May-June 2007

NOT confidential:  please copy, forward or distribute freely

PO Box 84-133, Westgate, Waitakere City, Auckland 0657

Website:          http://www.presaffirm.org.nz   (includes NAPEC info’)

E-mail:             PresAffirm@xtra.co.nz            napec@presaffirm.org.nz                     

NATIONAL EXECUTIVE AND COUNCIL: Steve Jourdain and Stuart Lange (Co-Chairmen), Cynthia Tracey (Administrator), Brian Brandon, Peter Bristow, Joyce Campbell, Peter Cheyne, Heather Coster, Peter Dunn, Keleva Faleatua, Mark Farmer, John Gullick, Ian Hyslop, Emma Keown, Martin Macaulay, Colin Marshall, Wilson Orange, Ann Owen, Rhys Pearson, Ralph Penno, Alistair Smales, Stuart Vogel.

Ø      To get updates quickly, send us your e-mail address (you can retain snail-mail too if desired)

A SUCCESSFUL AFFIRM-NAPEC CONFERENCE

A national conference for evangelical Presbyterians was held from Thurs. 2 Nov. to Sun. 5 Nov. at St. Alban’s, Palmerston North. For the 60 people who came (mainly ministers and elders), this was a very enjoyable time of fellowship, encouragement and teaching. The local hospitality and arrangements were excellent, and were much appreciated.

Morning Bible studies were given by Mark Keown, lecturer in New Testament at BCNZ. Conference speakers included Garry Marquand (immediate past Moderator of the PCANZ and minister of Fairfield Presbyterian Church in Hamilton) and Brian Winslade (national Baptist leader and minister of one of the two largest local Baptist churches in New Zealand). Garry spoke on becoming a missional church. Brian spoke on “It’s a really difficult time to be a Minister!” and “The DNA of an Encourager.”

Stuart Lange (Co-chairman) gave an overview of where the AFFIRM/NAPEC movement had come from, and canvassed some future directions; a time of discussion and prayer followed. On the Saturday morning, the current moderator (Pamela Tankersley) visited and spoke briefly. At the Sunday morning service, Steve Jourdain (Co-chairman, and minister of St. Alban’s) spoke on leadership.

Workshops were held on such topics as Community Outreach – becoming outward focused (Steve Jourdain), Post-modernism and the “emerging church” (Martin Macaulay), Moving from a Church of 100 to 200+ (Stuart Lange), Short-term mission trips (Mark Farmer), Turning around a small struggling church (John Daniel), Church discipline in the 21st century (Brian Winslade), and Using multi-media in worship (Tom Waight).

Ø     The Executive have decided to have another national conference this year, from Friday 9^th to Sunday 11^th November. The conference venue is still being confirmed.

Ø     Please mark your diaries now…

WHERE TO NOW?

Presbyterian AFFIRM  and the National Association of Presbyterian Evangelical Churches

Presbyterian AFFIRM was founded in June 1993. Our basic calling and agenda has been the spiritual and theological renewal of our denomination.

·        We have sought to be a consistent witness within the Presbyterian Church in this country for orthodox, evangelical, biblical faith.

·        We have supported anything which is pro-Gospel, and anything which helps grow strong lively local churches.

·        We have stood against directions which we believe are unbiblical, and which compromise and weaken the church.

·        We have honoured the Presbyterian Church’s historic doctrinal standards, and have resisted moves to replace them with minimalist statements.

·        We have supported moves toward more open & fair processes in the PCANZ

·        We believe in classical Presbyterian structure and polity, but have been eager to see the emphasis move from large unsustainable national budgets (a post-war innovation) towards an emphasis on local mission.

·        We have tried to draw together evangelicals of all different types, whether charismatic or reformed, moderate or more militant, and to give them a clearer and more united voice within the wider denomination.

·        We have encouraged evangelical ministers and elders to work through normal channels, to serve on Assembly workgroups etc. and to work for renewal of the PCANZ at national level

·        We have encouraged evangelicals to fellowship with one another and to work together in the strengthening of our local ministries and mission.

·        We have held a number of conferences, both national and regional.

·        We have been heavily involved in AFFIRM Publications, producing booklets.

·        We have started to upgrade our website, to include useful resources.

·        We have encouraged the development of regional fellowship clusters of evangelical ministers. One such, meeting in Palmerston North three or four times a year, draws up to 25 ministers from Wellington, Wairarapa, Hawkes Bay, Taranaki and Wanganui-Manawatu.

·        AFFIRM has always been essentially a network of like-minded people, without any staff, and operating on a shoe-string budget in dependence on God for sufficient donations to cover costs. But we believe God has blessed our movement.

National Association of Presbyterian Evangelical Churches (NAPEC)

This association was founded by AFFIRM in 2003. NAPEC has been a way of evangelical parishes nailing their colours to the mast in a time of prolonged crisis within our denomination, and of showing support for the spiritual and theological renewal of the PCANZ.

Joining NAPEC has never meant any loss of parish independence, and never will.

