River City Bible Church

I attended a new church plant in Hamilton yesterday. River City Bible Church was recently started by Pastor Bryan Martin who is tremendously excited about the progress of the church so far. I agree – I think that Bryan's commitment to expository preaching will be attractive to many Waikato believers who are currently spiritually malnourished because they do not attend a church that feeds them the Word of God.

River City Bible Church exists to glorify God by teaching His Word and making disciples of Jesus Christ who are equipped to serve and reach the world with the saving gospel of grace.

I was excited to visit the church and see firsthand how God is blessing His people there. If you're in Hamilton, check out River City Bible Church at 10:30am on Sundays, meeting at Hamilton Christian School, 4 North City Road, RD 1 Hamilton 3281 (formerly Cate Rd).

Parachute "Christian" Music Festival

Thousands of people attended Parachute again this year. For me, it was a mixed bag – some good Christian artists – some bad artists – and some disturbing behaviour.

I've never understood mosh pit activity. 3news reported one fan as saying, "It was crazy. People were just flying around. I saw one dude get laid out and we had to go help him up. I smoked a few people too. It was mean." The same report said, "Mainstage security were working overtime to drag scared and injured people – mainly young females – out of the pit and into safety. There was an influx of admissions to the medic tent during the [Saturday night] concert and one person was sent to hospital as a precaution after getting crushed in the pit."

I watched from the stands as young men and women flailed around, smashing into one another with no thought of who might be hurt. How can this kind of behaviour be condoned at a "Christian" event?

To be fair, the majority of concert-goers do not identify with this conduct and there are some great things that happen at Parachute – Louie Giglio was certainly a highlight!

One of the greatest offences of the event was the Catholic Mass. How can so-called evangelicals be comfortable with the re-sacrificing of Jesus Christ in the Mass? The leaders of the Reformation and hundreds of Protestant Christians died as martyrs upholding their belief that Jesus Christ's death was totally sufficient to save sinners saying that the RCC Mass called into question the adequacy of Calvary's sacrifice.

Will I go to Parachute again? I'll certainly be thinking twice.

The Direction of Drift

By D. A. Carson

“People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.”

The Master's Current - Alumni in Focus

In the most recent issue of The Master's Current, I was given an opportunity to thank The Master's College for its role in my ministry training. Click on the image below to see to the magazine's website. . .

Last Day with D.Min. Cohort

My Doctor of Ministry seminars on sermon delivery came to an end today. I have so enjoyed the discussions with a great group of pastors. Here is a picture of my cohort with two of our professors, Keith Essex and Rick Holland.

Preaching at Placerita Baptist Church

I had a great time preaching at Placerita Baptist Church in Newhall, California yesterday. Pastor Scott Ardavanis preached in the morning from Mark 13 and called us to readiness in preparation for Christ's return. I preached in the evening on the nature of authentic worship from Revelation 4 & 5. We reflected briefly on the friendship that has developed over the past twenty years. I am so thankful for people like Scott who have encouraged and challenged me in the faith. Here is a photo of us twenty years ago. . .

New Partnership with Calvary Bible Church - Burbank

This week I met with members of the Missions Leadership Team of Calvary Bible Church in Burbank. I described the ministry of The Shepherd's Bible College and Impact Bible Conference and solicited their prayers concerning upcoming events and ministry opportunities. What a great joy to partner in ministry with these wonderful people. Pastor Jack and Lisa Hughes will be visiting New Zealand in June to teach at Impact Bible Conference and I will return to Los Angeles in March to be the speaker at CBC's Missions Conference.

D. Min Seminars (Part 2)

Today's seminar was led by R. Kent Hughes, author of Disciplines of a Godly Man, Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome, and various commentaries. You can purchase these books online at Gracebooks NZ. Kent Hughes is currently working on a new book entitled Disciplines of a Godly Young Man. It sounds like it will be a good read when it comes out.

We had a wonderful time talking about practical day-to-day ministry. As you can see in the photo below both D. Min. cohorts met together today for this special time of interaction with a gifted pastor with forty years of ministry experience.

D. Min Seminars

Alex Montoya led the discussion this morning in my Doctor of Ministry seminar on sermon delivery. This photo is taken in the conference room at The Master's Seminary. There are eight men in my cohort. It has been such a joy to meet with them over these past two years to discuss expository preaching.

Snow in Los Angeles

Here's a picture of the Tatlock kids playing in the snow at The Master's College . . .

Arrived in Los Angeles

I'm in Los Angeles to attend the next phase of seminars in my Doctor of Ministry programme. In the space of twenty hours, I went from this kind of weather in Hastings, New Zealand (a photo taken right above our house roof) . . .


. . . to this in Newhall, California (a photo taken on the 5 freeway) . . .


No need to say, I have my winter clothes on. This is where I'm staying - Mark and Lisa Tatlock's home.