christian mind
It 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 MOREHelp me out here. This is a serious question. “What is one single redeeming feature of alcohol consumption?” Here is how I see it…The downsides of alcohol consumption are understated. Just scratch the bad stories in the newspaper and the neighborhood a little. Again and again and again the worst evils in our society have…
READ MOREThe statement has come across my desk again today. Gee – it winds me up! “Today’s generation hears with their eyes and thinks with their emotions.” Then the argument usually goes on to speak of the need for far more visual content in our communication (because people hear with their eyes) and far more story…
READ MOREYes – it is a mouthful. [It is a play on a famous article entitled ‘the unbearable lightness of being postmodern’]. I am trying to express an alarm over something which restricts the reach of God’s mission in the world through us. What is it? It is the hold which disjunctive thinking can have over…
READ MOREThe comment which provoked the most response while teaching in Zambia was when we came to the ‘submission’ passages in 1 Peter 2:11-3:7 and I suggested that we needed to avoid two errors: (a) the ‘cut and paste’ errorThis occurs when we ‘cut’ these verses out of the context of this letter and the occasion…
READ MOREChatting to a university student the other day. Enrolled in a history course on Religious Conflict. On the first day the lecturers stated that their essays must come from a ‘neutral’ perspective, by which was meant a pluralist perspective – that perspective which affirms that no single religion has a privileged access to truth. All…
READ MOREThe Bible is a remarkable book. Written by dozens of authors. Utilising heaps of different genre(narrative, letters, proverbs…). And the writing takes place over hundreds of years. So diverse!BUT the story from Genesis to Revelation is just the one story. It is God’s story. It is God’s way of making sense of the world. It…
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.