book review
Here 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 MORELeadership is within the range of a lot more people than we realise. For someone taking their first steps into leadership I’d urge the following “first eleven” to be read – in this order… #1 NehemiahThe secret of this book is the way every characteristic of Nehemiah’s leadership (and there are so many!) can be…
READ MOREIn response to a posting on 18 April (‘the doors’), Stephen Garner commented on some research that points to ‘moralistic therapeutic deism’ (MTD) being the religion of younger Christian people today. I’ve been a bit distracted by this research all year! In a nutshell – this is what is meant by MTD: “Good, kind, nice…
READ MOREThere’s plenty of chat about consumerism today, isn’t there? I have just finished Duncan MacLaren’s Mission Implausible (Paternoster, 2004) and towards the end he identifies various characteristics of a society driven by consumption: (a) The primacy of individual choice(the path to personal freedom – a long, long way from obligation, duty or loyalty)(b) The expectation…
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.