We waited for the doorway to arrive, as this was deemed to be the opportune time for a prayer. It was put into its place. I shared a few words about what it takes to turn a house into a home, a financial asset into a ministry base. I urged our friends to step through that doorway and reflect on how their home can become:
a place of refuge, offering a haven to the troubled and the abused.
a place of welcome, enabling the outsider to become an insider.
a place of belonging, stewarding a space that builds an identity and leaves a legacy.
a place of rest, calming the stressed and energising the weary.
a place of worship, liberating the believers to pray and praise.
May this be true about your home as well!
nice chatting
Paul
About Me
the art of unpacking
After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.
Recent Posts
Football helps me train preachers. See, when you speak to me about football—or, ‘footie’—I need to know where your feet are before I can understand what you mean. Are your feet in Ireland, or Brazil, or the USA, or NZ—or in crazy Australia? It must be the most fanatical sporting nation in the world. Within…
Having been born in 1959, I don’t remember much about the 1960s. But I have heard a lot. Hippies. Drugs. Rock ‘n Roll. Assassinations. Moon-walking. A quick trip across to ChatGPT informs me immediately that it was ‘a transformative decade across the world’—marked by the civil rights and feminist movements, Cold War tensions, consumerism and…