To date, NAPEC has been not much more than a public list of parishes. We have yet to develop its potential. But we encourage NAPEC parishes to fellowship and work together: on missions, exchanges of preachers, renewal weekends, combined camps, sharing of resources, larger parishes helping smaller with youth leadership, and so on.

We have requested a one-off joining donation of $1 per member, up to a maximum of $100. Smaller parishes may like to make that less.

We are encouraged by all those parishes that have already joined. We warmly invite other evangelically-minded parishes to do so.

As of now, the NAPEC list is as follows…

The following churches are members of NAPEC.

A WITNESS RAISED UP BY GOD: THE WESTMINSTER FELLOWSHIP, 1950-2007

Presbyterian AFFIRM salutes the faithful witness for the gospel of the Westminster Fellowship. The Fellowship, which began in Dunedin in 1950, was recently wound up after a long and very honourable history. The WF stood for an evangelical and reformed understanding of the faith through the decades when the Presbyterian Church was dominated by liberal leadership, and when only a minority of ministers were evangelicals. The WF’s basis was “a full persuasion of the infallible truth and divine authority of Holy Scripture” and a “cordial acceptance” of the Westminster Confession and other subordinate standards of the Presbyterian Church. Its aims included re-educating this denomination about its doctrinal and confessional heritage, stimulating prayer, promoting a deeper spiritual life, and encouraging evangelism. In its heyday, the Westminster Fellowship held conferences attended by hundreds, published scores of useful booklets, and was a great encouragement to a growing evangelical groundswell within the Presbyterian Church. The WF magazine, the Evangelical Presbyterian, was widely read. In the aftermath of the Geering controversy, WF members persuaded the Assembly to make formal statements of the essential doctrines of the faith. In recent years, the WF has also sponsored the Evangelical Presbyterian Missionary Fellowship (EPMF).

The WF was never schismatic. It stood by the unity of the church. Its call was not for the faithful to leave the Presbyterian Church, but for the Presbyterian Church to be faithful to its own biblical and doctrinal standards.

The WF’s work was celebrated in a special service of thanksgiving held in South Auckland, which was also attended by a number of members of the AFFIRM Executive. The Very Rev. Dr. John Evans conducted the service. The Rev. Morrison Yule, who was present at the inaugural meeting in 1950, was the preacher. Greetings were read from the Rev. Dr. Graham Miller (now in retirement in Australia). A prayer was led by the Rev. Warren Wilson (former Warden of Glenfield Bethel Retreat Centre), and there was a prayer of thanksgiving for the WF by Stuart Lange (Co-Chairman, Presbyterian AFFIRM).

For the last two or three decades, the WF has been in a state of gradual decline, and its support base and its leadership has struggled to be rejuvenated. In reviewing its existence, the WF has recognised that particular organisations are raised up for a season, and are then often replaced. It is what they stand for that matters. The WF thus made the decision to recognise Presbyterian AFFIRM as its “successor movement,” and to hand on the torch. Presbyterian AFFIRM would have been happy for the WF to continue but we respect their decision, and accept the mantle they have handed on, including responsibility for the (Evangelical) Presbyterian Missionary Fellowship. 

SOME AFFIRM/NAPEC REGIONAL CONTACTS…

NORTHLAND:                       Peter Dunn           09-432-0531 <dunnznorth@xtra.co.nz>

NORTH SHORE:                    Emma Keown       09-444-9875 <emmakeown@ihug.co.nz>

AUCKLAND:                         Stuart Lange           09-832-5775 <smlange@xtra.co.nz>

SOUTH AUCKLAND:           Brian Brandon     09-278-8247 <brandon1@ihug.co.nz>

BAY OF PLENTY:                 Martin Macaulay  07-549-0098 <martinmacaulay@paradise.net.nz> WAIKATO:                         Wilson Orange      07-889-7897 <wjorange@slingshot.co.nz>

PALMERSTON NORTH:       Steve Jourdain      06-3573571   <jourdain@xtra.co.nz>

UPPER SOUTH ISLAND:      Ralph Penno         0-3-578-1478 <r.penno@clear.net.nz>

MID-SOUTH ISLAND:          Ian Hyslop              03-693-8210  <hyslops@paradise.net.nz>                     

LOWER SOUTH ISLAND:    Peter Cheyne         03-208-9973  <Peter@calvin.org.nz>

·        To keep receiving this newsletter, please advise us of changes! The newsletter can be either e-mailed or snail-mailed, or both. It is over to you: just let us know what you want. But to receive AFFIRM’s e-mail updates, you need to send us your e-mail address !

·        Please check that your minister and eldership and church people still have access to this newsletter

% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RESPONSE SLIP including CHANGES OF ADDRESS & E-MAIL!!!

post to: PO Box 84-133, Westgate, Auckland 0657  OR e-mail us

My/our name: ____________________________________________________

Address:         ____________________________________________________

q       Please add name to mailing list

q       Please remove name from mailing list

q       Please find enclosed my/our contribution of $______

q       Please send a receipt (sent on request only)

The AFFIRMATIONS (1993)