Life to the Full: Chris Cipollone on Faith & Mental Health
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Join us on this special episode of Sunburnt Souls as we welcome back best-selling author and Christian mental health advocate, Chris Cipollone. One year after our first conversation, Chris returns to share how his ministry, Life to the Full, is transforming the landscape of faith-based mental health support in Australia. From sustainable sacrifice to holistic Christian flourishing, Chris unpacks the journey of balancing mental well-being with Kingdom purpose.
The power of faith-integrated psychology and therapy
How Life to the Full is pioneering Christian mental health services
Why pastoral supervision and Christian meditation are essential for spiritual longevity
Chris’s upcoming book Here to Love and why love is central to the Christian life
This episode is a must-listen for believers navigating faith and mental health, pastors seeking sustainable ministry, and anyone looking to thrive holistically in Christ. Plus, Chris is offering a free signed copy of his new book to one lucky listener—tune in for details!
Welcome back Chris Cipollone
Sunburnt Souls, one year ago, I was blessed to have Chris Cipollone on the podcast, and we had an awesome chat. At that point, he was working on some new endeavours. He'd written a book called Down, Not Out, and we spoke about all kinds of things. That episode has been downloaded a lot, so if you want to listen to it, it's from March last year.
So a year on, I've got Chris back. Chris, thanks for coming back on Sunburnt Souls.
Chris Cipollone
Thanks for having me, Dave. I obviously made a good enough impression to come back again.
Dave Quak
You did. You know, I've actually had people request more of your work before. I told someone I was interviewing Chris Cipollone again, and she said, "That was one of my favourite episodes!"
Chris Cipollone
I'll stop it. I just can't believe it's been a year. Honestly, I'm not just saying that—it really doesn’t feel like it. I would have thought maybe July or August last year. Life is crazy sometimes.
Dave Quak
Oh, it's crazy. So it's March again. Last year, when we spoke, you were trying to pull some things together. You had about 15 balls in the air. We spoke about your journey with faith and mental well-being, and it was so encouraging and really powerful. Have any of those balls landed anywhere?
Chris Cipollone
Yeah, there's probably about 30 now! So I've gone from juggling a few to juggling even more. But yeah, they have. It's been amazing. 2024 has been a year of open doors, and God willing, 2025 will be too. I feel like from 2021 through 2024, it was a long season of sowing and waiting on the Lord. And then 2024 really became a year of reaping.
That’s looked like a lot of things I’m sure you want to ask me about, but it was a crazy year—possibly the busiest year of my life, to be honest. And in the context of mental health, I could feel myself getting stretched toward the end. Not to the point of a breakdown or relapse, but just realising that last year had some unsustainable patterns. They were all for good reasons, for good things. But one of my resolutions for 2025 is to make it more sustainable again.
Dave Quak
So you felt like you had to push a bit last year?
Chris Cipollone
Yeah, and I knew it was necessary. I was okay with it. I think, in God’s mercy, because the years prior had been pretty light—at least physically—I had the capacity to tap into an abundance of energy. But I tapped into quite a lot of it. So it was a big year, but it was doable in the goodness of God.
Dave Quak
Yeah, and I think that’s the thing, Chris. When we struggle with mental well-being, we still have to go about life and allow God to use us for His kingdom purposes. There’s nothing about being mentally ill that disqualifies us—it just makes things a little more complicated sometimes.
Chris Cipollone
Yeah, I think for all of us, whether we wrestle with mental health or not, sustainable sacrifice is one of the paradigms I try to live by. I don’t always get it right, but I love what you’re saying. It’s easy to let mental illness win the day, but that can take away the dignity of what we’re still able to do.
Sure, things may need to be modified. I think we spoke about this last time, but in a culture of meritocracy, that can be confronting. It’s about getting the balance right—knowing that we can be used in service of the Lord while also making sure we can sustain it for the long term.
Dave Quak
I hadn’t heard the phrase sustainable sacrifice before. Is that a Chris Cipollone original?
Chris Cipollone
I wish! No, I actually learned it from a minister I worked under, Gary O’Brien. He does a lot of training for pastors here in Sydney. I don’t know if he got it from someone else, but he was the one who introduced me to it, and I really like it.
