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Voice of the Martyrs Writers Group meet monthly throughout the year

The Church Calendar

2011 “Stand for the Gospel” conference with Geoff Thomas. 22-24th July

Care Groups – Mid week meetings for prayer, study and fellowship

Looking for a church, been invited by a friend or maybe you are a first time visitor. Come inside to find out more about Shore Baptist Church, when and where we meet, and what to expect.
We meet at Westlake Girls High on Auckland’s North Shore.

Click here for our meeting times and a map.

What you will see

We meet in a School Hall. We have been here for  25 years and we really like the freedom that this facility offers us. We dress comfortably and most weeks you will be greeted at the door by a couple of church members. Our time together usually starts with singing. The musicians are of all ages with instruments ranging from flutes and violins to guitars and (gentle) drums. The music is a mix of new songs and old favourites. You might be surprised at the range of nationalities and ages in the fellowship. We are a church family.

What you will hear

In everything that we do we try to bring honour and glory to Jesus Christ. We read God’s word together. We praise God for His mercy and sovereign grace. We seek Him in earnest prayer for the needs of this world, our country, and for each other. The preaching is usually lead by one of the elders in the fellowship and most weeks other members contribute to the service as well. We celebrate the Lord’s supper together monthly and this is followed by a shared church lunch. Please join us on these occassions.

What happens next?

After the service we break into smaller discussion groups. Younger children have Sunday School, there is a youth group, a second language speakers group, and an adult group. We meet for about 30 minutes and then enjoy morning tea together. If you are a new face in the crowd, this is an opportunity to get to know some people better and to ask questions. There is an offering box near the door, but we don’t take up an offering during the service.

Is there an evening meeting or weekday meeting?

We have Sunday evening meetings every second week. These have a slightly different character to the morning meetings in that topics and cultural issues are often discussed. There are also midweek Bible study and prayer meetings, church lunches, youth activities and other events.  Opportunties for study and fellowship are detailed in the weekly Church bulletin and announced at the end of the main service.

Our hope is that you will feel valued, at home, and welcomed.

Church is not a building. Church is people; Christ’s people. When we say we are ‘going to church’, we really mean, we’re going to meet with fellow believers.

These fellow believers are utterly wonderful people, not because they have remarkable personalities necessarily, or because they have extraordinary gifts. They are utterly wonderful because Christ knows them and they know Christ.

As such Jesus has commanded us as Christians to love these fellow believers. I wouldn’t dream, even now at this stage in life, of keeping my old aunts and uncles waiting for me for an appointment. Apologies are in order if we’re late without cause for some event with friends and family. There is even some embarrassment, all around, if loved people are kept waiting and this is because a fellowship of mutual respect and regard has been disturbed.

Christ’s people are more important than even our own family. Jesus said as much in Matthew 12:46-50. This is because our fellow believers do the will of God the Father in heaven. And nothing is of greater importance to Jesus today than this. As well as this, these people who obey are members of Christ’s Body and as such have the same Holy Spirit within. (1 Corinthians 12:12-13). To change the image, each believer is joined to the same ‘vine’ who is Jesus Christ. So each believer is drawing from this same Jesus, the same life, (John 15:1-8). To put it all in its true perspective – each believer is the subject of the grace of God in Christ and so is wonderful to Him who knows and saves His own.

This being so, how can we do anything other than be on time for the Church?

I have found in life that an issue like this of being on time for Church is not so much to do with getting up earlier, or having ones shirt already ironed by Sunday morning, or even getting to bed earlier the night before. It has more to do with knowing who our fellow believers really are and consequently, with showing them the respect that they are due.

And I have found that when respect is given our fellow believers, there comes along with that respect a whole family of similarly beautiful things – peace and joy and thankfulness and of course the greatest thing of all – a clearer view of Jesus Christ Himself. This is the most utterly wonderful thing of all, because Jesus is the subject of the worship of the gathered Church.

