justice
Is anyone else provoked by this full page picture in New Zealand newspapers this week?The caption, presumably spoken by this African woman, reads: “In New Zealand many women are denied some human rights that I enjoy”. I know they are trying to push the boundaries in order to expose the despicable that is kept hidden…
READ MORETwo funerals in five days. Mike (aged 27) died of cancer. Tony (aged 29) drowned in the flash Mangetepopo flood that also took the lives of six of his Elim Christian College students. Both ‘orders of service’ from the funerals are in front of me as I write. Mike was a close relative of a…
READ MOREDoes anyone else take exception to the way that whenever there are global statistics related to standard of living in our media, New Zealand seems to be always and only compared with the OECD? [The NZ Herald published a weekload of such articles/rankings earlier this month in a special series]. It might be about house…
READ MOREA couple of blindspots have been exposed in recent decades… First-up there is the recognition that the earth needs stewardship and the environment needs care. The genius of Genesis 1 & 2 is that it constitutes every possible relationship (God:world; God:humanity; humanity:humanity; humanity:world) – but then from Genesis 3 all of these relationships get stained…
READ MOREThere was a moment in Blood Diamond when I almost stood up and screamed “No!” at the screen. It crossed my mind to do so at the time. It really did. I was ticked off… At various times in the movie people shrug their shoulders at the mess they see around them and simply say…
READ MOREThe comment which provoked the most response while teaching in Zambia was when we came to the ‘submission’ passages in 1 Peter 2:11-3:7 and I suggested that we needed to avoid two errors: (a) the ‘cut and paste’ errorThis occurs when we ‘cut’ these verses out of the context of this letter and the occasion…
READ MOREA little transit time in Bangkok – why not post a blog? My son (Martin) and I are returning from 18 days in Africa where I participated in the Pastors Book Project – the brainchild of visionary SIM-er Jim Mason. 24 conferences over 4months in 19 locations distributing a quality library of 65 books (and…
READ MOREOnce upon a time there was this little community living in a village called Clapham. Just south of London. A rich guy called Thornton kinda funded their life together (not to mention his 34-bedroomed housed where many of them lived). A few of them – Sharp, Clarkson, Macaulay -were set aside as researchers, gathering evidence.…
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.