Hi everyone,

It's Tuesday evening, and it's 9.45pm. I'm still awake because I'm excited to tell you about what's been happening this past weekend and the start of this week. I'm currently in Orford at the churches Youth Centre. The leadership weekend was held from last Friday to Sunday lunch and we had two guest speakers. Pr Darius Jankiewicz and Pr Justin Lawman. Pr Darius has been giving us presentations based on the study of Salvation and the deep history of how Seventh-day Adventists have landed we are in our current thinking and views. He went right back into the apostles and the Catholic Church and how the reformers like Luther, Calvin and Arminius have heavily influenced our theology. It has been startlinkg. Pr Darious has been giving us more intimate sessions over the last few days and it's a wonder that we have been counseled "we have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history." - Counsels for the Church p359 E.G White. I have more to share on these topics and wonder when I can share them and whether you would be interested? In any case, I am convinced that the journey of SDA's has brought us into an interesting time in history to synthesize the balance of law and grace which can only be found at the foot of the cross. (Psalms 85:10)

Pr Justin Lawman has been encouraging us to find tangible ways to measure the health of our church. There have been confronting questions like 

• "is the culture of the church healthy?" 
• "are people comfortable with sharing personal problems in our community?"
• "do the leaders feel empowered?"

As a pastor, these are scary questions, but necessary nonetheless. I believe me as a pastor and our leaders should be prepared to be evaluated. And more importantly, take action when the results reveal we need help. He has presented a tool that could help us and I'll talk more on this at some stage also. 

In a nutshell. I can safely say that I enjoy being your pastor and working with you. I believe in my heart of hearts that God is leading us toward something magnificent in our church. Not because of me, or you, but because we are willing to be used by God and are prepared to be challenged by things that we may not be comfortable with. But Jesus is our captain and He knows how to steer this boat. We will always have challenges as a church because Satan refuses to see us succeed. God has brought us this far and has preserved his word and his movement. Let us refuse Satan from making inroads into our church community and let us make inroads into our wider community for the sake of Christ and for the sake of the salvation of others. 

Shalom,

Pr David Leo