Dave Quak
I can see that’s on your heart because last time we spoke, you were dreaming about ways to better facilitate retreats, better support spiritual health, and encourage spiritual practices. That’s one of the balls that landed this year, isn’t it? Please tell us about that.
Chris Cipollone
Yeah, thank you. When we were talking last year, I was in discussions with a church here in Sydney about potentially releasing some funds to start a ministry that had been on my heart for a long time. That door opened—again, 2024 was a year of open doors.
So, drum roll… Life to the Full is the name of the ministry.
It’s a really amazing story. A small church here in Sydney had been declining in numbers for some time, but they were sitting on a great property base. They asked themselves, What does the parable of the talents look like for us? Sundays weren’t going super well, but they had a theology of kingdom capital. They believed the church isn’t just their local congregation, but part of the broader body of Christ.
So while they were lamenting their situation, they also didn’t give up hope that God could still use them. They recognised that mental and emotional health could be a great way to bless people in their area and even across the country. So the church voted to make a generous donation for us to start this ministry, Life to the Full.
What is it like it live life to the full?
Its tagline is Holistic Christian Flourishing. I wanted to make sure that mental health was a core part of what we do, but not the only part. There’s a theological conviction behind that, grounded in Jesus’ words: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. We are whole beings.
I think, like what you’re doing on this podcast, one of my convictions is that talking about mental health is critical. But if we do it without a Christian or spiritual framework, we miss a core part of what it means to be human—made in the image of God.
Chris Cipollone
So yeah, Life to the Full is front and center—a ministry with Christian psychologists operating within a Christian worldview for clients who might want to access that. It's thoroughly evidence-based. We have Medicare rebates. We even got tax-deductibility donation status with the government, which I actually thought we wouldn’t get, but there we have it.
Dave Quak
That’s a miracle. That is really hard to get, man.
Chris Cipollone
Yeah, it is. And we never designed the system to qualify for that—that would have been getting the horse and cart the wrong way around. We were confident that we would qualify as a not-for-profit, but getting tax deductibility is a different thing altogether. I suppose the government, knowing that mental health is such a big issue and that it is our core business, looked on us favorably. As long as evidence-based therapy is the majority activity that we offer, we can also do other things like spiritual traits and content while still qualifying under those regulations. So I’m very thankful for that.
The way I describe Life to the Full is that there are three main buckets: content, center, and retreats. The content includes podcasts, keynote speaking—things that both myself and Steve McAlpine are doing under the banner. The center is really where our Christian practitioners come together. Again, you don’t have to be a Christian to access it, but my heart has been to have an authentically Christian team practicing with clinical expertise. Those two things don’t have to be at odds with each other.
Part of the process last year was working out: how "Christian" are we allowed to be? I hadn’t seen something this explicit done before, and I assumed it wasn’t allowed in the eyes of the government. But after doing a lot of due diligence, we found that as long as it is a client-informed process, we can go there with people.
We even found out that prayer is considered a form of evidence-based therapy if it’s important to the client. So we absolutely respect the spiritual boundaries of our clients, whether they’re Christian or not. It makes a huge difference to the scope of what we offer. But if it is considered important to the client, then yes, we can go there.
As for the retreats, we’re still building them out. From a financial perspective, we need to get the center up and running in order to fund the rest of our activities. But there have already been some cool inroads and open doors in ways I couldn’t possibly have engineered.
Dave Quak
So crazy. I was on a Zoom meeting the other day with a nurse and a mental health social worker, and we were looking at your center, just gushing over it. Even the fact that it exists is so inspirational. Straightaway, we were like, "We need to do this too." I really do think this is going to pioneer a lot for other people as well, Chris.
Because just the fact that you can go there, and I love that it's open to people of all worldviews, right? But as a Christian, if I want to go somewhere and see a psychologist and know that they're a Christian, it would be awesome to know that such a centre exists.
Faith and Sexuality: How Christian Sexologist Monica Cook is Helping Couples Thrive
And you've got a lot of other health practitioners, but I am super interested that you have a sexologist on board.