This being the case, in coming on time for the Church, we are in the deepest sense, coming on time for Jesus. Even in today’s world, who would dare be late for an appointment with the Queen or even her Prime Minister? No Christian could ever argue that even these people outrank Jesus.

Be on time – for Jesus.

A response to Steve Atkerson’s weekend of teaching on the Shore. 19/7/2011

Steve Atkerson was here in New Zealand on a privately organized trip. While the meetings were held in the same venue our church uses on a Sunday the visit was not at the instigation of the elders and members of our Church.

It is always good, even if it is uncomfortable, to be made to think some more about our Christian beliefs and forms. For those of the church who heard him, Steve did that and for that we are grateful to him.

Where does his visit leave us as a church? Hopefully more thoughtful about what we think and do and I sincerely hope more determined than ever to go on doing what we are doing, and endeavouring to do it even better. What do we want to go on doing and doing better still?

In the first instance, I hope we go on meeting together on the first day of the week in the name of Jesus Christ our Saviour and Lord. At present people from around the world come together. We all meet for ‘worship’ and then we have our discussions in groups and after that we meet for our morning tea together. In all, about three hours are taken up for this meeting together as brothers and sisters, families and friends. And I hope we go on doing this. This is our ‘meeting’ on Sundays.

And when we do meet together, I hope we go on expressing our deepest gratitude to God for His love, mercy and grace to us as sinners and that we all see ourselves as ‘the worst of sinners’ because nothing less surely is suitable among His people. I hope we go on singing our psalms, hymns and spiritual songs together ‘with gratitude in our hearts to God’ for giving us His Son.

And when we do, I sincerely hope that we go on studying to become ‘like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.’ I hope the ‘togetherness’ of the early church and the ‘partnership in the Gospel’ of the early Christians are goals we each go on seeking.

And when we do, I hope we go on ‘devoting ourselves … to the apostles teaching’. I hope we go on encouraging the ‘preaching the Word’. I hope the church hears that cry, ‘preach the Word’ and prays that it will be done! And I hope we go on studying the Scriptures together to ensure that it is done. And I hope that we encourage the public reading of the Bible and that we ‘listen attentively’ when it is.

I hope we go on ‘encouraging one another’ and doing that even better than we are at present. I hope we go on sharing Christ with one another and entering with joy into this ‘partnership in the Gospel’ with one another that Paul speaks of.

I hope we all go on making all that effort to give all of our brothers and sisters on Sundays a morning tea worth staying for – food and drink to bring us together and keep us together for that closing hour. And I hope that we go on working to make ourselves understood and to listen and understand our brothers and sisters – our new brothers and sisters and those from different cultures and those who are young and those who are hurting and those who are needy. This is the challenge of love.

And I hope we go on doing what all people who truly know the profound needs of their hearts have always done down through the centuries. That is, I hope we go on praying. And I hope we go on in our prayers confessing His sovereignty and power and His goodness irrespective of whether we are hurting or happy.

I hope in our ‘meeting’ that we do all these things. They’re what we are presently trying to do. I hope we do them better – with more passion.

And I hope that in the years to come, we the people of the church and the children of the church, will be able to say, ‘those were the happiest days of my life, when I was with those people of Shore Baptist Church and that was the happiest place on earth for me.’ I hope love, joy and peace are ours now so that in the years to come, the memory of them fills our hearts with gratitude.

My deep longing is that the Hall in which we meet on Sundays will be increasingly filled with people who know they need Christ. I am praying, as I know others of you are, that the lost, the hurting, the lonely and desperately sad, those ground down with sin and the guilt of it, and those who are crying out for truth, will be lead to our Church and that the Hall and the foyer would be filled with such people. Because we as a people have someone truly wonderful for them and we want them all to have fellowship with us. We were once without Christ and without hope in this world, but now we are washed, we are sanctified, we are justified through our Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 6;9-11.

And an equally intense longing is that young men who love Christ and want to preach Him to the world, will come and join us. Because we want those who are called by the Spirit to do just that.

