family
They even looked a bit alike. They were even diagnosed with cancer at about the same time. And now they have both died, just 11 months apart from each other. Having both enriched my life in such different ways, I took such delight in knowing that there was that day when they met each other,…
READ MOREA couple of weeks ago I shared my admiration for the person and ministry of Charles Simeon, reawakened by a book that I had read. This renewed a conversation with Mark Meynell, the leader of our ministry in Europe & the Caribbean – and in the recent past, a member of the pastoral team at All…
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…
READ MOREBarby and I have just returned to India – after thirty days in New Zealand (over Christmas) where we engaged some Kiwi beauty: in creation and in grandchildren. The beauty of creation: The beauty of grandchildren: nice viewing Paul
READ MOREAtul Gawande’s Being Mortal takes me back to grace and truth. The author is concerned that we lack ‘a coherent view of how people might live successfully all the way to their very end, (as) we have allowed our fates to be controlled by the imperatives of medicine, technology, and strangers’ (9). Drawing a little on…
READ MOREWe’ve had our fill of separations – or, so we thought. All those agonising good-byes to parents during our boarding school years. UGH. Goodness me – Barby has not lived within two long-haul flights of her parents since she was in her mid-teens (and that was when she was at boarding school!). But as we…
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 MOREIt is always great to be back in Delhi. On this visit I decided to make a different pilgrimage. When we first moved here in 1970, Delhi Bible Fellowship (later to be pastored by my future father-in-law, Charles Warren) was just getting started. There were different congregations around the city and then a combined service…
READ MOREAs a child August was kinda bland with a pinch of boring. Indian Independence Day came along, bang in the middle (15th), and after an early flag-raising anthem-singing service, the rest of the day was a holiday. Excellent. But that was pretty much it for August. Not much for a sentimental chap like me. But…
READ MORE[I avoid using this blog to post sermons, messages and the like. Blogs feel like a different genre and I prefer to chat away. But on this occasion I’d like to pay tribute to my special friend, Marty Roy, who died earlier this month after a battle with cancer. The family asked me to share…
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.