christian mind
It is not every day that the eye falls upon a book on leadership where the case studies, so charming in their sycophancy, include the likes of Mao Tse-Tung, Tito, Ceausescu, Chou En-Lai, Hodja (Albania), and Khrushchev. But such was the case when I wandered through one of my favourite bookshops – in the departure…
READ MOREI am in the happy position of having a 19 year old son recommending a Tim Keller book to me. I’m blessed and I know it (ah yes, that reminds me of a song – but we won’t go there). On Joseph’s recommendation, I ordered and read Keller’s The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness. It is a…
READ MOREOn a series of recent flights, I enjoyed the opportunity to engage with DA Carson’s latest book, The Intolerance of Tolerance. His central premise is that the word ‘tolerance’ has become slippery and changed its meaning over time. There is an old tolerance (which is good) and a new tolerance (which is bad). Carson circles around this distinction,…
READ MOREFashion really is a bit of a joke. Afterall is there anything which provokes greater shrieks of laughter than poring over old photos? ‘Look at that hair’ … ‘Those glasses are terrible’. Then on it progresses to the likes of shoes and make-up and shorts… Here is my question. If these styles can cause so much mirth a…
READ MOREI have been thinking deep thoughts and feeling deep felts. There is Mary (not her real name). Mary and I worked together for seven years in a previous life. I think she would say that we were good friends. She had been a missionary overseas. There were little glimpses of life being difficult for her back then and…
READ MOREIt seems that someone has clicked ‘refresh’ on colonialism. As I walked down Nathan Rd in Kowloon (Hong Kong) I lifted my eyes to the billboards (‘where does my help come from?’, I am tempted to add) filling the horizon and reckoned that 19 out of 20 were adorned with white and western images of…
READ MOREIt is one of the books of the decade for me (NB: pages 273-275 provide an excellent summary of the argument): James Davison Hunter’s To Change the World (Oxford University Press, 2010). In trying to distill its influence, three affirmations come to mind. 1. Our understanding of culture and change can be so wrong Using words like ‘flawed’…
READ MOREI am a timid chap. Always have been. Always will be. If I was to look at the sum of all my fears, dogs and flying figure regularly in the top ten. Not without good reason, I might add. As a little newspaper-delivery boy I had an awful experience of being bitten – and I’ve…
READ MORESuch is my life now that I can describe a book by how many boarding passes accumulate within its pages as I work my way through it. So, for example, that book on Pakistan in July was a “thirteen (international) boarding pass” book. It was long and slow and intense. Last week I read a…
READ MOREI don’t tend to buy books according to topic – but by author. And then each year I try to expand my list of favourite authors. 2011 has been the year of Craig Bartholomew. Earlier this year I reviewed his remarkable commentary on Ecclesiastes. On a recent trip to Cambodia I read Living at the…
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.