When Dave Cunynghame was asked to join a church planting team that was aiming to reach the disadvantaged suburb of Berkeley, little did he know what God had in store.
It’s one o’clock on a 2007 February Saturday afternoon in Berkeley, one of the southern suburbs of Wollongong on the New South Wales south coast, Australia. Berkeley is a poor neighbourhood, officially ranked by bureaucrats as among the 40 most disadvantaged areas in the state. Life in Berkeley is hard, with public housing, dole cheques, not quite having enough to eat, high crime rates, and more child abuse and mental illness than there should be. But the statistics only tell part of the story; they lose sight of human beings—people formed in the image of God—who are struggling to survive and longing for hope.
On this particular Saturday afternoon, a small group has gathered for the first time to pray and go doorknocking. Their aim is to get to know the local community and, ultimately, to plant a church. While others are praying, Dave Cunynghame is pacing. He’s only been doorknocking once before, and it wasn’t a resounding success. It wasn’t in a suburb like Berkeley either. He’s sure there must be a good reason why he’s here, but at this moment, he’s not quite sure what it is. And he’s sure it’s not going to go well.
Wayne, the team leader, crosses the room and asks, “You keen to get out there?”
“No way, mate”, Dave replies. “Just trying hard not to have concrete feet.”
Two hours later, after managing to get through only ten houses because people keep asking them inside for a cup of tea Dave is blown away. He’s even talked for 40 minutes to one lady who tried church years ago, but who felt like everyone looked down on her because she was divorced.
Dave was part of the team because he’d met Wayne through Dave’s brother, who was in prison at the time. Wayne was working as a prison warden, and he encouraged Dave to keep loving his brother and sharing Jesus with him. Their relationship led to Wayne inviting Dave onto the church planting team.
The original plan was simple: the team would work in pairs, with each pair adopting a block of 30-40 houses in a part of Berkeley. They would doorknock the area each week for a couple of years in order to get to know people, serve them and seek opportunities to speak to them about Jesus. Down the track, they would plant a church, but only after they’d formed relationships with the community.
On the second week of doorknocking, Dave’s partner was late, and Dave decided to go out by himself. He froze at the first door he knocked on, and, after fumbling through a very short conversation, he hotfooted it back to wait for his partner. But after 11 months of persistent doorknocking, it was the locals who started asking when the church would start.
Three years later, Dave is still going out regularly to see the people in his block. He still gets nervous before he goes out, but he goes. He’s prayed with people, gone to family funerals, cooked meals, helped people move furniture, and mostly just sat and listened. The locals, who thought the visiting would stop when the church started, have been surprised by their persistence. But their example of true love is slowly changing local opinion about church. Even a bunch of people who don’t go to church have voluteered to help clean out a former grocery store so that it can be used for their meetings. When locals express their surprise at how the church has persisted in being part of the community, Dave tells them that his aim is to be at their funerals because he’s in for the long haul.
Part of the doorknocking strategy involved talking to people about why they didn’t come to church. One man told them he couldn’t sit for a whole hour without having a cigarette. Another bloke told them that he hated the pews. That’s why you’ll find Berkeley church stopping halfway through for a ‘smoko’ and sitting around tables, cafe-style.
If you’d asked Dave at the beginning what he thought of church planting, he would have told you that he didn’t really think church plants reached the local community. If you’d asked him about doorknocking, he would have thought you were stupid.
But now, because of Wayne, Dave and the persistence of their little team, Dave knows all the people in his block by their first name. When Dave first started doorknocking, about 15 of the 40 houses were rude to them. Three years later, there’s only one house left where the people won’t talk to them. And every Saturday night, there’s a group of 70-odd people meeting together in Berkeley to hear from God, pray to him and encourage each other to keep following Jesus. God is displaying his mercy, and people are coming to new life.
