The Rev Steve Dinning, Assistant Minister, Darling Street Anglican Church

Southern Cross: How did you get into full-time ministry?

Steve Dinning: During my social work degree (early 1990s) an older Christian who had discipled me since my late teens asked me what I wanted to do with my life. Going into full time ministry was one of my desires. We decided that morning that I would pursue this goal. Included in this was finishing my degree and working in social work for a number of years. During that time I kept sounding out key people to see if they thought I was suited to full time ministry. And under God, here I am.

SC: What were you doing before this?

SD: I worked as a social worker with homeless young people; Anne (my wife) and I were part of St Matthew’s, Manly; I played cricket and surfed and as we had no children at that stage we got to go to the movies!

SC: How would you describe your church?

SD: Darling Street Anglican Church is a recent ‘marriage’ between St Mary’s, East Balmain & St. Thomas’, Rozelle. I am pastor of the 9.30am congregation at St Mary’s. We’re kind of a ‘re-plant’ in that 15 or so people from St Thomas’ joined the 15 people at St Mary’s. One of our chief aims is to grow from within the Balmain Peninsula. This is no easy task as we’re reminded regularly from people in the community that churches in Balmain have been in decline for a long time!

SC: In what ways is the gospel impacting people in your area?

SD: To be honest – sometimes it appears very little! This is an incredibly hard area for Jesus ‘to get an audience’, a major reason being the great standard of life people enjoy in Balmain-Rozelle. Having said that, we ran our annual holiday club last month and 20 of the 38 children who attended were not from church families. At the end of the week some of the parents of these 20 children wanted to know about our Sunday School, which was really encouraging.

SC: What’s the most rewarding thing about your job?

SD: Teaching the Bible in whatever context and seeing people enthused by learning more about the Bible and then making connections with what they’ve learnt for their lives.

SC: The hardest thing?

SD: When new people come to the church and show an interest in Christianity, but then fade away.

SC: What would you like more of?

SD: Wisdom and more persistent prayer on my part.

SC: If a movie was made about your life, who would play you?

SD: Clint Eastwood, because one day when I’m talking about the gospel with someone, I’d love to be able to say ‘you’ve got to ask yourself one question: “Do I feel lucky?” Well, do ya punk?’

Steve Dinning spoke to Allan Dowthwaite.