Stephen Turner

I believe in ‘church membership’  7/4/2011

This would have to be one of the most unwelcome topics for discussion in the church.

It never used to be the case, decades back, but the present culture in New Zealand evangelical churches has helped turn it into what it is – an unwanted intrusion, and some would say an unbiblical one at that.

Hopefully the following comments will help you, if you are one of those who are not a ‘member’ of a church, to think again about the issue.

When I use the words ‘becoming a member’, I mean a believer  publicly giving his or her word that they commit to the local church of which they are part. It’s really got nothing to do with signing your name – we don’t do that – or shaking hands. These may or may not accompany the moment of public statement. It’s got to do with the member publically, in a heartfelt way, confessing certain matters to the congregation of which he or she is part.

There are many people who rubbish marriage by reducing it to a bit of paper. That ‘bit of paper’ has never been marriage. Real marriage can’t be separated from a man and a woman publically stating that they intend to love the other until death. An unwillingness to make that statement in public is probably at the heart of their problem with marriage. I think there are many Christians who could be compared to those who live in de facto relationships. Their community, families, friends have never been informed or called upon to celebrate with them at the outset of a commitment to the church. There was no moment of public declaration of love and intent. They didn’t choose to create that occasion. This may be because they have just not taken the time to deeply consider their church. It’s more likely, however, that they have an issue or issues in regard to the church and do not wish to make such a statement. Or it may be because they have issues in themselves which they are unwilling to address.

Why don’t people become ‘members’ of their church?

To my mind there appear to be several reasons.

In the first instance they may not be willing to be open to being taught, rebuked, corrected and trained. This shouldn’t be underestimated, because a human being naturally, instinctively resents being checked, or questioned. We all baulk at being given instructions, whether the teachers are our parents, colleagues or employers. And ‘becoming a member’ is when we give an open invitation to the church in general and the elders in particular to have their say about how we live.

In the second instance, there’s the matter of our being convinced that less accountability equates with greater happiness. We like our independency. We like being free, by which we mean, having no one to answer to. These believers are our brothers, sisters, our lovers and as in marriage, our lover is one to whom we should wish to be accountable. We instinctively crave to please him or her. Jesus delighted in being accountable to His Father. This accountability to His Father was His ultimate happiness. I can’t think of a more wretched, more forlorn life that one without accountabilities. It makes me think of a lone human being in an empty forest or on a wintry and bare beach.

In the third instance there’s that idea that flies in the face of everything Jesus ever said or did, that giving will make one poorer and less happy. “It is more blessed to give”, says Jesus in His sweeping denial of this position and He was the happiest man who ever lived!

Our approach to membership in our church certainly needs to change. We’ve not helped ourselves in the way we’ve come at it over the past twenty years or so. Our intentions were sound. We wanted to make sure that on applying for membership both the church and the prospective member knew who the other was and to ensure that, we suggested that people be in the church for a year before applying. The problem was, it made applicants feel that the bar was so high they couldn’t jump it. But it was never our intention to discourage people in this way. I now feel the church needs to approach membership from a more positive angle. While not wanting to dismiss the need for an understanding of the other, both theologically and in terms of character, some other dimension needs to be introduced. Becoming a member is a moment for public joy!

When I become a member I tell the church how much I love them. “Yes! I have wanted so much to say to you all – pastor, elders, deacons, brothers and sisters – thank you! Thank you for loving me and accepting me! Thank you for helping me in my Christian life.” (And of course it gives the church too the opportunity to express their thankfulness that God has led this brother or sister into their church.)

When I become a member I can tell the church how much I respect their beliefs and how I wish to learn from those who are appointed to lead and preach in the church. A church’s beliefs, her theology shapes the church. What we think, we become. Nothing could be more important then to the church than that a believer is prepared to stand up before them and affirm their fundamental beliefs.

