christian mind
They say I look like Paul Walker. Well, that may be stretching it a bit. The ‘they’ is really only me. I think I look like Paul Walker – and I could be wrong. Probably the only thing that Paul Walker and Paul Windsor share in common are the initials of our names. He is kinda…
READ MOREWith the power China has – and the global attention it receives – maybe it is time to label Europe the ‘Far West’ and the USA the ‘Far East’…Our labels become dated so quickly, don’t they? East and West? Developed and Developing? First World and Third World? Not many are helpful – and too many…
READ MOREIt’s one month ago now. Two conversations. One in which I participated. One which I heard about second-hand a couple of hours later. But there they are – both running around my mind ever since … and annoying me. So it is back to the purge-by-posting strategy. The first conversation was with a bunch of…
READ MOREI am sitting here in Wycliffe Hall (Oxford). Wikipedia tells me that before I sat here, such assorted luminaries as JC Ryle, Nicky Gumbell, JI Packer, NT Wright, Alister McGrath and Lord Coggan sat here as well. As I’ve been sitting, I’ve been thinking and feeling. Today it is one year since Barby and I…
READ MOREIf you are not aware of TED, you may well be living on another planet. ‘People around the globe have viewed TED presentations more than one billion times online…’ (246). [NB: TED is an acronym for Technology, Education, Design]. My visa tells me that I am a communications consultant and so I thought I better engage…
READ MOREMany years ago I tasted a guinness. In my work situation I found myself articulating a minority perspective and it was causing tension within and conflict without. I happened to have the briefest of conversations with Os Guinness while in the US and he had the simplest of advice. I have passed it onto numerous…
READ MOREIf you hang around John Stott’s writings for awhile, you’ll soon discover he loved birds. Birding was his favourite hobby and a subject about which he had an encyclopedic knowledge. He wrote a delightful book – The Birds, Our Teachers – in which ornithology drifts across to ornitheology. What a difference an ‘e’ makes… This love for…
READ MOREYou know how a book can stay on your shelf and remain unread for years? Then you pick it up, get into it and exclaim ‘how come I didn’t read this ages ago?’. Well, let me introduce you to Cornelius Plantinga Jr.’s Beyond Doubt. As always, read on to the subtitle: ‘Faith-Building Devotions on Questions…
READ MOREThis is our one hundredth day living back in India, the land of our childhood. The joys, the frustrations – and the conversations – have not changed much over the decades. Once again Barby and I find ourselves talking a lot about how to live alongside the poor. While it is not the daily ‘in…
READ MOREHi, I don’t know who you are. I don’t know where you are. But I do know that there are heaps of you out there and I find myself thinking about you a lot. So much so that I thought I’d write you a letter. First let me try to ensure that we are talking…
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.