Chris Cipollone
Yes.
Dave Quak
Chris, don't you reckon of all titles, of all jobs everywhere, that's the best one?
Chris Cipollone
Yeah.
Dave Quak
I mean, yeah, yeah. You know, places like… "Hi, I'm Pastor Dave. Also, sexologist." I would walk around just saying that. "Hi, I'm Sexologist Dave." Everywhere I went. I don’t know how that would go for my business, but coolest name ever. But then I looked at the qualifications—yeah, extremely qualified. Well, yes. Extremely competent and gifted.
Why did you bring a sexologist on the team?
Chris Cipollone
Great question. And yes, I would totally bandy that about. We're going to talk about a book I've got coming up soon, and I'll drop my own version of being the sexologist—my kids are just balking at it. But we'll save that.
Yeah, Monica Cook is her name. Monica is an amazing woman. I first met her at a Christian education conference where she was catering, and I was blown away by her ability to integrate not just concepts of sex but, to be honest, the mechanics of sex in a non-grotesque way—while also integrating the most profound theological reflections. I thought, "This woman is the best-kept secret out there."
So we started talking maybe two or three years ago after I met her, and she’s now our sex and relationships lead within Life to the Full. Monica—she'll kill me for telling people this, but I’m going to—such an intelligent woman. She actually qualified for undergraduate medicine straight out of high school, basically Year 12. Very scientifically oriented but with a pastoral heart.
She basically dropped out of med in first year, realising, "This is not actually where my heart is. My heart"—and she laughs about it herself—"for whatever reason, is in sexual health." Now, the crazy thing about that is it's really misunderstood. Frankly, it doesn’t get the government funding that other disciplines do.
So her work is not considered Medicare-rebatable, even though she holds a Master of Science in Public Health. She’s so qualified, so brilliant. But such is her passion for the pastoral and the scientific, biological work she does in the field of sexology that she just thought, "This is where my passion is, and I'll trust that God will open the doors."
She really has lived by faith over many years. Talk about someone who is unassuming but brilliant. So I’m just stoked to have her on board.
Dave Quak
That’s so good. And that’s what I like, Chris. You’re speaking about mental health to Christians, which we’re always a little bit slow to catch up on compared to the rest of society. And speaking about sexual health…
Chris Cipollone
Yeah.
Dave Quak
You know, what else can someone glean if they go to the centre?
The Power of Christian Meditation: Stretching and Mental Well-being with Beck Abbott
Beck Abbott runs our stretching meditation. Beck was the editor-in-chief of Eternity newspaper, if you know that.
Dave Quak
Yeah, I know Eternity.
Chris Cipollone
Yeah, so Beck’s honestly amazing, Dave. I just pinch myself when I look at our team.
Dave Quak
Yeah, that's a good team member.
Chris Cipollone
It's kind of a bunch of all-stars, to be honest with you—if I can say that as humbly as possible. And again, I give the glory to God for that. Because if you’d asked me 12 months ago, “Hey, do you think this will be up and running? And who do you think your team will be?” I would have said, “There's no way.” So I really do give thanks to God for that.
Beck is amazing. To put it simply, Beck’s doing yoga without the Hinduism.
Dave Quak
That’s what I was about to ask. Did you call it stretching because of all that?
Chris Cipollone
Yeah, exactly. She calls it Christ-centred meditation. It’s the physical movements that are emblematic of yoga, but it’s done with biblical meditation happening in the room as you go. Now, I know that for some people, there's a level of discomfort there. I get that. It's unusual and potentially punchy, and I guess you get into a theology of syncretism if you really dig deep.
But we believe we can do it in a way that takes what we know about the body's processes—things that yoga traditions have taught—but reframe it in a way that points to Christ. That’s the conviction. Beck’s doing a great job.
The other service we offer is pastoral supervision with Jamie Dixon. This is something that's been emerging, and a lot of our major denominations are realising that pastors need support too. It’s different from psychology—it’s more of a coaching role. Not necessarily strategic, like “Here’s where I think your church should go,” but more like a pastor sitting down with another pastor and asking, “How are you going?”
