book review
Like many of you, I am always ready to engage with new insights on leadership. This book draws on ‘the great wayfinding tradition of the Polynesian navigators’ (xiii). Most of you live far from Polynesia, so please stick with me through unfamiliar surroundings! It will be worth it… Drawing near to it There is a…
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There can be no doubt about what is on Vince Bantu’s mind with his book, A Multitude of All Peoples. It is sitting there, blunt and bald, in the opening two sentences of his Introduction: “Christianity is and always has been a global religion. For this reason, it is important never to think of…
READ MOREI’ve been working on my Introduction to Preaching course at Carey Baptist College (Auckland) in this coming semester. It will be my 33rd consecutive year of teaching preaching at the seminary/college level. It is hard to believe — and to keep me evolving I like to add something fresh each time… This year it is topical…
READ MORE“Oops!… I did it again.” Yep — reading a book while pursuing every imaginable Wikipedia, Google Maps and YouTube distraction. Why is the story so compelling? It’s been called the ‘Stalingrad of the East’. ‘Britain’s Thermopylae’. More significantly, ‘in 2013, it was voted as Britain’s greatest battle after a debate at the National Army…
READ MOREOver the years I have enjoyed taking two pilgrimages… One is to Rangihoua Bay, about 200km north of Auckland — and Marsden Cross, the site of the first preaching of the gospel here in Aotearoa New Zealand, in 1814. On one occasion, as a way to celebrate my 50th birthday, 30 friends joined me in…
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There is so much to like about God. Right near the top of my list is the way he works in anyone and everyone, helping shape them into all they are designed to be. Then he invites, or calls, them to join him in making the world all it is designed to be. He is…
READ MORENot so long ago I failed an online Intercultural Competency quiz. Yikes. That does not sound so good for someone in my line of work. It is embarassing. I resolved to broaden my reading and have set a summer goal of reading books originating from different continents. This past summer it was Africa. I made…
READ MOREWhen Langham Preaching’s Global Leadership Team meets, Lord-willing, in the UK in June it will be 1163 days since we’ve been in-person together. During this covidian season we’ve gathered on Zoom for two hours a week, three weeks out of four. We’ve grown closer together, while apart, for various reasons — most notably God’s gracious…
READ MORELast Monday was World Mother-Language Day. Al Jazeera celebrated the day on their Interactives page by collecting 25 proverbs from 25 different languages, recited by speakers of that language. If you scroll down this page, you’ll discover it. It is very cool. This comes a couple of days after I came across Hinemoa Elder’s AROHA:…
READ MOREIt took me a bit by surprise, but there has been just the whiff of exile about living back in Aotearoa New Zealand. ‘Exile’ is a rich biblical metaphor and I’ve been helped by leaning into it. It seems to capture many of my reflections, attitudes and emotions. How do you live well in…
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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.