Register Now for New 2011 Courses

Here at The Shepherd's Bible College, we've been busy designing new courses for 2011. We've added two new instructors to our teaching line-up. And we've added a new block course location in Epsom, Auckland. These are exciting developments which are the first step towards offering an advanced diploma in addition to our already established programme.

Our current Diploma of Biblical Studies programme is designed for those who are involved in lay ministry. Graduates are prepared for service in the local church. The programme has a focus on personal growth and students are given opportunity to discern their own gifts and abilities.

The new Level 6 advanced diploma programme will be designed for those who want to be involved in bi-vocational ministry. Graduates will be prepared for leadership in the local church. The programme will have a focus on ministry ability and students will be given opportunity to grow as a servant-leader.

The new Level 6 courses in 2011 are:

• Biblical Counselling
• Greek
• Advanced Theology
• Missions
• Cults and False Religions
• Historical Theology
• Christian Ethics

For more information on these and our normal array of Level 5 courses, click on the graphic below. Then go to the TSBC website which contains descriptions for each of the courses, dates, times, and registration details etc.

To register for courses, click on the following link to complete online registration: Register

Updated 2011 TSBC Year Planner

The Shepherd's Bible College has published an updated 2011 year planner. Click on the image below . . .

TSBC Preaching Students

One of The Shepherd's Bible College's goals is to train preachers. This past Sunday at TSBC we heard the final three men complete their last preaching lab for 2010. What a joy to hear them exposit the Word of God and call their listeners to obedience.

Josh Powell (Wellington), Zohar Gonen (Israel), and Reuben Pickering (Cambridge) have all completed this phase of TSBC's homiletics training in expository preaching. They received very helpful feedback after each of their preaching labs and have worked on weaknesses throughout the process.

Thanks for praying for these and other TSBC students throughout the year.

Fellowship Group Leadership

This week the Cornerstone fellowship group leaders meet at our home for an end-of-year breakfast. This has been our tradition for a number of years now.

These are wonderful men to serve with! My appreciation for them has only grown as we have sought to serve the Lord together each week.


In recent months, we have spent some time to identify each other's strengths, weaknesses, and spiritual gifts. I will leave the weaknesses off this summary, but look below at how God has provided for Cornerstone and Riverbend Bible Church in these men! . . .

• Nigel: Passion and love for the Word of God, ability to teach with clarity, administration, commitment to discipleship, leadership, work ethic, self-discipline, perseverance with people.
• Denys: Gift of encouragement and exhortation, wise counsellor, one-on-one teacher, welcoming, gentle towards people, faithfulness in discipleship, committed to prayer.
• Gavin: Leadership, encouragement, teaching, worship leading, humility, gentleness, unassuming, ability to draw out people, faithful in ministry, quick to serve, team-builder.
• Grant: Teaching, encouragement, strength of conviction, humble, willing to listen, hospitality, asks great questions, effective home group leader, love for Word of God, commitment to leading family, calm in pressure situations.
• Mike: Reliable, loyal, keeps commitments, servant heart, teaching (boys rally), teaching (one on one).
• Jeremy: Evangelist, encourager, motivator, leader, proactive initiator, great faith.
• James: Generous, encourager, reliable servant, commitment to prayer, leader with a shepherding heart, integrity, teachable, humble.
• Reuben: Purposeful encourager, servant, insightful questions, teaching, sober-minded.

How can we not rejoice in the composition of Christ's church? The Lord designs people to serve in the church just as He wills and He provides the necessary strengths and abilities to do that (1 Corinthians 12:11, 18). In the end, God gets the praise.

TSBC Preaching Labs

TSBC's preachers-in-training undertake their third round of preaching labs this Sunday afternoon (14 November) in New Testament Epistle passages. Here is the schedule:

• Josh Powell - 3:00pm
• Zohar Gonen - 3:50pm
• Reuben Pickering - 4:40pm

If you're local, please come join us at The Shepherd's Bible College in Hastings. You'll be ministered to, and you'll have an opportunity to offer constructive feedback to the students.

Visiting RBC Home Groups

The elders at Riverbend Bible Church are endeavouring to conduct Q&A sessions with each of the RBC small group Bible studies. The idea is to let people ask about the church, future plans, philosophy of ministry, and also give people an opportunity to provide feedback to the church leaders.

So this past Wednesday night, a fellow elder and I went to our first home group. When we arrived, we found a desk set up with four folders positioned on it. Here's a photo of the four folders . . .


The folder entitled "Complaints" was the thickest. The "Gossip to Clear Up" folder was the next thickest and then "Questions". When we opened the "Compliments" folder, it was empty :)

Of course this was all in fun and the evening proved to be very encouraging.