Stories of us: David

Hi, my name is David Barnsdall and I’m in a Chartered Accountant. I’ve been involved since early in the beginnings of City Bible Forum and it was the result of my friendship with Brian King who was the Bishop of Parramatta. He rang me one day and asked me if I would be supportive of Craig Josling who was starting off this thing called Ecom. A ministry to people working in the city.

As a Christian, I’m concerned about how to evangelise in the workplace. It's not easy in the current environment but opportunities do pop up from time to time and everyone has to be prepared. When I became involved with City Bible Forum, I saw they had a structure and a way of doing evangelism. I see some very outstanding Christian people involved and… it's networking. Networking is so important.

It's good for me particularly to be in touch with what's happening with young people who come in. Young people who have gone through university, are Christians, have recently become Christians, or have had a certain amount of Christian influence, they come to the workplace and you know that's quite foreign territory to them. So that's where the City Bible Forum comes in, with a place to go and meet and offer them fellowship. And of course, if they find in their firms or the companies they work, that there are other Christians, that can be very helpful. We need to help young Christians come through.

I’ve been involved in all sorts of other ministries - in prisons, Anglicare, in Ethiopia… but the City Bible Forum, I think, right at the moment is very effective. It's just the right balance. The right approach.

I like to give especially when you see what's happening. I think you're going to see there's been big growth and I think there'll be even more.

We had John Lennox here at the Town Hall and I had a good number of people come to that because that was excellent! Something like that quality stuff, it really is good. And it's a joy when people who you've known then declare themselves as a Christian. It rubs off on people. It's been a rich experience.