It's hard for pastors to find space to do that. So yeah—supervision, psychology, sexology, stretching, and meditation. That is Life to the Full, mate.
Pastoral Supervision with Jaime Dickson: Supporting Church Leaders for Longevity in Ministry
Dave Quak
That sounds like a good day to me. In our movement, they've just made it mandatory for pastors to have four supervisions a year, which I think is awesome. Strangely, we had a bunch of people leave the movement over it.
Chris Cipollone
Really?
Dave Quak
Yeah, bizarre, right? I just think it's so important for anyone in ministry—whether vocational or not—to be mentored by someone. It’s a given. You can’t read the New Testament and not see it there.
Chris Cipollone
Yeah. The reason a lot of this has been brought in is because of the Royal Commission into sexual abuse. They found that one of the core corollaries with pastors who engaged in improper practices was a lack of accountability. There was no community, no mentoring.
Can I ask, within what you're comfortable sharing, what was the pain point for those pastors who left? What were they fighting against specifically?
Dave Quak
Okay, so in the Baptist movement, which I’m a part of, there’s the idea of the autonomy of the local church. Basically, every church is allowed to do what it wants as long as it’s within the confines of the constitution. And now, suddenly, they’re being told they must do this. So their argument was, “That’s not Baptist.”
I mean, yeah, I guess that’s somewhat true. But at the end of the day, why wouldn’t you want supervision? Why wouldn’t you want accountability and someone speaking into your life?
My supervisor is a legend. I catch up with him and I drive there thinking, “Mike, how often do you go somewhere as a minister of the gospel and not care about their well-being?” But when I sit down, I’m like, “I don’t care if he’s doing well or not. I’m here for me. Ask me about my life, check in with me, coach me, bless me, pray for me, and I’m out of here.”
We need it. So that was the pain point.
Chris Cipollone
Yeah, I see the argument from a theological perspective with Baptist tradition, but pragmatically, I’m totally with you. I’m Anglican—we just get told what to do. So that’s not even a thought for us.
Dave Quak
And eventually, you work your way up to having the big hat. Are you on your way up to the big hat?
Chris Cipollone
That is definitely not my trajectory.
Dave Quak
Chris, bringing it back to everyday people—not just those in ministry. Though I do believe everyone is in ministry, because we’re all called to bring the gospel. But all this stuff is important because as Christians, we need to know that there’s help available for every area of our lives.
And it’s not anti-faith. That’s what places like Life to the Full are proving. That’s one thing I harp on about in the podcast.
On one end of the spectrum, there’s a belief that mental well-being is purely a faith issue—that everything is solved by prayer and worship. And that’s a valid side.
Then, on the other end, there’s the idea that mental health is only biological and physiological—that it’s all solved by medication. And there’s validity there too.
But I just think the sweet spot is right in the middle. Where you go to your centre, get some psychology, do some stretching, get some prayer, receive spiritual guidance, and—if needed—talk to a psychiatrist for further support.
Dave Quak
Yeah, and so this is enabling a healthy way to live out your faith and mental well-being in a way that's sustainable and actually makes sense. It's not too holy to be ridiculous, and it's not too secular to have no spirituality with it.
Chris Cipollone
Oh, look, brother, you couldn't have articulated it better. I feel like I should just record those last 30 seconds and put that on a website. I often find in life that I say the best of both worlds, and I sit in the middle of things. I've often wondered whether that's a cop-out position or whether there's wisdom in the middle.
Yeah, I just don't think that we have to pit the sacred against the secular. When we learn things from evidence-based clinical research, we're ultimately learning about the brain and the body that God has made. That's not at the expense of sacred theological reflections. I think we sometimes splice ourselves artificially, and I don’t think that’s the whole picture. Again, this word "holistic" under our tagline is one of the key paradigms—we don’t have to choose between one part of ourselves and another.
I've been reflecting on this: one of the earliest heresies in the Christian Church was Gnosticism, which wanted to split the physical and spiritual worlds. It's always been a temptation within us to oversimplify or over-separate. But I think, in the image of God—a God who is infinitely knowable yet complex in His being, far more complex than we could ever imagine—there are going to be complexities within ourselves. I just think an integrated approach is the best approach.
