justice
It is often asserted that there were more martyrs for Jesus in the twentieth century than in all the other centuries combined. I thought I’d test out this assertion and see if is true – with my trusty The Future of the Global Church in hand. This book has this series of very cool facing pages…
READ MOREI thought Michelle Obama’s speech yesterday was sensational. The words, the imagery, the warmth, the emotion – and the conviction. It was compelling. But I am not dumb. I know what’s going on. The implicit barbs, dozens of them, aimed at Romney and his friends. The explicit, even desperate, attempt to have the American people…
READ MORELast night was a night to remember. Our son Stephen organised a knowledge-acquiring, fund-raising event focused on the DR of Congo. He has been in and out of the homes of about seven Congolese families in Auckland over recent months and they were well-represented at the event. Then there were church friends, members of the…
READ MOREOf all the Timothy Keller books which I have read, Generous Justice may well be his finest and most important. Keller’s very last sentence captures his purpose with the book: ‘A life poured out in doing justice for the poor is the inevitable sign of any real, true gospel faith.’ (189). There is something ever…
READ MOREI’ve struggled to be happy this Christmas. It was the Friday before Christmas that did it to me. In the morning I try to absorb the news that an enduring and close friend has a brain tumour. Cancer is sinister, evil. At midday I attend a funeral for the father of my brother-in-law. A simple,…
READ MOREBarby and I are in the USA for a week celebrating her father’s 90th birthday with family members. It is just the third time in thirty years that we have gathered like this. The family’s Christian roots lie with the Mennonites… A highlight for me has been the visit to the Menno-Hof (kinda like a…
READ MOREThere are some remarkable things about the USA (for example, where would you find billionaires – in any currency – coming together to commit themselves to giving half of their wealth away? Amazing)… … but Fox TV is not one of them. I was disappointed, but not surprised, to read that their ratings are soaring.…
READ MOREI guess if the church needs to be “reformed, always reforming” – then it might be OK for me to be converted, always converting. Won’t there always be blindspots to be exposed as I slide down the asymptote closer and closer to the full and complete truth of that horizontal line…yes, I think so. I…
READ MOREOver recent years I have appreciated my links with World Vision. My brother-in-law (Jon Warren) is their top photojournalist internationally (well, I think he is!); two opportunities to speak at World Vision (NZ) prayer days stand out in my memory; I was thrilled to see the recent appointment of an esteemed friend, Chris Clarke, as…
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.