culture
My attitude towards alcohol has invited its share of light-hearted mocking over the years. It was the subject of an early post. This is still the post which has provoked the most comments. Some thought that once I joined a UK-based organisation (where attitudes tend to be more spacious), I might change my ways slowly…
READ MORETaking a road trip through New Zealand, seeing the beauty in both sights and friends, reminds me of the many things I will miss when we leave this country (as we expect to do in a couple of months). However one thing will not be missed. Being casual. It is not difficult to trace its…
READ MOREWhat a disappointment! The best thing about the movie was the company I kept in watching it. Spotting Christ-figures in movies is one of my favourite past-times – and so, yes, I enjoyed all the Jesus allusions. But it was all a bit obvious and silly, wasn’t it? It took me back to The Matrix.…
READ MORESo clear is the memory of my first sighting of the phrase ‘chronological snobbery’ that it took me just 14 seconds to find it again – 25 years later. It comes up in JI Packer’s final chapter in the book edited by Carson & Woodbridge, Scripture and Truth. The phrase originates with CS Lewis and Packer describes…
READ MOREIt has been awhile since a movie has grabbed my theological imagination quite like Ruby Sparks. A sleepy midnight viewing on an airplane was quickly followed by a visit to United Video and a more engaged viewing on terra firma. One synopsis of the movie goes like this: “Calvin is a genius novelist who begins…
READ MOREThe history of Aotearoa-New Zealand can be retold in a minor key. Every couple of decades a disaster seems to strike which pours a deep sadness into a generation of Kiwis and adds to our self-understanding as a nation. The Pike River mine disaster prompted me to post on this theme a couple of years ago.…
READ MOREAs I travel overseas training preachers, there is a Maori word that so often slips from my lips. Before I know it, out it comes – and then I have to explain what I mean. That is when things get complicated. I stumble away and invariably the conversation shifts to another topic, as I am…
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New Zealand and the USA both have their cultural oddities. With organised sport for school children in NZ there is anaward each weekend that is called the ‘player of the day’. Seldom is it the best performance of the day which determines the recipient of the award; rather it is more about whose turn it…
READ MOREOver Christmas I spent time getting to know Aung San Suu Kyi. I started with Justin Wintle’s book, Perfect Hostage, picked up at the bookshop in the departure area of Phnom Penh airport. Given the recent developments in the story, it is a bit dated (2007). However I found it valuable to begin my pilgrimage with…
READ MOREParents tend to search for significance in the naming of their children. Barby and I are no different. A few things have happened this Christmas to bring this to mind, particularly with our three boys a long, long way away. Starting with the youngest, Joseph Daniel. Joseph and Daniel are the two prominent male characters…
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.