When I become a member I can express my intention to help them build the church. The day I become a member I can say “I want to be part of your team. I want to be a blessing to you all and wish to join you in your planned purposes and goals for the Gospel. And I especially want to be one with you all in growing and building ourselves up in love. I wish to do my part in this pursuing this overall process.”

When I become a member I want to go on notice as saying that I intend to be an example to the church of what it means to serve. If Jesus is first and foremostly described as a ‘servant’, then of all things we ever do, being the servant must be our greatest endeavour and challenge.

Are there Biblical reasons for not having ‘membership’? Who says the Bible teaches that the early church didn’t have ‘membership’? They had lists for some purposes, 1 Timothy 5:9, so why not for this? Again if the early church could formally exclude someone from their local church as they did in 1 Corinthians 5, then it presumes that they formally included that same person earlier in some way. Perhaps that way was different to that which we now practice, but there is nevertheless every reason for believing that some acknowledgment of the Church and her leadership and beliefs took place before the believers.

However, for me, the Biblical reasons are found in something bigger than a single Biblical reference or two.

It appears to me that ‘church membership’ is Biblical, because of what the Bible says about the Church. The church is the ‘gathered’ church of those who are in Christ, are sons and daughters of Abraham in that they believe on our Lord Jesus Christ. Membership it seems to me defends that very important belief of ours. It reminds the church constantly that those who are born again and only those, are members of Christ’s Body. If we’re longing for our church to be a believing, loving and holy household of brothers and sisters, then a radical rethink on ‘membership’ is probably to be expected.

It appears to me that ‘church membership’ is Biblical, because of what the Bible says about role of leadership in the church. If these leaders who are to ‘keep watch over’ the church are to be ‘obeyed’ and ‘submitted to’ and believers are to work at ensuring that their work is a ‘joy and not a burden’, (Hebrews 13:17), then it seems to me that believers will also ensure that those leaders are clearly informed as to their personal intentions to obey these words. How better to do that than by publicly stating those intentions? An unwillingness to do so would certainly cause any leader to hesitate over whether to be a shepherd to that person.

It appears to me that ‘church membership’ is Biblical, because of what the Bible says about Christian discipleship. Christian discipleship in the 21^st century is as radical as it ever was in the 1^st. They were to ‘love one another’, were ‘called to peace’ as members of one Body, were to ‘bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances’ they might have against their brothers and sisters. They were to ‘teach and admonish one another’, (Colossians 3).

To do that well there has to be the most open, frank and heart-felt expressions of commitment to those real people whom we know in the church we love. Our becoming a member certainly can help that process along immensely. Can a church without membership really provide an avenue for doing that as well as a church with a membership that is functioning and vibrant and aware of its responsibilities to the Body?

Stephen

Men for the Ministry!  20/4/10

How would you see the church in New Zealand at the present time? I was discussing that matter with an overseas friend last weekend. As part of that discussion, we got to consider just why there were so very few young men coming forward to study for the ministry of the Gospel in New Zealand.

That is a very interesting matter to me as a man who has now invested about 34 years in the ministry and I guess hasn’t got too many more to give! Where are those young men? Just why aren’t they coming forward for the Christian ministry?

I think there are several outstanding issues in regard to that question. In the first instance, I think young men generally want to be part of something which is growing and succeeding. When a young man looks at the churches of which I am part, this is not the impression which is given. The churches in the main are small and frequently are in the throes of one struggle or the other, be it to do with lack of musical ability or lack of plurality of eldership or the presence of a difficult personality among too few people to balance his opinion. The view they have is of a church in survival mode, small, and somewhat lacklustre by virtue of those two aspects. The vision, if it was ever there in the first place, is lost in the morass of pressing troubles. The community of the church is probably fairly thin on joy. And joy is of critical importance in the church. The church must adopt a policy of joy in Christ if there’s to be the likelihood of young men climbing on board the venture of the Gospel.