The risk with it is that you go down a syncretistic path, trying to bring too many secular methodologies into the Christian framework. That’s the anxiety people feel about it, and it’s fair. We live in a world where individual human actualisation is almost treated as God. So when you start dabbling in that and claim it’s a Christian ministry, people’s ears prick up, and they think, "Oh, that sounds dangerous. That sounds like you’re doing unfettered 'you do you' with a bit of Jesus on the side."
Yes, that’s a challenge. But I don’t think it’s such an impossible obstacle that we shouldn’t do it. I think for us, structurally, putting me in the first chair as someone with a theological qualification says something about how we want to structure authority. We’re also very, very careful in our hiring processes, ensuring that our clinicians are excellent at what they do professionally and are also deep disciples of Jesus. We've discussed that at the board level.
Does that limit our scalability? Possibly. But it’s an integrity that we’re willing to prioritize to get that balance right so that we’re not watering down the gospel—the standard fear that people might have.
Dave Quak
Is it stressful being that first chair when it comes to people? You implement the stretching, and then someone—well-intentioned or not—comes up and says, "This is already going down the syncretistic route toward secret yoga." Does that stress you out as the leading pastor in that first chair?
Chris Cipollone
Well, it’s early days. We've only been going for about six weeks, but so far, we haven’t had much pushback. In fact, on the yoga conversation—which I was expecting the most—I haven't had any. The general consensus has been, "It’s about time. Thank God you exist."
Particularly in the mental health space, that’s where people are finally saying, "Yes, this is needed."
Would I expect pushback at some point? Yep, for sure. Am I a people-pleaser? Yes. Will I struggle with criticism? Yes. But if someone comes up with a solid argument against what we’re doing, I’m always willing to listen. We’ve been really careful in structuring this, and I feel confident that, ultimately, before God, we’re doing work that begins with a fear of Him—that’s the foundation of our wisdom.
Dave Quak
Yeah, and you’re not rogue. It’s good that you mentioned the board—you’ve got backing, accountability, and people around you. That’s really cool. Even the phrase "meditation" could bring the same heat if you were in the wrong circles. Some people hear "meditation" and freak out, but Christians have been meditating for thousands of years.
We just want it back.
Chris Cipollone
Well, I think the rise of the contemplative movement speaks to that. It does feel like there’s a renewed recognition that this is a key part of Christian formation.
Dave Quak
Absolutely. I read somewhere that you can tell someone's life development by the length of time between their books and the topics of their books. Your last book was Down, Not Out, which was a guide to managing anxiety. You shared a lot of your story about when you went to a psych ward, and you were very open and vulnerable about that.
Depression can lead to self-condemnation—and yet the gospel tells us there is no condemnation in Christ.
Anxiety leads us to inner turmoil—but the gospel assures us of the love of God and the peace that comes with knowing him.
Whether you have experienced mental illness yourself, or want to understand depression and anxiety to care for somebody you love, this book provides a personal and theologically-thoughtful reflection on the challenges facing Christians in this area.
Now there’s a new book coming. Two questions: how long has it been since the last one, and what have you learned in that process? And then, tell us about the book.
Chris Cipollone
Before I answer your question, is the assumption behind that quote that the longer between books, the wiser you are? Is that what you’re getting at?
Dave Quak
Yeah, that was the idea. It suggested that books act as milestones or Ebenezers—like in the Bible when they put down a memory stone. It’s a bit different from some guys who crank out a book every six months, but that’s just AI-generated content now.
Chris Cipollone
I mean, at that point, it's basically a magazine.
Okay, so it's been eight years since Down, Not Out.
Dave Quak
That’s a good stretch of time.
Chris Cipollone
To timestamp it, the story about being in the psychiatric hospital, which forms the basis of Down, Not Out, happened in 2014. That book was written in 2017, and now it’s 2025—so eight years. I think I got the contract for this book about three years ago, so it’s been about three years in the writing stage.
The book is called Here to Love, and the subtitle is Recapturing the Centrality of Jesus' Greatest Command.
