Bible
The greatest and hardest achievement in writing a 64,000-word thesis is that I managed to do it without using a single superlative (although, it must be said, the thesis is not an alliteration-free zone). In breaking free from such restraint I thought I might nominate the two best books I encountered in my study. Peter Leithart’s Solomon…
READ MOREEarlier this month I had the privilege of preaching the sermon at the John Stott Memorial Service in New Zealand. I closed my message from Jeremiah 23 by speaking of the sadness of Stott’s death – but also of a deeper sadness. The deeper sadness is that John Stott visited our country only three times…
READ MOREThe Hebrew word hebel has intrigued me for years. It is the word identified most closely with Ecclesiastes. I grew up on the KJV’s ‘vanity’ and gradually shifted across to the NIV’s ‘meaningless’. In between there was time for the GNB’s ‘useless’, the NEB’s ’empty’, the Living Bible’s ‘futile’, and now the CEV’s ‘nonsense’. [Hint…
READ MOREOver the past decade, books on missional church have hardly been known for their deep engagement with the biblical story. They’ve tended to be testimonial, inspirational, and practical – but this stuff loses its lustre after awhile. Here is a book which corrects that flow by being biblical, first and foremost, and then aspirational on…
READ MOREAs a creative communicator Rob Bell is without peer. What he does with nooma – seeing the spiritually significant in the utterly ordinary – is reminscent of CS Lewis in Mere Christianity. Superb! But I have yet to finish any of his books. Sadly, I get a bit bored as they wander too much for…
READ MOREHow ironic is this?! It is in Ecclesiastes that we find the celebrated quotation – “of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body (Ecc 12.12).” And then it is yet another commentary on this very same 2500 year old Ecclesiastes which demonstrates the value of even more wearisome study…
READ MOREA Jenkins-Junkie, that is what I am… [NB – This one took a bit longer because I left my first copy (almost finished) in the seat pocket when disembarking on a plane in Singapore last year. UGH!?]The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South (Oxford University Press, 2006). This is a…
READ MOREThere is a lot to like about this new book from Chris Wright: The Mission of God’s People (Zondervan, 2010). The writing style and the format of the book makes it so accessible to home groups, for example. The ‘sermonic atmosphere’ hovering around the chapters is suggestive to preachers looking for ideas. It is the…
READ MOREWho could ever have nightmared that in the very month of the 80th anniversary of the Napier earthquake, that nation-defining event, there could be the possibility of it being eclipsed by another quake further down the faultline? I find myself with God’s people in Sri Lanka – tsunami-land – and I have been touched by…
READ MOREOver the years I have had my doubts about whether the Bible really has the sort of priority it needs to have in the life of the so-called “EPC” (evangelical-pentecostal-charismatic) churches of NZ. [NB – it probably says something that these groups have been clumped together like this!] Ironically, it is these EPC churches which…
READ MOREAbout 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.