leadership
It is thirty years ago this month (February 1985) since I started as a pastor – at Georgetown Baptist Church in Invercargill, on the south coast of the South Island in New Zealand. Ten years ago this church closed its doors (although another church still uses the facilities). I was overwhelmed by an uncommon grief. I…
READ MOREThe Bible says that God has planted eternity in our hearts. I’ve often wondered whether he has planted cricket in the human heart as well – but just like with eternity, it becomes a planting that is smothered and choked by other pursuits … :). I’ve always enjoyed the game of cricket. The rest of…
READ MOREI’d love to be a really good listener. In fact three longings cluster together for me. I’d love to be more humble, to be more holy – and to be a really good listener. Why? As far as I can observe, this is the combo that God delights in using and I really want to be…
READ MOREI’ve been trying to free the Holy Spirit to loosen the control which the love of sports can have on my heart. Targeting the compulsive aspect. Enjoy it, without being addicted to it. Increasingly I feel the contradiction of following sports with such obscene salaries – and thereby feeling a little bit complicit – in…
READ MOREOne is shorter; the other is longer. One is carefully scripted; the other is more spontaneous. One is nervous (and wooden); the other is nervous (and teary). One is without distracting mannerism; the other has a distracting sniffle. One hints of a riches to rags plotline (not likely!); the other has a rags to riches…
READ MOREMany years ago I tasted a guinness. In my work situation I found myself articulating a minority perspective and it was causing tension within and conflict without. I happened to have the briefest of conversations with Os Guinness while in the US and he had the simplest of advice. I have passed it onto numerous…
READ MOREIt has been around for twenty years. I’ve been aware of it, but just never read it. But recently Langham’s Executive Director, Mark Hunt, gave me a copy of Gene Edwards’ A Tale of Three Kings. It tracks with David as he relates to Saul above him and then Absalom below him, giving the reader…
READ MOREI’ve been exegeting Sachin’s retirement speech. It provides such insight into an Indian worldview, often so different from those ones associated with ‘the West’. A full text of the speech can be found here. [NB: For those who may be unaware (!), ‘Sachin’ refers to Sachin Tendulkar. His name has the fame that ‘Roger’ has with…
READ MOREOver my first two early jet-lagged mornings in our new home in Bangalore, I devoured (choosing my words carefully) Stuart Lange’s A Rising Tide: Evangelical Christianity in New Zealand (1930-1965). When I told him I was going to miss the book launch by a few days, Stuart popped around to our house with a signed…
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.