church
There are times when mature people really frustrate me. Seasoned pastors and leaders (and lecturers themselves, it must be said) can peer into a training programme like ours at Carey and be a little too hasty to contribute into it out of their current and exciting ‘growing edge’, rather than rewinding to what was useful…
READ MOREI confess that I am struggling with why seeing New Zealand as a Christian nation in past, present, and future is such a big deal. Under the threat of today’s new-religions and ‘no-religion’s (as is so popular in our census forms), it smacks of Christianity trying to preserve some sort of home-field advantage in the…
READ MOREI took my parents to see Miss Potter at the Lido in Auckland. As we walked through the doors into their intimate little cinema on the ground floor I saw a sight I will never ever forget. The front row is lined with these luxurious laz-e-boy chairs. Leaning all the way back in them with…
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 MOREIn response to a posting on 18 April (‘the doors’), Stephen Garner commented on some research that points to ‘moralistic therapeutic deism’ (MTD) being the religion of younger Christian people today. I’ve been a bit distracted by this research all year! In a nutshell – this is what is meant by MTD: “Good, kind, nice…
READ MOREExactly 40 years ago – and I mean to the very minute – people all over London were heading for the Underground to make their way to Central Hall, Westminster. 18 October 1966. What transpired that night is a ‘defining moment’ in post-War British evangelicalism. Now, now … don’t close this window quite yet?! Stick…
READ MOREWhen the energy drains out of a seminar I am leading, I know just where the solution lies. I put three words on the whiteboard and ask people to put them in the right order: “belonging”, “believing”, “behaving”. One of the great discussion-starters… It is a bit unfair, but you could make a case that…
READ MOREWe are in the middle of the evaluation season at Carey Baptist College. All 30 of the students in our Pastoral Leadership track journey through an annual process which probes for both critique and affirmation. As Principal I have been committed to participating in every single one. It is just exhausting… Reflecting on the written…
READ MOREThis week I had the privilege of not only attending the “Changing World, Changing Church” conference in Palmerston North, but also giving a response to the input brought by the speakers – including Dan Kimball, Michael Frost, Mark Strom, and our own Carey staff member, Brian Krum.In my response I tried to name six areas…
READ MOREOne of our staff members was speaking in our Community Worship time and made this statement (and then he helped me track down the actual quotation): “There are many churches these days that instead of reaching the unchurched are unchurching the churched.” [Michael Horton, A Better Way (Baker, 2002) 211] What dya reckon? nice chatting…
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.