Schedule
To ensure that trainees get as much benefit as possible from their time at the Training, there is a full daily schedule at the Training during weekdays. This begins with a time for personal morning revival followed by corporate morning revival. After this, there are classes each morning. In the afternoon, there is time for study or gospel service, and rest and exercise. On evenings not reserved for study, trainees attend various meetings.
Trainees also participate in practical service, which involves such things as serving meals, cleaning, arranging chairs, and gardening. Through this trainees learn to coordinate with others while doing necessary tasks.
Curriculum
The majority of the time in the Full-time Training is devoted to receiving, studying, and ministering the truth that is contained in the Bible and expounded through the ministries of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. These brothers taught according to the pure word of the Bible, building upon centuries of recovered truths to fully unveil God’s eternal purpose and economy. The Training is privileged to speak these things, teach these things, and minister these things until the Body of Christ is built up and the bride is prepared for our Lord’s satisfaction and desire.
The church as the Body of Christ is not an organisation but a living organism constituted of all the regenerated believers as the members of Christ. This class develops a scriptural basis concerning the Body of Christ and emphasises both the practical administration and meetings of the church and the intrinsic and subjective reality of living as a normal, functioning member of the Body of Christ.
This class examines the basic principles of knowing and experiencing Christ as life. Topics include knowing the parts of man, dealing with the parts of our inward being for the growth in life, and enjoying Christ as the Spirit in our human spirit. Trainees not only study crucial Bible verses, but also learn to apply these principles in every aspect of a proper, daily Christian life.
The full ministry of Christ in His three divine and mystical stages is the entire content of God’s economy in the New Testament. In this class, trainees study the three stages of the person and work of Christ in His incarnation, inclusion, and intensification. With a deeper appreciation of Christ’s person and work, they learn to apply these truths to their daily life and service.
God’s economy is His plan to dispense Himself into His chosen, redeemed, and regenerated believers. Trainees consider the basic principles, issue, and goal of God’s economy, and the way to live the Christian life with a view to its fulfilment. God’s divine dispensing is to make the believers the same as He is in life and nature but not in the Godhead, with the ultimate goal of God gaining a corporate expression to consummate the New Jerusalem.
The four steps of the God-ordained way are the preaching of the gospel, the nourishing of the new believers, the perfecting of the saints, and the prophesying of the believers to build up the Body of Christ. Trainees examine the biblical foundation of these steps and begin to practice the God-ordained way that builds up the church as the Body of Christ in their Christian service.
This class involves watching a series of weekly messages which cover Christian practices and living based on the spiritual experiences recorded in the Bible.
This class is designed to unveil crucial points concerning the Spirit, who was processed through Christ’s incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. This process was ultimately consummated in the all-inclusive Spirit for the believers’ experience and growth in life today. As trainees examine the numerous aspects and functions of the Spirit in the Scriptures, they gain the invaluable experience of touching the living God as the Spirit in their human spirit.
This class gives trainees an opportunity to view video footage of Brother Witness Lee. Course material rotates by semester and include messages from Life-study of Ephesians, The Genuine Ground of Oneness, and The God-man Living.
In this class, trainees gain a vision of the importance of the next generation in the Lord’s move on the earth today. The work with children, young people, and university students is presented as one inclusive work, requiring vision, training, and a spirit of love to care for the spiritual growth of young believers.
The Triune God is the content of His Word. By His Word believers are able to enter into His move in His economy. This class highlights the intrinsic significance of the Word through an overview of the central line of the divine revelation in the entire Bible. Such a bird’s-eye view affords a framework to objectively understand the Triune God in a comprehensive way for an enriched experience of living in and with the Divine Trinity for the accomplishment of His eternal economy.
Genuine service to the Lord is not a matter of method or activity but of person and character. In light of this principle, this class orients trainees toward a proper view of service through the lens of God’s economy. Trainees also explore basic spiritual and life principles necessary for ministry, as highlighted in the lives and work of the ministers of the age.
This class explores the New Jerusalem as the total composition of the entire revelation of the Bible and the fulfilment of God’s eternal purpose. In this class, trainees see that the New Jerusalem is not a physical city but a reality that we are enjoying and becoming today.
Our character is our very person. A person’s usefulness, the things which can be entrusted to him, the responsibilities he can bear, and the things he is able to accomplish altogether depend on his character. This class focuses on the crucial practices revealed in the Bible that cultivate the divine life we received at our regeneration, so that it can be expressed in our human character.
This class covers various books in the New Testament, using the Recovery Version of the Bible, Life-study messages and Crystallization-study messages.
Booklist
Many ministry books are used in the Training. You may like to use physical copies (available for purchase) or digital copies on a laptop or tablet. (Mobile phones are not permitted during class or study times.)
See the Book List for 2024
Qualifications
First year trainees are enrolled in the Certificate of Biblical Studies (which leads to the New Zealand Certificate in Christian Ministry (Level 4) Christian Studies Strand (NZQA qualification reference 2772)).
Second year trainees are enrolled in the Diploma of Biblical Studies (which leads to the New Zealand Diploma in Christian Studies (Level 5) Theological Studies Strand (NZQA qualification reference 2793)).
Information about these qualifications can be found on the New Zealand Qualifications Authority website www.nzqa.govt.nz
Other information
Publicly available information about the New Zealand Training Centre, including external quality assurance reports, can be found on the New Zealand Qualifications Authority website www.nzqa.govt.nz