langham
Maths, maps and spelling were my favourite subjects as a little boy. A chief contributor to this favouritism was that each subject involved competitive classroom games. ‘Around the world’ was great fun. One competitor would stand next to the other, seated at their desk. A math’s question? A capital city? Spelling a word? Bring it…
READ MOREI may have gone through my entire education without ever asking a single question in the classroom. I certainly never did it in my MDiv (theology), or my BSc (chemistry) days – and I have no memory of ever doing it in high school. The reasons are partly physiological. The anticipation of speaking-up led to…
READ MORESome people have lived such important lives. In a recent wander through a cemetery in Pembrokeshire (SW Wales) one memorial is designed to attract attention more than any other. And it does. High above all else. The erect, stone figure can be seen from some distance. A military man of some kind, I suspect. Maybe…
READ MOREDavid Brooks’ The Road to Character (Allen Lane, 2015) is a book of two halves – that is, if we are able to be flexible and allow one of the halves to be only one-sixth of the book. The Introduction (ix-xv) and The Shift (3-15) will make their way into the required reading list for…
READ MORESeldom do I remember flights taking-off these days. I am asleep by that time, as an involuntary nap overwhelms me on the way to the runway. On this occasion I could be excused for such behaviour befitting a baby. Eight long days of listening, facilitating and note-taking had left me a little weary. I boarded…
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As this was my first ever visit to China, I thought I’d collect a few photos and reflections. On Easter Sunday morning we attended one of the officially recognised churches. 1000 people, standing room only. Traditional, but not necessarily nominal or liberal. The Germans occupied the province for less than twenty years, but transformed the…
READ MORE‘The Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other’. Attributed to Karl Barth, this is the classic cliche about the need for preachers to remain connected to both the Word and the World, the Text and the Context, as they prepare and deliver sermons. Earlier this month in Amman, I heard Dr Yohanna…
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Earlier this month I enjoyed my first trip to the Arab world. After meetings in Amman (Jordan), I travelled to Lebanon to spend a few days with my colleague and friend, Riad, at his home in the Bekaa Valley (that flat bit above the central ridge in the map below). Lebanon is a small country,…
READ MOREI am a little worried. I believe in contextualisation. Oh yes, I do. Isn’t the incarnation, the divine becoming human, the ultimate in contextualised activity? The Big-C is as necessary as it is unavoidable. But still I am worried. As I travel I am a little surprised at the appetite that there is for contextualisation.…
READ MOREThere is this hunger within to learn about the peoples of the world, particularly those ones about whom I know so little. Almost ten years ago I got lost in Meredith’s The State of Africa. It changed me. With my first visit to the Middle East looming in March, recent months have been devoted to Eugene…
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.