If we start with my personal formation and story, the book came out of the fact that about five years into preaching and ministry, I started to feel like a bit of a one-trick pony. Every sermon I gave seemed to come back to an application of love, and that really messed with me.
Chris Cipollone:
I remember Tim Keller said once, and I can't remember where it was, but he basically said every preacher's got five sermons that they just cycle out over and over. I felt like I was down to one, and I was like, man, I’m kind of sick of talking about this. Am I just really uncreative?
Rev. Timothy Keller’s legacy
Keller was working as the pastor of Virginia’s West Hopewell Presbyterian Church when he was recruited to found Redeemer Presbyterian Church in 1989. The unlikely venture – a conservative church in the heart of Manhattan – started small but grew to attract thousands of people every week.
Technically an evangelical Christian, Keller preferred the label “orthodox,” as his theology differed from the politically conservative evangelical movement in the U.S. His church became known for attracting many young urban professionals.
As Redeemer attracted increasing numbers of attendees, Keller expanded the church to additional locations across New York City. In 2001, Keller founded Redeemer City to City, establishing churches around the world. He stepped down as senior pastor in 2017 to focus on the efforts of Redeemer City to City.
Keller wrote dozens of books, including the 2008 bestseller, “The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism.” His most recent publication was 2022’s “Forgive: Why Should I and How Can I?”
Anyway, one day I was reading through the Scriptures—I can't remember whether it was for sermon prep or just a devotional—and I came across Matthew 22, that famous moment when a religious leader asks Jesus what the greatest commandment is. Jesus kind of cheekily gives two. He says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength." And the second is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
I thought, great, I know that—Matthew 22:36-39. But then in verse 40, Jesus says something I had never picked up on before: "All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." And I was like, whoa. I think what he's saying is that love isn't better than the other commandments because it’s superior; it’s the best commandment because it envelops all the others. If you live with love, you’ve kind of got the whole thing worked out. And if you don’t, you’ve missed the point—which, in the context of talking to a Pharisee, is fascinating. They had all the knowledge but lacked the love.
That made me think, maybe it’s actually right that I keep coming back to love. Love is the application.
Dave Quak:
And could it be that Jesus has just given the vision statement for life itself? Like, is this the meaning of life?
Chris Cipollone:
Yeah, I think it is. As I mused on that, the answer was yes. So purpose number one for the book is essentially to help Christians who are tempted to miss the forest for the trees come back to first principles and realise that sometimes the Sunday school lesson is the right lesson to carry you through.
The more nuanced part of the book is, well, what does Jesus mean by love? What does that look like in 2025? The first part of the book is really about defending the centrality of love and never graduating from it. The rest of the book unpacks what that looks like in practice.
It’s not a mental health book, but I suppose it reflects my personal heart. My overarching vision for ministry is to integrate practical theology with deep frameworks that really speak into everyday life—but in a way that isn’t theologically light. That’s kind of my whole shtick going forward.
Dave Quak:
Oh man, I like that a lot. I like that, especially—yeah, it's the same message coming back. It’s interesting that Tim Keller would say that, because he probably had the biggest range of sermons out of any human. So if he’s only got five, I wonder if we’ve only got one!
Chris Cipollone:
He’s just a repackaging genius.
Dave Quak:
Yeah, yeah, he is. And just bringing it back to love—that’s so good.
Chris, let’s throw something out there. I didn’t ask you for permission, but how about this? Whoever gets in contact with you independently after listening to this podcast gets a free signed copy of the book when it comes out.
Chris Cipollone:
All right, deal.
Dave Quak:
So someone could be listening to this one day, quickly email you, and boom—they get the book?
Chris Cipollone:
Done. Though I should say, it’s probably not hitting shelves for another three months, so they might have to wait a little. But I’m good for it.
Dave Quak:
Three months? It’s been three years—three more months doesn’t matter!
Chris Cipollone:
Nothing like a bit of delayed gratification.
Dave Quak:
It’s going to be good. Now, a couple of other things you’ve got going on—Missional Labs and Stream Audio. What’s that about?
