culture
One is shorter; the other is longer. One is carefully scripted; the other is more spontaneous. One is nervous (and wooden); the other is nervous (and teary). One is without distracting mannerism; the other has a distracting sniffle. One hints of a riches to rags plotline (not likely!); the other has a rags to riches…
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 MOREBarby and I are coming up to six months of living here in Bangalore. One of the first things I did was buy a smartphone. I’ve enjoyed clicking here and there as I see interesting things around where we live. Here are six of my favourites: good looking Paul
READ MOREI have a friend who has been to Myanmar more than sixty times. Another friend is pushing twenty. My sister and her husband are closing in on ten visits. As for me, it has been only three … But that is enough to be sobered by what I’ve seen. There is something particularly evil about…
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 MOREIf’ you are looking for a story of political intrigue to consume you through 2014, look no further than India, the world’s largest democracy. I can’t wait to open my newspaper each morning. Are you in for the ride? Can this dummy give you the dummies guide? I know you don’t think it is relevant…
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 MOREI’ve been exegeting Sachin’s retirement speech. It provides such insight into an Indian worldview, often so different from those ones associated with ‘the West’. A full text of the speech can be found here. [NB: For those who may be unaware (!), ‘Sachin’ refers to Sachin Tendulkar. His name has the fame that ‘Roger’ has with…
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 MOREWe’ve signed up for tata-sky here in India. A little cricket here, a movie over there – that kind of thing. So far with Hollywood movies there seems to be some censoring with scenes cut out. But I do not know enough questionable movies well enough to be able to tell quite yet. Certainly every…
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.