In the second instance I think the situation is living proof of how poor general Christian family life has been for decades in our country. There has not been the commitment in western family life to His Word, prayer and spiritual conversation and this has produced a generation with less understanding and less commitment to God’s people. There is now a wide-spread malaise in the church evidenced particularly in intermittent church attendance for want of a better expression. What does all this say to young men? What are their fathers saying to their sons? The church is no big deal. It doesn’t warrant devotion, the best man or the best of a man.

In the third instance the concept of a ‘call’ to the ministry is challenged today and is now barely mentioned. Becoming a pastor is now a job like any other job. You can chose it maybe, pick it up later on in life or drop it if it doesn’t quite work out for you. That’s never been my idea of the Christian ministry. When I was 19 years old I increasingly felt an overwhelming sense of necessity to leave my loved place of work and to begin studies for the ministry. He was Lord and He was telling me, His new slave of righteousness to teach His Word. And the leaders of the church of which I was a part then concurred. Is that all too subjective? Is mine a Biblical experience? I’m certain it is. And what I am certain about is that without it, there is no reason why I shouldn’t come or go as I chose in regard to leadership in the church. There is no way I would ever have stayed at my post without it. I agree that all work is worship. I do not agree, however, that the Christian ministry with its untold influences on the lives of families and individuals is open to all comers. It never was in the Old Testament and it never was in regard to New Testament leadership of the church. The loss of the ‘call’ in the mindset of the church does the cause of the ministry no good. It lowers the bar and effectively makes it all so mundane.

The last thing that needs to be said is that the church in New Zealand does not seem to have a Gospel big enough to enthuse the young. The glory and wisdom and power of God in the cross are not heard as they should be. Consequently preaching lacks excitement, deadly earnestness, raw joy and hope. Why would young men want to join a church which seems to have so little to say and so much to say that many others say, and probably say better? Where’s the striking difference in the message?

Young men are more likely to submit themselves to the consideration of the elders and church with regard to the Christian ministry when the church of which they are a part is electrified by the message of the cross, which it reads of in the Scriptures, believes in from the heart and teaches as the single greatest fact in the world.

Having said all that, one thing is sure. In the light of the sorry situation we find ourselves in – too few workers, too few plans for expansion because there are too few workers – we have to do what Jesus said; “ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.” ‘Ask’ seems too tame a word in the circumstances. ‘Cry’ might be more appropriate.

Churchless Christians?  15/9/09

I live in a city in which there are said to be some 30,000 or so professing Christians who do not belong to any local church. By what I know of the Christian culture here, it’s probably a fair estimate.

I’m sure there are reasons enough given for people leaving their local fellowship. There are endless stories of unjust and heartless relationships and leadership in the church. Some might sympathise. But to leave and then not become a part of another fellowship is something else again. Is it possible that some one can have such an exacting standard for what the church should be that no church can be found that meets it? Or do they have so low an opinion of the church that they don’t care much whether they remain outside of it?

I find this kind of ‘Christian’ problematic. Can a person be a Christian and not be part of a local Christian fellowship? Is there such a creature as a Churchless Christian? Does one leave Christ when one leaves the church?

I’m sure that some people just can’t get to church – they’re prevented from doing so because of their many years or ill-health. There just might be some in this country who are forcibly stopped from being part of a church by their family members.

