book review
Saying thanks. Building trust. The first principles of leadership. Study them deeply and then do them creatively and repetitively and you will be well on your way in leadership roles, large or small. Take trust, for example. How do you build it? Well, it operates like a bank account. The deposits are made early –…
READ MOREThe most compelling thought for me over the recent decade has been the idea that the body of Christ and the household of God are global realities, not just local ones. It has transformed my life. On the global stage, 1 Corinthians 12 is still about those who might consider themselves to be dispensable and…
READ MOREI used to play a little football – or, soccer, as my American friends refer to it. Here the word ‘little’ refers both to time and talent. I didn’t play for long and I didn’t play very well. One of the challenges for me was that as I approached a position where I could shoot…
READ MOREIt is like recalling a car with a deficient part. I would love to recall all our graduates and put a new part in them – an expository one. These are the words of a president of a leading theological college in the Middle East North Africa region – words which I heard with my…
READ MOREDavid Brooks’ The Road to Character (Allen Lane, 2015) is a book of two halves – that is, if we are able to be flexible and allow one of the halves to be only one-sixth of the book. The Introduction (ix-xv) and The Shift (3-15) will make their way into the required reading list for…
READ MORESeldom do I remember flights taking-off these days. I am asleep by that time, as an involuntary nap overwhelms me on the way to the runway. On this occasion I could be excused for such behaviour befitting a baby. Eight long days of listening, facilitating and note-taking had left me a little weary. I boarded…
READ MOREThe word is used so much today. I hesitate to bear witness to depression in my own life, lest by doing so it mocks those whose struggle with it is so serious, so debilitating. Down through the years … the names, the faces, the situations. They fill my heart and mind as I sit down…
READ MOREIt was like driving into spring. In Toronto the trees were leafless, but as I made my way by train to Windsor (Ontario) – and then by car to Ohio and on to Kentucky – the trees and countryside came alive with a fresh and velvety green. It was beautiful. That was last month. Last…
READ MOREOn my recent flight from San Francisco to Singapore I decided to create a conversation in my mind, by watching a movie and reading a book. The movie was Exodus: Gods and Kings. With Batman (Christian Bale) as Moses, it tells the story of the Hebrew slaves gaining freedom from the Pharoah of Egypt. Even on…
READ MOREThere is this hunger within to learn about the peoples of the world, particularly those ones about whom I know so little. Almost ten years ago I got lost in Meredith’s The State of Africa. It changed me. With my first visit to the Middle East looming in March, recent months have been devoted to Eugene…
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.