My parents and sister are members. We joined in 1989 when there were 400-500 members.
Obviously Max incredibly hard to replace, but my parents seem to really like Randy. I haven't been in SA when he was preaching.
Max was looking to take a reduced role before his heart problems, but didn't want to step down before he found someone suitable to step up and take over a lot of his duties.
I got to see Randy preach in Chicago regularly and really liked his style and teachings. He is a little "different" if one is used to typical evangelical style teachings. He tends to be a lot less emotional style preaching and more technical...meaning that he delves into historical context and theology heavily.
I hope he does well and keep us updated on how he's doing.