One of the greatest joys I have as a Pastor is that I am not doing this alone. Not only do I have the blessing of pastoring an incredible and supportive church here at Parra, but I get to work with, plan with, and be supported by Sovereign Grace Churches, especially, with Dave Taylor and Brendan Willis at Wahroonga.

This not only blesses me, but blesses us! As a family of churches we are better together. We collaborate, support, send help, have better ideas, give better feedback/rebuke, etc etc.

Last week our partnership was on full display. Dave, Brendan and I went on our Annual Regional Assembly of Elders trip…a fancy word for a Planning Retreat! We also invited all the Academy Students along for one of the nights and it was such a great time. We spent time in worship, study, prayer, planning, and hanging out. Through that time we got better clarity and vision for the future of both of our churches and for SG AUS as a whole…AND we had some AWESOME ideas for our first annual retreat as SG AUS, ‘Together 2022’!

And then on Sunday, Richard Song went and preached at SG Wahroonga to serve them and he was joined by Maddie Lick who played drums to help them out with some shortages on the roster (shout out also to Mum, Jo, and Mik who are also doing that).

All in all, our partnership in the Gospel makes gospel ministry all the sweeter and more enjoyable. And one thing I’d love for us is to see this partnership not just as ‘Riley’s’ thing but ‘our’ thing. That we ALL get the fruits of this!

p.s. two weeks prior to that Brendan and I went to the Reach Australia National Conference to rep SG AUS and make friends with likeminded gospel workers across Australia and it was also a really fun and fruitful time!