church
Talking about religion can be a bit like talking about the traffic. Everywhere you go, people lament about how hard it is – and yet, in reality, it is all relative. While Bangaloreans and Aucklanders may both complain, driving in Bangalore is definitely more difficult than driving in Auckland. So it is with the religious…
READ MOREI used to play a little football – or, soccer, as my American friends refer to it. Here the word ‘little’ refers both to time and talent. I didn’t play for long and I didn’t play very well. One of the challenges for me was that as I approached a position where I could shoot…
READ MOREIt is like recalling a car with a deficient part. I would love to recall all our graduates and put a new part in them – an expository one. These are the words of a president of a leading theological college in the Middle East North Africa region – words which I heard with my…
READ MOREIt has always been a dream to visit Scotland. My parents loved it enough to name my sister, just 15 months older than me, Heather. I had visited it on two previous occasions. Once to visit a college in Glasgow (for 6 hours); and once, travelling all the way from New Zealand, to interview a…
READ MOREHow is this for a greeting at the front of our local grocery story – Nilgiri’s in Kothanur (Bangalore)? Look at the variety of mangoes. Alphonso seems to be king, but I ain’t fussy. A mela is an event where people gather in a festival-like manner. Bring it on. We tend to take the mela…
READ MOREWhen things get tough I try to look in two directions. One is horizontal. Maybe chronological is a better word. I bring to mind the way God works with a 24 hour day and how dawn follows midnight. Always. Without Fail. Then in many countries, far from the equator, He works with a 4 season…
READ MORETe Manihera and Kereopa. It is Keith Newman (in Bible and Treaty) who introduced me to these two Christian Māori men, martyred near Tokaanu (situated ‘at 6 o’clock’, on the southern edge of Lake Taupo) in 1847. When our family took a holiday earlier this month in nearby Kuratau (‘at 7 o’clock’ on the lake), I became…
READ MOREI am a little worried. I believe in contextualisation. Oh yes, I do. Isn’t the incarnation, the divine becoming human, the ultimate in contextualised activity? The Big-C is as necessary as it is unavoidable. But still I am worried. As I travel I am a little surprised at the appetite that there is for contextualisation.…
READ MOREIt is thirty years ago this month (February 1985) since I started as a pastor – at Georgetown Baptist Church in Invercargill, on the south coast of the South Island in New Zealand. Ten years ago this church closed its doors (although another church still uses the facilities). I was overwhelmed by an uncommon grief. I…
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At our age, an overnight flight leads to an afternoon nap. Once that was over, Barby and I wandered out onto the streets of Yangon. No map to follow. Nowhere to go, in particular. From across the road we stumbled across this building. Just another church in all its faded glory? With more pigeons outside…
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.