book review
Psalm 120:1 following Psalm 119 (and its 176 verses) is like a tiny fern sitting next to a giant kauri (tree). And the stark contrast doesn’t stop with size. All but two verses (I think I am right on that one – my grandma used to tell me it was every verse, but she was…
READ MOREOver the past few years I’d have to rate The Next Christendom (Philip Jenkins) as the book which has had the biggest impact on me. So when I saw The Lost History of Christianity (HarperCollins, 2008), it was ordered immediately and then read immediately. I have so many other things I am meant to be…
READ MOREThis book by David Kinnaman gathers the outcomes of a three year study by The Barna Group into the way 16-29yr olds ‘outside’ the church perceive Christianity. The book uncovers a hostility and skepticism towards the church unheard of in any previous generation. This serious image problem for the church centers around it being: (a)…
READ MOREIf your shelves are lined with books with names on their spines like Burke, Pagitt, Ward, Chalke, and Tomlinson… If the links on your laptop suggest you connect readily to Miller, Bell, McLaren, Rollins and McManus… Then you owe it to yourself – and to those you influence- to read Kevin DeYoung & Ted Kluck,…
READ MOREHere are ten reasons why you should have a garage sale in order to raise money to buy this book for every Christian young adult you know. Timothy Keller, The Reason for God; Belief in an Age of Skepticism (Dutton, 2008). Keller is pastor of a church in Manhattan. One over-indulgent (!) Keller fan has…
READ MORETwenty years ago – as a young pastor – I was captured by the writings of Kenneth Bailey on the parables of Jesus. He wrote a book in 1976 that lay dormant for years. I discovered it in the mid-80s (published in the same cover with a second book) and had it by my side…
READ MOREI used to listen to my grandmother pray these prayers. In fact somehow I’ve managed to score her copy of this prayer book. John Baillie, A Diary of Private Prayer (London: Oxford University Press, 1936). First published in 1936, it had gone through 23 reprintings by 1960! It contains Morning and Evening prayers for each…
READ MOREI enjoy reading. Here are my highlights from 2007 (in no particular order)… 1. William Dalrymple, The Last Mughal: the fall of a dynasty, Delhi 1857 (Bloomsbury, 2006) Having been based in Delhi from aged 10-17, I consider myself a Delhi-wallah (belonging-to-Delhi) and so does Dalrymple: Delhi is “a city that has haunted and obsessed…
READ MOREThis title caught my eye on the new book shelf at Borders. Check out the subtitle: “one man’s humble quest to follow the Bible as literally as possible” (William Heinemann, 2007). A.J. Jacobs – an agnostic, or non-believer – sets aside a year to follow the 700+ rules in the Bible as literally as is…
READ MOREIt was sitting on the shelf of a bookshop at Melbourne airport. Everthing seemed to catch my eye. ‘New York Times bestseller’. The title – and more importantly, as often seems the case these days, the subtitle – ‘Letter to a Christian Nation: a challenge to faith.’ There was even an endorsement from today’s most…
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.