William Chong

Website: http://www.howickbaptist.org.nz/; Ph: (09)534-5142; Cnr Piction St & Wellington St, Howick, Auckland; Senior Pastor: Peter Somervell; Sermon topic: ”Leading with Love” (1 Cor 4:14-21), from Adventures in 1 Corinthians series. Communion service, 11.5.08.

Rating: AA
(A=return worshipper, AA=excellent and growing, AAA=must be my home church lol)

You’ll like this church if you: appreciate/can handle expositional preaching, have family service requirements, prefer an exegetical approach to doctrine/Bible reading, enjoy mix of traditional and modern hymns.

You won’t like this church if you: need to worship and pray with professional musical backing, prefer wholly-topical insights to sermons, are seeking a Spirit-led experience.

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As part of our church jaunt/visiting tour/period, we (Cheryl, Kim and I) decided to attend a local (defined as in the area, not as the Lord’s recovery) service at Howick Baptist Church. After returning a camping pillow in the carpark to a friend I knew, we were given warm welcomes from greeters at the door. Being Mother’s Day, there were hand-made bookmarks being given out at the door to any woman that looked old enough to be a mother. We sat in the middle of the wooden pews, and noted large banners declaring God as creator of all things (Rev 4:11) – definitely not a church shy about who they are (I say this in light of the various churches and groups that remove the term “Church” or “Christian” from their names). 

Worship: I appreciated the thought that the worship leader (Calvyn Jonker, assistant pastor) had for mothers as per the occasion, as well as his earnestness to pray for and encourage the 200-odd congregation. The careful thought put into song choice also bears mentioning, with a mix of modern songs like “How Great is Our God” thrown together with faithful hymns like “Blessed Redeemer”. Largely negating the “worship wars” that’s fractured a great many congregations and caused some tension at the very least, it’s reassuring to know that you can focus on worshipping God with a broad spectrum of respectful lyrics and music (HBC gets it in that order, which is another plus). Adding in Scripture-reading and a solemn, almost guarded Communion service, it was a very respectful experience.

Speaker: While chatting with a lady named Kathy after the service, she told us that one of the strong points of HBC was its preaching – strongly grounded in the Bible. Like other expositional preachers (going through a book of the Bible verse by verse), senior pastor Peter Somervell methodically moves through the Bible (in this case, the 1st letter to the Corinthian church) with clinical exegesis and thoughtful insights at each verse (adding a few useful Greek definitions to augment). Rather than a dry seminary-style overview, Somervell is astute in tying each verse to a key word, and insightful in applying each to the congregation. In this case, chapters 4 verses 14 to 21 came under the points of Admonishing, Mentoring, Modelling, Teaching and Correction/Discipline. Plenty of notes to take and reference to other Bible passages, and his theme of spiritual leadership was explained to include elders, pastors, parents and older Christians. Particularly encouraging was his statement that “love for Jesus Christ should be the driving motivator for all of his points.” Definitely strong and (more importantly) relevant Bible-based teaching.

Church history: There’s not much of an overview on their website, but a friend shared that Somervell has been particularly good for the church, having moved up from Wanganui East Baptist Church after HBC had a tumultuous period without a fulltime pastor. HBC is part of the Baptist Churches of New Zealand, a collection of like-minded congregations that share some pastoral and NZ-wide resources and cooperate on outreach and ministry training efforts (more information on the Baptist movement in general can be found here.) – it’s notable though that the church also has strong links with the Reformed tradition, evidenced by their theological perspective as well as participation and cooperation with other Reformed churches in Auckland.

Other faculties: There’s a definite sense of close community at HBC, with groups and services catering for all ages (birth-college age), family news, giving and going opportunites all listed in the church flyer. Strong involvement/association with the Baptist Union of New Zealand, as well as Creation Ministries International.

Visitor treatment: A discreet card can be found in the back of each pew, where you can fill out details and drop it into the offering bags. Chatted with one lady, and three people which we knew (2 fellow visitors), all amiable and very friendly discussions.

Conclusion: A very God-focused, Biblically sound church with evident spiritual growth and maturity.

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(Disclosures: 1 friend is an existing worshipper. EDIT 25/7/08: Howick Baptist Church is currently our home church.)
Next week: Elim Christian Centre (East), Evangelical Formosan Church of NZ.

(This review may not be representative of all of the church’s ministries, or their overall teaching. Opinions expressed in this review are that of the author, and may not wholly reflect all aspects of the church or its national body: nevertheless, comments have been humbly made in both truth and love as much as possible. Please contact the church for more detailed enquiries about their services.)