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Launched on 8 November, CAS NOW! is here to urge young Australians to stop sitting by quietly as the culture rots, and instead to take bold political action, bringing biblical values back into public life.

Over the weekend, the launch of CAS NOW! was streamed live across Australia, marking the start of a bold movement aimed at training young Aussie Christians in political discipleship.

The two-hour event was hosted by Church And State (CAS) and called on young people to act now — rather than waiting for tomorrow, or for older generations — to redeem Australia’s culture, defend the unborn, and influence public policy for Christ.

Dave Pellowe, Church And State’s founder, opened the night with a stark observation: many Christians pray for good government but remain passive in shaping culture. “That’s like leaning on a shovel and praying for a hole,” he declared.

The purpose of CAS NOW!, said Dave, is to change that by equipping Australians under 30 years of age with the knowledge, skills, and networks to participate meaningfully in the political process and be a light for Christ in the culture.

The event emphasised immediate, tangible action. Participants were shown how to join political parties, engage in pre-selections, and redeem hollowed-out institutions from within.

“This is about being salt and light in the public square,” Dave explained, adding that the Christian faith might be personal, but it’s not private — it’s civic, cultural and national.

Young attendees were prioritised in posing questions during the Q&A session, reflecting CAS NOW!’s focus on thrusting the next generation into the fray.

‘Here I am — Send Me!’

Dave kicked off the night with a stirring sermon urging young Australians to answer God’s call with a posture of biblical willingness encapsulated in the phrase, “Here I am.”

Drawing from Scripture, he highlighted a long list of figures who responded to the Lord even in the face of fear, uncertainty, or their own mediocrity.

Abraham responded faithfully to God’s command to sacrifice his son. Jacob, tasked with the mammoth task of uprooting his household and migrating, did the same. Confronted by God in a burning bush, Moses stepped forward to lead God’s people out of Egyptian oppression. Joshua, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Esther, and Ananias all demonstrated that obedience and courage — whether on battlefields, in courts, or in ordinary life — are the very tools God uses to write history.

“God is going to call different ones of us in different ways,” Dave explained.“Some will be called to serve in political offices and support righteous men and women in government. Some will be called to be full-time mums or mechanics — and then, come election time, you will need to down tools, focus, and join the fight.”

“Because the truth is: you are already in the fight whether you know it or not. The battle is raging all around you. The wrong thing to do is to be asleep.”

Linking biblical lessons to contemporary Australia, Dave emphasised that young Christians must confront cultural decay and ungodliness with faith-driven engagement, even if it doesn’t sit comfortably in the local church.

“Godlessness multiplies in proportion to the silence of the church — in proportion to the niceness of the pulpit,” Pellowe said. “We do not need a nice pulpit. We need a prophetic pulpit that declares the power and truth of God.”

The Question of Immigration

Following the sermon, Pastor Matthew Littlefield joined Dave for an in-depth discussion on the hot topic of immigration, examining the issue through a  biblical lens.

Littlefield began by addressing common misinterpretations of the Old Testament.

“People often take a verse like, ‘You were sojourners in Egypt; therefore, you shall not oppress the sojourner among you’, and say, ‘We have to have open immigration, otherwise we’re racists… [and] bigots,’” he explained.

“But stop and pause for a moment,” he said. “The verse actually says the opposite of how it is often quoted. If a foreigner is going to live among you, they must follow your ways, your practices, and your religion. Otherwise, they will be punished according to your law.”

When asked to respond to the common argument that Jesus fled Judea as a “refugee” as a child, Littlefield emphasised the difference between temporary protection and modern immigration programs.

“He was not going through an immigration program… It was more like a witness protection program,” he explained, noting that the Holy Family remained under Roman jurisdiction and, importantly, did not rely on welfare.

Later in the night, Dave invited several other contributors to a panel to continue the discussion on immigration from economic and cultural angles.

Barclay McGain, General Manager of CPAC Australia, highlighted our nation’s low birth rate of 1.48 children per woman compared with the replacement target of 2.1. He argued that immigration temporarily masks demographic decline but cautioned that “we need a real reawakening — to start getting that birth rate back up so we can be more self-reliant and not addicted to this drug of mass migration.”

Edward Schuller, the National Secretary for the Teaching Professionals Association of Australia, added that Australia has authority over its borders, and warned of the cultural consequences of neglecting this.

A nation is a shared heritage, he explained. “There’s a significant and distinct Australian identity, and I think that’s worth preserving,” he said, clarifying that this is not racial exclusion, but a concern for national cohesion.

The panel also considered Jesus’ own teachings on the topic. An audience member asked, “How is not letting people into this great country glorifying God when Jesus taught that if we don’t welcome strangers, we’re not welcoming Him?”

Littlefield replied that we’re of course commanded to welcome strangers — but the biblical command applies to temporary visitors or temporary residents. Using the analogy of inviting such visitors into one’s home, he said, “After a while, you start checking your watch, thinking, ‘Are you going home?’”

Why is it any different for a nation?” he asked, stressing that the Bible calls for hospitality and justice while maintaining social and national order.

A Closer Look at Immigration

Practical examples of immigration policy were highlighted. The panel noted that some 40% of international students eventually gain permanent residency, and that universities are now dependent for their survival on this backdoor immigration pipeline.

Littlefield also urged closer attention to the data on arriving immigrants:

Immigrants are more likely to be on welfare. They are more likely to earn less, and more likely to have qualifications they’re not using… engineers are the most likely immigrants in Australia to be driving trucks or driving for Uber rather than working in their profession. Nearly 50% of immigrant engineers in the country aren’t working in their field.

Among the other important points made about immigration on the night:

• In Australia, surges in net migration have made rents and property prices unaffordable for many. In New Zealand, by contrast, net negative immigration has returned house prices to pre-COVID 2019 levels.
• At the University of Queensland, campus election candidates are now essentially forced to campaign in Mandarin to engage the large international student population, which affects student politics and representation.
• In Israel and other ancient societies, foreigners were very vulnerable to exploitation and were often used as cheap labor or slaves — which is very similar to how they’re being exploited by Australia’s current immigration settings.
• Immigration is not an amoral issue. Biblical accounts show how unassimilated foreign populations often served as cultural and spiritual destabilisers, leading the nation of Israel away from God.

What Can Young Australians Do?

As Dave explained, CAS NOW! is not about creating more political noise, but discipling young people to apply their faith practically in the civic sphere.

Among the many concrete applications offered to young people on the night were the following:

• Don’t just vote; join a political party. Be active in pre-election political processes to influence candidate selection and party policy.
• Join the political party where you are likely to have the most influence on the party, its candidates, and its platform. But when it comes to elections, don’t necessarily vote for the party you’ve joined, but the one that best represents Christ’s values.
• Take practical action through local ‘effectivism’. Sign up to be notified of nearby campaigns or opportunities with Christian lobby groups and pro-life organisations.
• Engage with data to inform your political positions — Study statistics on immigration, wages, housing, and economics to argue effectively and separate fact from spin.
• Prepare to serve in unusual ways, accepting that God may call you to roles you might not initially expect.
• Defend the gospel publicly against cultural falsehoods, responding with truth rather than silence when God’s name or Christian values are maligned.

The entire two-hour event is worth watching, and can be viewed here.