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.

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.

Further examples of Prayer in the Old Testament

November 22 – December 13

Celebrate!

December 20th 9.45am   A special musical  presentation to celebrate the 25 years of  Shore Baptiat Church

The Incarnation

December 27

Right Click on the links below and “Open in New Window” to preview the different 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