'DVD Archives'

Each year, Destiny Church archives the filming of key events and cultural performances. This DVD from 2005 includes David Graham’s work as the audio-visual producer for Destiny Church Wellington.

The DVD includes Brian Tamaki’s ordination as a bishop in 2005, highlights of the Defend the Legacy March, Absolute Abstinence Program, Hip Hop performance for Bishop Tamaki’s visit to Wellington in February 2005, a ‘Royalty Performance at Pacifically Wellington’ concert, Destiny New Zealand (political party), ‘DC Kids’, Super Sunday, Mt Kaukau Challenge, and a New Year’s Eve party.

David Manaaki Graham (Taranaki, Waikato) was a founding and key member of Destiny Church Wellington from 2003 to 2013. He joined the church after he became a solo father. He looked after his children on weekends from Friday to Sunday and wanted to join a church which had a Sunday school. He first went to The Rock Church in Ngauranga Gorge, Wellington, and his kids enjoyed the Sunday school there. However, he wanted to give up drinking and partying, but The Rock allowed drinking within reason amongst its congregation. it was predominantly a Pākehā congregation with only a ‘handful of brown faces’. ‘I wanted to change my life and stop the drinking and partying. A friend said Wellington Destiny Church was starting. My niece in the Auckland church told me to check it out. Starting from the very beginning of the church [in Wellington] interested me.’ David was at Wellington’s Destiny Church from the very first service. It was ‘good to be in a church and see yourself’ (the majority of the congregation was Pasifika and Māori (Lineham 2013, 104). He was drawn to the strong families and fathers messaging and enjoyed the supportive church community: ‘everyone looks out for everyone’. In addition, Destiny was alcohol-free and drug-free (and smoke-free).

The church held its services at Wellington High School on Sundays, with Brian Tamaki visiting once a month at the beginning. There was nothing for the kids to do in those early days so members established their own kids’ church which morphed into a Sunday school.

Graham enjoyed the Wellington church with its ‘great worship leaders and singers’ and gave huge amounts of his time and commitment to helping it run. He became part of the leadership team and was regarded by many as a ‘pillar of the church’. He ran the security team (including church parking and keeping kids safe while around the cars). He later managed the audio-visual ministry and needs of the church, including providing scriptures on the big screen during services, filming people’s testimonies to share during services, providing the mothers’ room with a live feed of the service. Graham had his own camera gear and would hire extra cameras when required for special church events.

Graham would set up the church on Saturday afternoons ready for Sunday (he was the key liaison between the school and church). It took up most of his weekends. Sundays were busy with both morning and afternoon services. As part of the pack down team they would have all the church stage and hall packed away and locked up 9.30pm. His kids helped him as they got older. He hardly ever took time off. The mantra was ‘build the church, build the church’.

He spent a lot of time, money and effort in his years at Destiny Church, but he never regretted it. He had great friends. ‘You build real close bonds, especially with guys, which I didn’t find in a European church. Destiny is all in – everyone looking out for each other.’ ‘The church helped me become a better father and a more responsible person.’

It was a black and white church – ‘you’re either in the church or out back in the world’. No shades of grey. ‘When someone would leave however, they would also sadly leave behind those church friendships.’

During his time at the church, Graham began to see more and more homophobic rhetoric manifest in the preaching from the pulpit. ‘Many of us never saw ourselves as homophobic - we loved everyone because God first loved us. We wanted to see traditional family values upheld, because we all wanted the best for our own families, as long as love was at the centre of that whānau. I later come to realise that same sex families who also had love at the centre of their whānau only ever wanted the best for their kids as well.’ He left Destiny Church Wellington in 2013.

References:

Personal communication between David Graham and Te Papa curator Stephanie Gibson, 7 October 2022.

Lineham, P. (2013). Destiny: The life and times of a self-made apostle. Auckland: Penguin Books.