TSBC’s 2013 Course Schedule

Next year’s course schedule has now been published and can be viewed on the The Shepherd's Bible College website. Weekend courses are available in Hastings, Auckland, and now Christchurch! Midweek courses are offered on our main campus in Hastings throughout the year in both afternoon and evening time slots.

All courses cater for both students looking to complete a Diploma in Biblical Studies and casual students seeking to complete selected subjects of interest. Fees are very affordable.

Take a look at the schedule and get enrolled online.

www.tsbc.org.nz

TSBC Graduation Preview

In two weeks from now (2pm on Saturday, 1 December) the result of many hours of teacher and student effort will be seen at The Shepherd's Bible College graduation ceremony when six graduates will receive their awards indicating that they have met the learning outcomes TSBC aims to achieve. Please come celebrate with them. Pastor Tim Collins of Auckland Bible Church will bring a message from God’s Word. All of our students will receive their academic records at that time. There will be an afternoon tea reception afterward.

For those who cannot make it to the ceremony, you can watch the service live on the Internet at the following link: RBC Live Stream

For those overseas, you’ll need to do a time conversion. Here is a good website for that: Time Zone Converter

NZQA External Evaluation Review

At The Shepherd’s Bible College, we have undergone two days of external evaluation by New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA), our national registration and accreditation agency. Praise God for a good time with the evaluators. As always there are areas for improvement which we will endeavour to work on in order to improve systems and the achievement of our goals. We are encouraged by the feedback from our stakeholders, students, supporters, board, and staff who affirm the work that is being done at TSBC. God is gracious to allow us to be involved in the training and equipping of future lay leaders, preachers, counsellors, Sunday school teachers, missionaries, and all manner of other roles within the local church. Please continue to pray for us.

Biographical Sketch on Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Last Sunday evening at Onekawa Bible Church in Napier, I delivered a biographical message on the great Welsh preacher, Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

Affectionately known as “The Doctor,” Lloyd-Jones gave up a promising career as a medical doctor and pursued a preaching ministry in the Welsh town of Aberavon. In that small town, he saw many souls turn to Christ for salvation. In 1939, he was invited to join G. Campbell Morgan to minister at Westminster Chapel in London just a few hundred meters from Buckingham Palace. For the next 30 years he established himself as one of the great expository preachers of his time. He preached over 370 messages from the book of Romans and 260 from Ephesians. At the height of his ministry, 2000 people packed the pews of Westminster Chapel to hear “The Doctor” preach the glories of Christ and the exclusivity of the gospel. In 1981, Lloyd-Jones passed into glory, leaving behind a legacy of faithful ministry. Much of his preaching has been transcribed and later published in book form. Some of his sermons can be found on YouTube.

Here is an example of one such sermon from Isaiah 33. Listen and let your soul be challenged.

TMAI European Summit Review

Two weeks ago, I returned from Spain and Germany where I was involved in The Master’s Academy International (TMAI) summit for the European TMAI institutes. I was privileged to present two sessions on the subject of developing and implementing educational standards within the academy. TMAI is moving towards creating a TMAI course catalogue which would set academic criteria by which we can measure learning outcomes and achievements within the academy. With this in place, TMAI students will be able to transfer credit from one TMAI institution to another, and TMAI institutes can continue their training processes with the confidence that they are meeting internationally recognised standards.

At the conclusion of the summit in Leon, Spain, I travelled to Berlin with Christian Andresen to assist in the implementation of the principles we had discussed in Spain. It was a joy to work with the faculty at European Biblical Training Center (EBTC) to evaluate course outlines and suggest improvements.

When I got back to New Zealand I was tired but blessed to be able to serve in this way.