mission
When things get tough I try to look in two directions. One is horizontal. Maybe chronological is a better word. I bring to mind the way God works with a 24 hour day and how dawn follows midnight. Always. Without Fail. Then in many countries, far from the equator, He works with a 4 season…
READ MORETe Manihera and Kereopa. It is Keith Newman (in Bible and Treaty) who introduced me to these two Christian Māori men, martyred near Tokaanu (situated ‘at 6 o’clock’, on the southern edge of Lake Taupo) in 1847. When our family took a holiday earlier this month in nearby Kuratau (‘at 7 o’clock’ on the lake), I became…
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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 MOREIt 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 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…
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At our age, an overnight flight leads to an afternoon nap. Once that was over, Barby and I wandered out onto the streets of Yangon. No map to follow. Nowhere to go, in particular. From across the road we stumbled across this building. Just another church in all its faded glory? With more pigeons outside…
READ MOREIt has been hard living so far from New Zealand during the two hundredth year celebrations of the arrival of the gospel – on Christmas Day, 1814. I’ve been following all the facebook chatter closely. I’ve loved that space at Oihi Bay for a number of years, even taking a horde of friends on a…
READ MOREAll I want for Christmas is my two front teeth … to sit in a pew stuffed with my kids, giving O Holy Night a real rip together. But it ain’t gonna happen this year. The divas line up to sing this song, don’t they? Go to youtube. They are all there. Mariah. Whitney. Celine.…
READ MOREWith the power China has – and the global attention it receives – maybe it is time to label Europe the ‘Far West’ and the USA the ‘Far East’…Our labels become dated so quickly, don’t they? East and West? Developed and Developing? First World and Third World? Not many are helpful – and too many…
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.