leadership
Television can provide such a window onto the soul of a nation. Whenever I’m travelling in unfamiliar countries, I like having a TV to watch. The content. The style. The advertisements. The agenda. The people. The popular. It goes on and on… It is a window that fascinates me. Over the past seven years, when…
READ MOREBoarding School?! “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” As a child, it didn’t feel like it could get much worse than saying goodbye to Mum & Dad at the Old Delhi Bus Station, with the prospect of the forthcoming semester at Woodstock School doing its best to simulate an…
READ MOREThe ‘search’ function on this blog is amazing. Within seconds, I can find lost thoughts. Within minutes, I can gather material for a talk. It is like my own ‘illustration file’ which I make available to others who pass by. I love it like that. Another feature of this blog is taking opportunities to bear…
READ MOREEighteen days in self-isolation at Little Huia. What a gift from God to us through our friends, Jan & Murray. We rested, with such a comfy bed and a hot, wet shower. We watched, with the pandemic spreading so rapidly. We worked, with zooms starting to dictate our days and nights. We walked, with…
READ MOREMesmerizing. This clip was sent to me by a friend in Hyderabad. When I found it online, this was the word used in one of the comments. I can only agree. Mesmerizing. I’ve watched it so many times. I went for a little surf to learn a little more. The guy on the right, Shankar…
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When images like these ones went viral on the internet a year ago, my bucket-list had some serious adjustments made to it. “Some day I just have to go to this place.” It did not take long. On our return to South Asia a few weeks ago, I engineered a right hand turn at Singapore…
READ MOREIn the week before we left New Zealand, an issue grabbed the headlines. Thousands of people occupied land in a place called Ihumātao, near the Auckland airport. It is land that is precious to our indigenous Māori people. Sadly, New Zealand has a history of stealing land and dishonouring treaties and so people gathered in…
READ MORE[Added, 23/05/23: a Parihaka update—see below] I picked it up from someone else. I don’t remember who it was, but I am so grateful. It is now one of the most frequent pieces of advice that I pass on to others willing to listen. With the view that opposes your own, always paint it in…
READ MOREIn training preachers across cultures, it is often a struggle to translate the word manner. And yet the manner of the preacher is too important to overlook. One way forward is to see the sermon to be like a song, with both lyrics (what we say) and music (how we say it). Listeners decide whether…
READ MOREI don’t think I’ve ever read a book so slowly… “Well Paul, that is what happens when you stop to locate every place in Googlemaps and cross-reference every person in Wikipedia.” Yes, I know – but it was so captivating. Austria is now deep in my bucket-list and it has nothing to do with The…
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.