Chris Cipollone:
Right. So, coming back to Life to the Full, we qualified for a program called Missional Labs. It takes ten ministries that already exist but are looking to accelerate, from around the world. That’s meant I’ve been to the U.S. twice in the last six months, and I’m about to go to the U.K. It’s been an amazing privilege to sit with other people who are taking a part for Jesus.
If you’ve ever heard of Praxis Labs, they call that a "missional incubator." The guys from Missional Labs came out of that program, and their goal is to create a new missionary community of people thinking in innovative ways to engage the gospel in culture.
Some of the other ministries in the program are really cool—like one in the French Alps that rescues people who are blind drunk on ski slopes, houses them, and loves them back to health. There’s a ministry focused on church giving platforms, a new course on a Christian framework for understanding friendship… just heaps of exciting startups.
In Australia, I don’t think we do the startup culture particularly well—especially within the church. So it’s been incredibly invigorating to be part of a group of people who are doing different things but ultimately share a heart for the gospel. It’s also about networking, formation, and, God willing, funding from donors overseas to support Life to the Full.
Right now, I’m in talks with a few donors, but I’m learning that fundraising is a very relational process that can take months, even years. And that’s okay. I feel like I can do that.
Dave Quak:
Yeah, sounds like a great opportunity.
Chris Cipollone:
Oh, and the Stream Studio you mentioned—they were part of Missional Labs last year. I was filmed as part of them, but I’m not just endorsing it because I was involved. I really believe in it.
David Lochhead, who founded Stream Studios, is creating viral videos of people’s raw, gritty testimonies. His heart for it came from feeling really discouraged by how many of his friends were leaving the faith. He wanted to create something that reflected a more authentic view of Christianity—one that’s real, raw, and a bit more gritty.
Chris Cipollone: Yeah, and it's basically just gone off—Instagram, TikTok, everything—things I don't understand. But I'm happy to, you know, be filmed if someone else does the distribution, right? So I was filmed sharing a bit of my story, but yeah, I just want to plug them more broadly and say, Stream Studio—follow them because they're doing some incredible things. Beautifully produced and really authentic expressions of following Jesus.
Dave Quak: That's so good. We'll put the links in the show notes. Yeah, I've finally worked out why you Anglicans are better at getting funding than us Baptists.
Chris Cipollone: Why?
Dave Quak: Because both times you mentioned funding, you said, "Dancing with them." Bappo’s don’t dance...
Chris Cipollone: Liturgical dance goes a long way, brother. You should try it.
Dave Quak: Chris, man, it's crazy, but that's already been 35 minutes, and we have to start winding down. Do you have any other pearls of wisdom for us before we leave you to your awesome life?
Chris Cipollone: Nah, look, I just think I want to encourage you, brother. You're doing a great work. One of the things I’ve said in here—the love that's coming out—is that we live in an age of authenticity and vulnerability in our broader secular culture. And I just think the gospel has such redemptive power in both of those spaces.
I don’t think we should throw out those buzzwords. I think we should embrace them and speak Jesus into them. So I think you're doing a great work. If I think about Life to the Full over the last 12 months—why is it that I care so much about it? Why have I hustled? And yeah, again, I worked so hard last year, with the help of a lot of people. Admittedly, it wasn't a solo effort.
But why am I so convinced that this is a needed ministry? My theological conviction is this: God actually does the greatest formation when life is hard, not when life is easy.
Chris Cipollone: And I just guess I'd challenge you and your listeners with that. You don’t have to agree with it. But my question is—do you? Is it possible that, in the Sermon on the Mount kind of kingdom economy, the most blessed are those who are poor in spirit?
Now, the beauty of it, in light of the Psalms, Lamentations, and the many other genres we have in Scripture that make space for this, is that the message is not stoicism. It’s not, “Oh, it's really easy to suffer.” No, it's brutal. But at the same time, does your formation run deeper when you're in those seasons?
I would answer that with a wholehearted yes, which is why I believe in Life to the Full. I want to help guide other people through that formation—mentally, physically, spiritually. And it's not an aberration to God; it's actually a core part of His plan this side of eternity.
