book review
This book is a horror show. How is it possible that so few years can contain so much horror? Let’s name a few of the ones which Philip Jenkins discusses in The Great and Holy War (OUP, 2014). Horror #1 Not just the Great War, World War 1 was a holy war. Christendom reigned…
READ MOREYes – another book on preaching, pitched primarily for people making a start. (I’ve tried to surf this recent wave for readers – here, here, here, and here!). Jonathan Lamb’s Preaching Matters (IVP, 2014) has arrived. I read the book in one sitting – or, one lying, to be accurate – early one jet-lagged morning in…
READ MOREUsing a tap to turn off a waterfall in the monsoon. That is how these twin books felt like to me. The authors are trying to contain trends that have swept through society and church and already taken control. It is too late – surely?! Maybe. But I am happy to help them turn off…
READ MOREThe Bible says that God has planted eternity in our hearts. I’ve often wondered whether he has planted cricket in the human heart as well – but just like with eternity, it becomes a planting that is smothered and choked by other pursuits … :). I’ve always enjoyed the game of cricket. The rest of…
READ MOREI’d love to be a really good listener. In fact three longings cluster together for me. I’d love to be more humble, to be more holy – and to be a really good listener. Why? As far as I can observe, this is the combo that God delights in using and I really want to be…
READ MORESomeone somewhere has flipped the switch. After spending more than two decades moaning about the lack of basic books on how to preach, such books have been rushing off the press in the last few months (see here and here and here). In the last couple of weeks, I have read three more and it is…
READ MOREThere are eight boarding passes in this book. That is how many flights it took me to finish it. But don’t let that put you off. It is well worth the effort: Robert D. Kaplan, The Revenge of Geography (Random House, 2012). One easily missable sentence captures his thesis neatly. I believe that while geography does not necessarily…
READ MOREOne for novices. One for veterans. For veterans: Cornelius Plantinga, Reading for Preaching (Eerdmans, 2013). Preaching goes better when you do it in conversation with others – namely ‘storytellers, biographers, poets, and journalists’ (the subtitle). ‘The reading preacher will discover that great writers know the road to the human heart and, once at their destination,…
READ MOREIf you are not aware of TED, you may well be living on another planet. ‘People around the globe have viewed TED presentations more than one billion times online…’ (246). [NB: TED is an acronym for Technology, Education, Design]. My visa tells me that I am a communications consultant and so I thought I better engage…
READ MOREThe power of story cannot be denied. Neither can the priority of story within the Bible. It is a story. And yet sometimes those most committed to biblical preaching suddenly become ambivalent when the conversation moves to story and storytelling. I don’t get it. As far as I am concerned, at its best, biblical storytelling fits…
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.