langham
The name ‘Barby’ comes up frequently in this blog. In all likelihood, Barby and I first encountered each other in a church creche in the Himalayan foothills of India. We did a lot of schooling together, especially the high school years in boarding school, during which time we became good friends. It started in a…
READ MOREOne of my little sadnesses is that I was not able to meet John Stott after I moved across to work in the ministry which he founded, Langham Partnership. In those early years, however, he was always present on the agenda of our meetings — with a quiet, mysterious little entry: the snowy owl project.…
READ MOREThe early mornings between Christmas and New Year were spent absorbed in a book: Jehu Hanciles’ Migration and the Making of Global Christianity (Eerdmans, 2021). With a Foreward written by Philip Jenkins and an opening quotation from Lamin Sanneh, Hanciles had me wandering among my pantheon before he himself had written a word — and now he…
READ MOREIt seems to be becoming a trend. If you don’t like an author in one area, you ditch the author in every area. Yikes. That sounds kinda silly to me. None of us would like to be treated in this way. Tim Keller is one who receives this treatment. I’ve heard people say that because…
READ MOREI struggle to think of anything in the mission of God in the world today that enthuses me more than the work of Langham Literature. That day when my Africa Bible Commentary (ABC) arrived remains a vivid memory. I was in a seminar in the dining room at Carey Baptist College (Auckland) and Rachel, with…
READ MOREOne of the gracious privileges of my life was to be able to head off, as a 21 year old, to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS, near Chicago) to complete an MDiv degree. It shaped me, sandwiched as it was between the other profound ‘shapers’ — growing up in a culture-not-my-own (in India) and pastoring…
READ MOREYesterday, Covid-19 came close to heart and home, with the death of my friend, Pastor Ohm Prakash, in Pune (India). As is the custom, the funeral took place within a few hours, with a livestream on YouTube which I was able to watch. I am always a bit slow to roll out the great…
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I often dream of travelling back in time. I love history and think it would be so cool to pop in, here and there. However, right now, sitting in Auckland’s strictest lockdown yet, it is memories, not dreams, that fill my imagination. I’ve been reflecting on the great privilege of my working life — spending…
READ MOREIt is 500 days (exactly) since we left Bangalore, with the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic. What a week that was, back in March 2020. After five months without any international travel for Langham (my longest period out of the skies), I had five complex trips planned in the following three months — and I…
READ MOREThe hijack of the word ‘evangelical’ by a bunch of right-wing political fundamentalists, largely in the USA, is one of the sadnesses of our times. That evangelicals, authentic evangelicals, could be identified with a person with a character and legacy like Donald Trump is scarcely imaginable. And yes, I hear them say, all with one…
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.