church
Denzel (Washington) made me do it. The other night he pushed me over the edge. Here I sit, still recovering from the Fast & Furious family saying grace around the table at the end of a movie of excessive violence, destruction and abuse, and now … there sits Denzel. Struggling with alcoholism, there is this touching…
READ MORECharles Simeon was a big part of my life through my twenties. Like many before me, I was introduced to him in the writings of John Stott, a man who lived his life with a similar symmetry more than a century later. As a young pastor I read the biographies, capturing numerous illustrations on my…
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Corruption. Prosperity teaching. ‘Big Man’ leadership. The evil trio. The devil’s trinity. Everywhere I go in this job, it does not take long for these three to surface in the conversation. I am just home from a visit to Ghana, and the combo was present there, too. It started at the airport, on arrival in…
READ MOREA little more from my “New Zealand is the most secular English-speaking country of all, even if I receive disbelieving looks from American, Canadian, British and Australian friends whenever I say so” file. This week I was in Sydney and a friend of mine expressed how he has regular opportunities in local civic contexts to…
READ MOREWe become flash and fancy with our evangelism today, don’t we? The programmes. The technology. The strategies. While participating in the annual conference of the Association of Evangelists in the UK last weekend, I was reminded again of three ancient, yet proven, components to evangelism. Are we losing sight of them? Have we really become so sophisticated…
READ MORESaying thanks. Building trust. The first principles of leadership. Study them deeply and then do them creatively and repetitively and you will be well on your way in leadership roles, large or small. Take trust, for example. How do you build it? Well, it operates like a bank account. The deposits are made early –…
READ MOREThe most compelling thought for me over the recent decade has been the idea that the body of Christ and the household of God are global realities, not just local ones. It has transformed my life. On the global stage, 1 Corinthians 12 is still about those who might consider themselves to be dispensable and…
READ MOREMaths, maps and spelling were my favourite subjects as a little boy. A chief contributor to this favouritism was that each subject involved competitive classroom games. ‘Around the world’ was great fun. One competitor would stand next to the other, seated at their desk. A math’s question? A capital city? Spelling a word? Bring it…
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For a millennium, the Hagia Sophia was the largest cathedral in the world. It reaches all the way back to the worlds of Chrysostom and Constantine. When Istanbul was conquered by the Ottomans, it was turned into a mosque – and now it is a museum. The history is amazing – and so also is…
READ MOREA billboard caught my eye last week. The driver kindly stopped so that I could take a photo – although I could tell that he wondered what I was doing. He was insistent on stopping in front of the neighbouring billboard – but, no, this is the one I wanted: It is the conflictual relationship…
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.