With this post, I thought I’d make a quiet little exception. Over the years there are two talks which I have given which have sparked ongoing conversations with people. Both talks originated with efforts to help youth pastors in New Zealand engage more fully with the Bible.
I call one of them The Four Chairs. I posted on this one just a few months ago. It has expanded over the years, but basically it is an interactive way to tell the biblical story – and then to understand it and live in it as well, as the first steps towards developing a biblical worldview. [In three hours I will be giving this talk to 50 grassroots Telugu-speaking preachers here in Hyderabad…].
The other one is called The Four Quadrants. Here I play with who Jesus is (grace & truth) and what Jesus says (salt & light) – finding in them the tension to keep alive as we join with God in his mission in the world. Very simple – maybe even simplistic, but I’ll take that risk. I use economic ideas when it comes to applying the talk – graphs and forecasts, audits and assets.
Back in March I spoke at a mission conference in the USA. I gave both of these talks and they were recorded and put on the church’s website. Here are links to them, if you are interested:
Click The Four Chairs
Click The Four Quadrants
nice chatting, this time with a 4 by 4!
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.
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