Wayne Pickford believes, “Wrestling is the opera of the working class.”

Wrestling is an important part of his strategy for reaching working class people in the steel mill town of Berkley, NSW.

That's Wayne on the right just about to drive the other guy's head into the canvas.

You can read the first instalment of his story in: Wrestling against flesh and bood.

I caught up with Wayne last week in Sydney and interviewed him for next1000.

How did you get involved in church planting?

I grew up working class and became a prison officer. Through those experiences God gave me a heart for working class people. I saw the disconnect between the way we do church and their everyday life. I wanted to bridge the gap.

I discovered that Tim Scheuer from the Church Army had a vision for a base of evangelism in Berkley, a strong working class town. So we got together.

Tell us about Berkley.

The people are Australian born and working class. They have a history of working in the steel mills. There’s chronic unemployment. Some families are second and third generation welfare recipients. They watch a lot of TV, especially sports on Foxtel.

People don’t leave the area very much. The dream for a young man is to play Rugby League professionally and get out of Berkley.

We have a big problem with drugs and alcohol. We have one of the highest rates of single parent families in the nation.

There’s a local Salvation Army church but no other churches have survived.

What was the initial strategy?

I’d read about Matthew Barnett's Adopt A Block approach.

He’s pioneered it in some tough areas of LA. I thought we could adapt the model for working class Aussies.

We have plenty of our people with gifts and abilities just handing out pew books in church. Why not release them for evangelism in the community?

It’s a simple strategy. You release people with a heart for evangelism to become the pastor a neighbourhood.

How did you start?

I picked out a team. I looked around our church for people who were passionate about Jesus and who were awesome evangelists. If found they were often sidelined because they were too passionate about their faith. I looked for zeal and a heart for evangelism.

I got a team of eight together and shared the vision for “adopt a block”. I asked them, “Do you think this would work in Australia?” Then I let them go away and think about it and come back with ideas of how we could start.

How did the team respond?

I remember one guy’s face turning white. It was like I had told him to go sell George Bush T-shirts in Bagdad. But he came back with ideas and put them into practice. He’s a convert now to “adopt a block”.

Another guy was big on a pre-packaged method of evangelism. He just wanted to tell people even if they didn’t want to hear. I explained I wanted him to become a pastor to a neighbourhood. I wanted him to learn that true evangelism is about building relationships and then taking the opportunities to share that God gives you rather than forcing the opportunity.

He gave up the habits of twenty years and became another “adopt a block” convert.

Everyone on our team are full on evangelists. But I’ve taught them to love and serve people and to trust God for the opportunity to share.

What does Adopt A Block look like?

It’s simple. Two peoople go out to 30-50 homes each week. Usually they give away bread. Sometimes it’s other gifts like a T-shirt. We gave away chocolates for Mothers Day. We go out to serve the community and to wait for opportunities to share the gospel.

We’ve been visiting three different people with terminal cancer for the last few months. They don’t ever leave their homes. Most weeks we’re the only people who visit them. One lady has only months to live. We were the only people to visit her on Mothers' Day.

What has been the community response?

We don’t have enough workers to cover every neighbourhood so we have people asking us, “When are you going to start visiting our street?”

A guy came up to me in recently and said, “When are you going to start a church service?” I asked him how he knew about us. He told me, “Some one visits my wife every week and they’re real people. I want to come to your church!”

Another lady from the community has brought a new friend every week to Alpha. She hasn’t made a commitment yet, but she wants to join one of our teams and adopt a block.

How does wrestling fit in?

Wrestling is the opera of the working class. They love it. There’s very little in the way of community entertainment in our town. So we put on wrestling matches cheaply. Then we provide a gospel presentation.

It certainly has the town talking, “What’s the pastor doing in the wrestling ring!”

What resources have been helpful?

Matthew Barnett's Adopt A Block strategy, also his book, The Church that Never Sleeps.

Ralph Moore: Starting a New Church is excellent.

Mark Driscoll: The Radical Reformission. I read all his books.

What are you learning?

In church planting you have to trust God 100%. No one can give you the answers. Every day is different. I set out with my plans and God intervenes and we end up in a totally different direction.

Is there anything you’d do differently?

I’d recruit a bigger team to cover more people with “adopt a block”. But they’d have to have a heart for evangelism and be ready to roll up their sleeves and get involved in people’s lives.