book review
Yes, that’s right – I have digested yet another Philip Jenkins’ book. It is becoming a compulsive behavioural disorder (particularly when I see the next one already on my desk). This one is a sane and measured response to the fear that Europe is becoming some sort of Eurabia where Christianity’s prospects, currently being dismantled…
READ MOREWhenever I teach narrative preaching I always start with children’s stories. Former students will remember my love for the simplicity of Quack, Quack and the power of Love You Forever – which has induced many a tear from older, and embarassed, Kiwi males. To read them and then to ask “why does this work?” seems…
READ MOREOver recent years I have appreciated my links with World Vision. My brother-in-law (Jon Warren) is their top photojournalist internationally (well, I think he is!); two opportunities to speak at World Vision (NZ) prayer days stand out in my memory; I was thrilled to see the recent appointment of an esteemed friend, Chris Clarke, as…
READ MOREIn today’s climate when a book is endorsed by both Keller and Kimball, Driscoll and Bell you do tend to take a second look. In my case I decided to read it. Jim Belcher, Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional (IVP, 2009). As always seems to be the case nowadays, the subtitle…
READ MOREIf you have a spare $20 and an extra 2 hours to go with it I have a great idea on how to use that cash and time. Buy and read Tim Keller’s little book, The Prodigal God. I read it on a return flight to Wellington last week. It has been around for a…
READ MOREYou know a book has got under your skin when you go on thinking about it weeks after you finished reading it. Usually novels do this. That Poisonwood Bible … or, that Life of Pi … or, the other week – The Children of Men. Ugh! But this time it isn’t a novel. It is…
READ MOREYes, it IS as good as they say it is. I liked Andre Agassi’s Open: an autobiography (Harper Collins, 2009)for all sorts of reasons. 1. The story moves from his hatred for his father to his love for Steffi in a journey of self-discovery. It is the old cliche about “you don’t know who you…
READ MOREJohn Stott’s 51st – and final – book has been published. Mark Meynell, a current member of the All Soul’s staff and a fine preacher (and blogger!) himself, has written a wonderful review of The Radical Disciple here. [By the way, “Uncle John” is the loving and respectful way in which those who know him…
READ MOREIt took me awhile to get a hang of the direction in which Mark Noll was heading in his latest book, The New Shape of World Christianity (IVP, 2009). I know the guy is an elite historian but every now and then he seemed to be going down the same path as Jerry Falwell did…
READ MOREThere is something of the concentric circles in this trilogy… We shift from the personal character of the leader (vol 1) to the pragmatics of leadership, specially in its use of power (vol 2) and now the politics of leadership as we discover its influence in the broad sweep of large populations of people over…
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.