Pastor Dave Sunman
Through a childhood of being sent to church by non-Christian parents I learnt a lot of stories from the Bible. The Sunday School was fun, but it wasn't until my early teens that I really thought about becoming a Christian. Some of my friends went to church and found that it made a real difference in their lives, but as I looked around my church it looked like a religion for the elderly and so I put off making any decision.
In October 1987 a storm came across the whole south of England and left my home without power for a couple of weeks. One evening as my dad refuelled the petrol generator we had borrowed, I held the candle for him to see by. Everything went up in flames, including me. After what seemed like ages, but was probably only a few seconds my dad smothered the flames and I was left completely unharmed. Even my clothes weren't damaged. In that incident I believe that God spoke to me to say that I didn't know when I would get another chance to become a Christian and so that night I prayed for forgiveness and asked God's Spirit into my life.
After a few years of finding my feet as a Christian my faith really took off. Through my own church and the school Christian Union I started to have a go at different types of Christian ministry. I went to help with the children's work at the Christian holiday Spring Harvest, (which I loved so much I went back every year for 15 years) as well as taking part in short term missions around the world.
After a year out, working for the Oasis Trust in a church in Battersea, I went to study law at Cambridge University. During my training to become a barrister I joined Quaystone Church and ended up within the leadership team until my work took me off to Norwich.
During my time there God gave me a clear call into church ministry and so I went to study at the London School of Theology, completing two years as an undergraduate and a third year on their MA course. While studying there I renewed my contact with Quaystone Church and started exploring whether God might be calling us together. It seemed to both the church and myself that this is what God was saying and so I joined the full time leadership of the church on 15th October 2005.