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Impact Bible Conference 2013

It is only 55 days till Impact!  This year’s theme may be one of the most important yet.  It is all about “A Dynamic Body,” namely, Christ’s church.  The conference will focus on the purpose, priorities, and practices of the local church.

Impact is held over Queen’s Birthday Weekend, starting Thursday, 30 May and concluding Monday, 3 June.

Registrations are now open and space is already filling up.  Don’t miss out!  Click here to get yourself registered for one of the best annual preaching conferences in New Zealand.  You’ll join with 700 other Christians for four days of challenge, encouragement, worship, and fellowship in the sunny Hawkes Bay.

Speakers include Scott Ardavanis, Ken and Kelli Ramey, Russell Hohneck, Nigel Shailer, Adam Tyson, and a host of seminar speakers.

For more details, check out the Impact website.

See you there!

A New Adventure

This post is a little slow in being released, and maybe you’ve already heard—Yes, Nigel has accepted the call to be Associate/Assistant Pastor at Faith Bible Church in Murrieta, California.  We are excited!  Nigel will be working with Chris Mueller and John Pleasnick—longstanding pastors at FBC.  Hopefully, we’ll be able to make the transition to the US in July.

FBC church is made up of about 800 adults and children.  It is a growing, vibrate congregation that loves God’s Word and wants to make significant inroads into the community.  There is a big emphasis on training at FBC and a commitment to see lay ministry leaders be raised up and equipped to serve in the church.  It is going to be a good fit for us.

Thanks to everyone who has encouraged us and prayed for us over the last few months.  Your support has been such a wonderful blessing.  Please keep praying.  We are in the process of applying for a US religious worker visa.  If approved, we begin the task of relocating our home to California, again.  What a job that will be!

Of course we have mixed feelings—we are really excited about embarking on a new ministry in a great church but we do not relish saying “goodbye” to all our friends and family in New Zealand.  That is going to be a sad day.  God has been at work to help us to come to this point and we are confident that He wants us to make this transition.

God bless,
Nige and Sereena

2012 TMAI Asia/Pacific Summit Report

The Master's Academy International (TMAI) Asia/Pacific regional summit in Singapore is finished and we reflect now on what made the summit a success . . .

• Twenty men attended from countries such as Australia, Cambodia, Fiji, Hawaii, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, and the United States
• We experienced sweet fellowship and great encouragement
• “Fisherman of Christ” Fellowship, pastored by Soon Yong Tan, provided wonderful hospitality to all the delegates
• Important reminders came out of the sessions conducted by Chris Mueller and John Pleasnick of Faith Bible Church in Murrieta, California:
• God’s goal in training: That our students be all that God designed them to be – namely, that they minister according to their God-given gifts
• Ensure the right training environment: Since our people are to minister in the church, make the training environment (namely, the classroom) be as much like the church as possible
• Why do we train?: For God’s glory, for the sake of the gospel, to keep the great commandment, to obey the great commission
• The Asia/Pacific training centers committed to undertake the TMAI degree mapping process along with the European and Spanish-speaking institutes
• Field reports were delivered
• A request was made to make the Asia/Pacific summit an annual event

Personally, the summit was a great encouragement to me.  I value the men greatly and am excited to know all that God is doing through them.

Here are some photos . . .

"Fisherman of Christ" Fellowship

Summit attendees

Session in progress

Singapore Flyer

 

Views from the Singapore Flyer

"Preach the Word" rap

Here is Shai Linne's rap on expository preaching . . .

TSBC 2012 Graduation Photos

Here are some photos of The Shepherd's Bible College 2012 Graduation.

 

The Shepherd's Bible College's (TSBC) courses are approved by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA). TSBC is recognised by The Master's Academy International (TMAI).

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.

Return to New Zealand and Departure for Europe

I can’t believe two weeks has gone this fast.  Yes, it’s been two weeks since Sereena and I returned to New Zealand.  Our time in the US was fantastic.  I got a lot done on my dissertation and was able to visit a number of churches to promote the ministry of The Shepherd’s Bible College (TSBC).

It was really good to get back to Riverbend Bible Church and see our church family once again after three months away.

During these two weeks back in NZ, I have caught up on TSBC administrative duties, taught classes (including a NT Survey block course this past weekend), completed some planning for Impact 2013, the TMAI European Summit, and the TMAI Asia/Pacific Summit, and done some study for a number of future preaching opportunities coming up.  It’s been a busy time.

Today, I leave for Los Angeles, then London, then Spain.  I am teaching a number of sessions at The Master's Academy International (TMAI) European Summit in Leon, Spain and then travelling with Christian Andresen to visit EBTC (a TMAI institute) in Berlin, Germany.

Please be praying for us.  Sereena remains here at home this time.  She’ll be helping out a little at Sports Camp at Riverbend Bible Church where Brent Eldridge is speaking.

Grace Church of the Valley

Today, Sereena and I drove three hours north of Los Angeles, to Kingsburg, home to Scott and Patty Ardavanis, and Grace Church of the Valley.  I was privileged this morning to preach for Scott.  We so enjoyed the church and making some new friends at GCV.

Dissertation Progress - Interview

On Wednesday, I visited North Coast Church in Vista, California to interview Pastor Larry Osborne.  The interview was a part of my dissertation research.  Larry Osborne is author of Sticky Church, a book that describes North Coast Church’s commitment to sermon-based study groups. At least 80 percent of the multi-site church attendees (numbering over 9,000 people) attend mid-week study groups in order to discuss the previous weekend’s sermon.  Larry and I were able to discuss this focus which solidly connects body-life with the sermon experience—the subject of my dissertation.

Here is a picture of North Coast Church’s main campus. The room with the largest capacity here seats approximately 500 people.

Other venues host attendees who hear the same sermon as those in the main auditorium. Pastors in each location shepherd the flocks and provide local leadership. The ministry activity that links the multi-venue, multi-site church is the sermon-based study groups.

In order to learn more, you’ll need to read my dissertation.  Thanks for praying for me.  My writing progress slowed quite a bit while we were travelling and preaching.  I'm back into it now.

Pastor Chris Mueller

Having return to Los Angeles, Sereena and I drove south to Murrieta, California to meet with our friend, Chris Mueller.

Chris is Pastor of Faith Bible Church where he has served since 2006.  At Starbucks, we were able to discuss our plans for Chris to minister at The Master’s Academy International Asia-Pacific Summit which is being held in Singapore this December. He and his ministerial associate, John Pleasnick, are coming to Singapore to serve TMAI having been supported by Faith Bible Church to do so. We are so thankful for FBC’s backing and prayers.

 I was privileged to attend a session of FBC’s Training Center that evening.

Six years ago, Chris Mueller preached at Impact Bible Conference, and we are excited to announce that he has accepted our invitation to preach again at Impact 2014.