech:At the bottom. This week, it wins. I will be back soon.