One major headway this quarter has been the development of E21 in Austria. E21 stands for Evangelium21 or Gospel21. This organization is comparable to T4G, 9Marks, or TGC in the American context. In some ways, E21 is a blend of those organizations - a hub for reformed theology, a pastoral network, or a conference organization. My co-pastor Kai also serves on their board of Trustees, and until recently, this has been a primarily German endeavor.

But recently, E21 just hosted its first regional conference in Austria. It might be fair to say that this is potentially the most missiologically significant event in reforming the Austrian church milieu in the past decade. The interest in doing serious theology to equip healthy churches is growing. With over 100 attendees, wider Austria is ready for more networking in order to equip and strengthen churches. Our existing pastoral network is also banking on this by coming under the E21 brand name. If the Lord wills, Kai and I will have some opportunities together with our church to resource other revitalizations and church plants.

Preaching
So my preaching in the book of Samuel has continued, and it has been quite a ride! While I am convinced that no one in the congregation has benefitted from this series in Samuel as much as I have, many of our brothers and sisters have thanked me for these sermons. I think we have especially had to check our remaining sins of pride. Also, the greatness of God in his sovereign plan of salvation has pressed greatly upon our hearts.

Kai and I have also assisted our trainees in the preparation of a new series in Ruth. This Sunday, we are due to receive the first installment of that series, which promises to highlight God's unrelenting pursuit of his people through redeeming what was broken.

Apprenticeship
Our church has now commenced an apprenticeship program for three of our members in conjunction with a local Presbyterian church in Vienna. This is a dream come true in some respects and represents a small but significant step forward in offering deeper theological education in the Austrian context. Our Presby brothers have taken our members through the Theology of God and Hermeneutics so far. Kai is due to teach two months of Old Testament Overview, and I will be teaching 1 month of Church History in May. Please pray for this endeavor and for the approximately 20 students.

In conjunction with this formal instruction, Kai and I have also taken on the same 3 students as mentees with the aim of doing some more structured and intense discipleship. This is a great step for our trainees as they prepare for the office of elder.

Church Retreat
Just a few days ago, we had our first churchwide retreat. Overall, we felt convicted as elders that we needed to present a theology of discipleship for our people. So we doubled down on understanding how all our formative discipleship in our Sunday gatherings and elsewhere seeks to equip the saints for the work of ministry. Then we explained how the ministry of the pastors as well as the members seeks to encourage and exhort one another to apply this in our lives.

We also took these ideas and applied them to things like our ministry to men and women as well as a revamped family ministry. Although we are a small church of 23 members (after we finish up an upcoming baptism :) ), we will shortly have about 14 children mostly under 5 years old. So, it is time to start considering how that will impact our ministries going forward.

Overall, I think that this Gemeindefrezeit (Church Retreat) introduced some new concepts to our people, but they were receptive and remain eager for what lies ahead as we all follow Christ.

New Confession
Over the course of this year, Kai and I worked diligently to draft a new confession for our church. This new confession is a German language patchwork of many historically reformed and Baptist confessions. Now we have entered the phase of teaching it and taking feedback from our congregation. It has been my pleasure to spearhead this and teach through (albeit rather briefly) these Christian beliefs. Once this is finalized, I look forward to publishing an English translation.

New Constitution
With our new confession, we also started revisiting some of our other founding documents. I am thankful that I came into a church that had already made solid headway on this front, but some articles were overdue for finalization. This is far from the glamorous work that some conceive of in church work, but it is a necessary work. In order for the church might do everything in good order, we need solid definitions in our documents.