However, I think there are some reasons for concluding that at the very least, a Christian outside of a local church is an odd creature indeed and not a very pleasant one. Firstly, there’s the fact that the Christian is described in the NT in terms of his relationship to other believers. He’s a ‘member’, ‘brother’, ‘sister’, or ‘dear friend’. Each of these presupposes a relationship of some depth. Secondly, the NT speaks of new believers being ‘added to the church’, Acts 2:41, 47, 5:14. When one looks at the context of these sentences, one sees a believer being joined to an identifiable group of people involved in spiritual activities together. Thirdly, a Christian’s natural habit in the first century was to join other believers. Look at Acts 2:42, 1 Corinthians 11:18 and Philemon 2. In fact, believers were commanded to ‘not neglect’ those gatherings. Fourthly, a Christian’s spiritual growth does not exist in isolation from other believers. Ephesians 4:15-16. The context here again, leaves the reader in no doubt that the others he grows up with are people he knew and could hear and reprove. Everyone knows that were an ear to grow in isolation from other ‘members’ of the ‘body’ people would be freaked out because it would be so strange, and unnatural,. And lastly, the NT Christian’s practice of his faith was within the sphere of the community of Christ. He ‘serves’, ‘loves’, ‘rebukes’, ‘teaches’, ‘obeys’, ‘stirs up’ and ‘comes together’ for the Lord’s Supper’ and each of these presupposes a close community of love with leaders and accountability. Can you serve a shadow? Or love in Jesus’ way someone you’ve never seen? Try rebuking someone you have no contact with.

The ongoing struggle for a meaningful Christian community is at the forefront of key issues in the Christian Church in New Zealand today. Much of the present deplorable weakness of the church in this country probably can be put down to the fact that too many ‘believers’ are ‘churchless’. Try mobilising an army that won’t congregate.  I think at the heart of the problem is not so much pride and self-centredness – and these would probably figure prominently, but a lack of understanding Christ and His way of ministry, His manner of love and His union with believers.

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The New Calvinists   20/3/09

What a wonder! After living in the wilderness from a theological perspective for three decades I may yet find my views widely accepted! The March 23 Time magazine article, 10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now, gives as its third idea, astonishingly, The New Calvinism ! I guarantee most church leaders here would have suggested ‘Pink Cabbages” before ever thinking of this!

The article mentions the likes of John Piper, Mark Driscoll and Al Mohler as proponents of this theological influence. They’re all men I love to read and would love to hear in person. Collin Hansen’s great book Young,Restless,Reformed; A Journalist’s Journey with the New Calvinists, is cited as well and so it should be because it gives substantial support to Time magazine’s claim.

But as I said, whoever would dream of making the same claim in regards to the Church scene in New Zealand ! Calvinism is loathed in the main in this country, certainly feared, because it’s not been understood. It’s the theology of a very few men and a very few churches which have had almost no effect on the views of Christian people here.

Calvinism has reached the American young, Christian man and woman through the books and the preaching of such men as have been mentioned above. The older, established Reformed churches of Baptist or Presbyterian persuasion have not been the vanguard of this change. Calvinism is coming through the back-door as it were through this new breed of Calvinists who have broken out of tired forms and are doing things in new ways

I’m excited by the article! It suggests that eventually this tide of theological thought will hit the New Zealand coast and the seedlings of Calvinism that have been struggling to develop in very inclement weather here, will begin to thrive. People might start asking me and a few others, “What is it that you’re saying? They might even start agreeing with me and say, “this is wonderful! This theology gives us back God!”

That can’t be a bad thing in New Zealand where ‘man’ has cornered the market so to speak in church. From what I can see, man’s good has become the end goal for church. Hopefully we’re about to see the glory of the Master well and truly back on the agenda.

YouVersion

This link to YouVersion, takes you to a comprehensive website with reading plans to suit a wide variety of Bible interests and reading preferences.  And, if you want to go mobile with your Bible reading but don’t have an iPad, there are instructions for using Blackberry, Android or other web enabled devices to keep up with your reading. —————————————————————————————————————- Right Click on the links below and “Open in New Window” to preview other Bible reading plans. When you have found one that suits your learning style, save the .pdf to your desktop, or, right click the link again and  “Save Target As” a file on your desktop. ESV study Bible daily reading plan Engage Scripture Bible Reading Plan The “Engage” reading plan can also be accessed on-line. There are video overviews of each book and weekly introductions to each section of readings. It’s very relevant and highly recommended. Click here to access the Engage website – add the page to your Favorites for quick and easy reference each day. Discipleship Journal reading plan Bible programme for shirkers and slackers M’Cheyne Bible reading plan