church
About this time yesterday there was a tear in the eye. Barby and I were returning home after a 40 hour visit to Vizakhapatnam – or Vizag, for short. In expressing my gratitude to the couple who had welcomed us into their home, I became a bit misty. Here we were – so very different…
READ MOREIt has been hard living so far from New Zealand during the two hundredth year celebrations of the arrival of the gospel – on Christmas Day, 1814. I’ve been following all the facebook chatter closely. I’ve loved that space at Oihi Bay for a number of years, even taking a horde of friends on a…
READ MOREThis book is a horror show. How is it possible that so few years can contain so much horror? Let’s name a few of the ones which Philip Jenkins discusses in The Great and Holy War (OUP, 2014). Horror #1 Not just the Great War, World War 1 was a holy war. Christendom reigned…
READ MOREUsing a tap to turn off a waterfall in the monsoon. That is how these twin books felt like to me. The authors are trying to contain trends that have swept through society and church and already taken control. It is too late – surely?! Maybe. But I am happy to help them turn off…
READ MOREI’d love to be a really good listener. In fact three longings cluster together for me. I’d love to be more humble, to be more holy – and to be a really good listener. Why? As far as I can observe, this is the combo that God delights in using and I really want to be…
READ MOREMy first twenty-four hours in Yorkshire – ever. Who could have imagined that it would be twenty-four hours after the departure of one of the great French institutions – the Tour de France?! Signs for Le Grand Depart were everywhere in Leeds. Buntings and gold-coloured bikes adorned homes. Even the Black Prince, on horseback in the…
READ MOREI’ve been trying to free the Holy Spirit to loosen the control which the love of sports can have on my heart. Targeting the compulsive aspect. Enjoy it, without being addicted to it. Increasingly I feel the contradiction of following sports with such obscene salaries – and thereby feeling a little bit complicit – in…
READ MOREAs I travel and find myself in and out of peoples’ homes in different countries, I’ve noticed something… Generally speaking, Christian homes in ‘the West’ (for example, NZ, Australia, UK, and the USA) seem reluctant to adorn their walls with promises and texts from the Bible, or anything that is overtly Christian in its message.…
READ MOREThe Wakatipu Basin is where God did some of his finest work. To be in that setting last weekend for a wedding doubled the beauty to smorgasbord proportions. But alongside the beauty on display, there was the conversation… A winemaker from Waiheke I choose not to drink alcohol and so my knowledge of wine is…
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 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.