McLeod: The Church and Israel

Dennis McLeod once led Hamilton-based Christian Friends of Israel and has been a staunch supporter of Israel and a strident enemy of anti-Semitism in the church. We’re pleased to have him as our guest speaker at our November meeting to talk about the church’s responsibility towards Israel and the Jewish people.  He recently published his memoir “Small Beginnings” which is available online on amazon.com.

“That weekend, we went to visit the very dear friends in the coastal town… They had visited Israel and 1991 and had attended a meeting in Hamilton on Israel before they had left. As I too was interested in Israel, I’d gone to the meeting with them and encountered my very first anti-Semitism teaching within the church. The speaker, who was from a church based in Israel, went to great lengths to tell the audience why Israel should not be there and even tried to use ancient building methods to prove his point. The Bible was not mentioned. One cannot discuss Israel without the Bible, and you cannot discuss the Bible without discussing Israel.”

– McLeod, D (2015). Small Beginnings. Balboa Press.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

DENNIS R. MCLEOD grew up on a farm in the central north Island of New Zealand and joined the Regular Force Cadets at the age of just fifteen and by the time he graduated into the Regular Force had become the head cadet. Before leaving the army at age twenty-seven he became a qualified mechanic and instructor.

McLeod was a top teacher at a local trade school, where he taught for over thirty-five years. McLeod also served as president of a local school committee and president of the Hamilton Harriers club he belonged to. He has served as a church synod representative. He and his wife, Penny, have served as missionaries in several countries, including Israel, Philippines, Benin, Malawi and America.

Along with Penny, they pastored a church in their hometown of Hamilton New Zealand. He has four grown children and nine grandchildren.

“Great things can come from small beginnings,” McLeod says. “They happened to me, and they can happen to you, too.” At some point in their lives, many people feel they have been rejected and forgotten. They may see friends and family go on to lead fulfilling lives and believe such a life will never come to them. Their lives are filled with a sense of rejection, whether real or imagined. Author Dennis R. McLeod understands that feeling and shares it in Small Beginnings. Because of the verbal abuse he suffered as a child and being told he would never amount to anything, plus a marriage and divorce at the age of thirty-three, he suffered very badly from rejection. This is the story of the journey that started at the age of fifteen when God started training him for the future and the work God had for him to do.