I think one of the key differences between what we’re offering with Life to the Full and perhaps overtly secular therapy is that we are stepping into self-actualisation, self-understanding, and healing. But the difference with the gospel is that we're doing it ultimately with a view that we can go out and help others on their restoration journey too.
I am not the end goal of this process. I need to do the work with God so that I can then go out and be a blessing to others. And I think that's one of the key differences we bring.
So my parting words, my pearl, as you put it, is—could it be possible that God's best work is done in the hard times, not the easy? You're allowed to acknowledge that it's hard. You should acknowledge it's hard because the Bible acknowledges that it’s hard. And that’s not an either-or.
Dave Quak: Awesome. Chris, now, if you're listening and you're thinking, "Man, I want to be part of this, but I don’t live in Sydney," well, Life to the Full does have telehealth appointments. You can reach out and catch up that way as well. The website will be in the show notes.
Chris Cipollone, it’s always a blessing. What if we make a deal? Every year, you come on at the start of March. That’s the deal. Next year, something else will be cooking, and the year after that, something else will be cooking. I’m telling you—it's a done deal. Done, done. My people will be in touch next March.
Let’s Pray with Chris Cipollone
God, our Father, we thank you that you are the loving Heavenly Father who has pursued us with relentless love. God the Son, we thank you that you have demonstrated your love by going to the cross for us, being the sacrifice that we could not be, and being the power that we do not have in your resurrection.
And God the Holy Spirit, thank you that you are our advocate. You are the one who reminds us of all good things. You are the gift giver, the initiator of change, and you call us in Scripture to live in step with you each and every day.
God, we thank you that this is not just a reality in times of ease, but it is also a reality—perhaps even more pronounced—in times of discomfort.
I thank you for what my brother Dave is doing here on the podcast. I pray that you would bless him and all you have called him to. I pray that you would bless the work of Life to the Full and that, in your good timing and sovereignty, you would continue to bring in the people you want to bring in for whole-life restoration.
We thank you, as Dave just alluded to, that with the gift of technology and the blessing of government support, we are able to offer this nationwide. As much as this tech era brings many complications, we also thank you that it brings goodness as well. And we thank you that this is one of those blessings.
So, God, as scary as it is, we don’t pray for easy lives. We pray for deep lives. We pray for lives that—whether we are well-fed or hungry, to echo the words of the Apostle Paul—we would learn the secret of contentment in all things.
We thank you that all seasons are used and molded by you. We acknowledge that you are on the throne. We acknowledge that this is your story, and we are blessed to be part of it.
We pray that, this side of eternity, we would wrestle with the many unknowns of what that means for our lives, but that we would, with joy and awe, bow our knees before you on the final day and say that the plan you had—a plan of wisdom, love, and redemption—is so much greater than anything we could have engineered ourselves.
And while we wrestle in these jars of clay, we pray that we would have increased faith to sit with the discomfort, to sit with the unknowns, and to be blessed by people around us so we can walk the journey together—side by side and arm in arm.
We thank you, Lord Jesus, and we pray that you would work through us for your glory.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Life to the Full, and how does it support Christian mental health in Australia?
Life to the Full is a faith-based mental health ministry providing Christian psychologists, pastoral supervision, Christian meditation, and biblically grounded sexology. It integrates professional therapy with biblical principles for holistic healing.
Can Christians seek professional help for mental illness?
Yes, seeking professional help for depression, anxiety, trauma, or stress aligns with biblical wisdom (Proverbs 15:22). Life to the Full offers Medicare-supported therapy with Christian psychologists.
How does faith impact mental health and well-being?
Faith offers hope, resilience, and healing. Studies show prayer, biblical meditation, and Christian community reduce stress and anxiety. Life to the Full combines faith-based counselling with evidence-based therapy.
What is Christian meditation, and how is it different from secular mindfulness?
Christian meditation focuses on Scripture and God's presence rather than emptying the mind. Life to the Full offers Christ-centred meditation, integrating stretching, breathing, and biblical reflection for spiritual and mental renewal.
Does Life to the Full offer online Christian counselling in Australia?
Yes, Life to the Full provides telehealth Christian counselling, pastoral supervision, and faith-based therapy online for Australians in rural, remote, and metro areas.
