mission
“Welcome, Dr Thomas Oden. I have just elected you to a select band of scholars who have transformed my way of looking at the world. The company you keep is an esteemed one, led by the triumvirate of Phillip Jenkins, Lamin Sanneh, and Rodney Stark. [And here I had thought you were just a pastoral theologian…
READ MORESticking with the apocalyptic theme for one more post… As various scholars like to remind us, in the Book of Revelation ‘numbers are symbols, not statistics’. So, for example, the number 4 is a symbol which represents everything, all of something. A bit like the way the four winds, or the four corners, is a…
READ MOREAs I posted earlier in the year, a project for me in 2012 has been figuring out how to preach from the Book of Revelation. I’ve had the privilege of training people in Indonesia, Pakistan, China (in my work with Langham overseas) – and also people in Dunedin, Mt Roskill and New Plymouth (back home…
READ MOREAfter a month in Asia Major I return home with a heavy heart. Indonesia, UAE, Pakistan and Malaysia. Places where the Christian minority have it tough. Harassed. Marginalised. Shunned. Slandered. And yes, persecuted. One man with whom we work was kidnapped earlier this year… a big sadness It saddens me, even annoys me. I guess…
READ MOREWith a British Olympics around the corner, I suspect David McClasland’s Pure Gold (Lion, 2012) has been republished with the possibility of a fresh readership in mind. If so, I succumbed – and am so glad I did. It caught my eye at Auckland Airport – and it filled that eye with more than few tears.…
READ MOREI wonder if the history of modern mission is like travelling in a car. It started with the pioneers. The missionaries sat in the driving seat with the steering wheel in hand and with foot to the floor. Taylor, Carey, Judson – and the like. They took control, being very directive with their leadership. The…
READ MORE[Various people have expressed interest in my DMin project, The Role of Intrigue in the Communication with Sceptics, which jumped its final hurdle earlier this week. So I have decided to post three little pieces: (a) the opening page, or abstract; (b) the final page, a postscript; (c) the story of the project, as it has…
READ MORE[This is the final page of my thesis, The Role of Intrigue in the Communication with Sceptics – a postscript where I try to wrap it all up with a little bow…] “Cicero considered that intriguing oratory could be the means by which the barbarian was transformed. The claims of this thesis are not as bold,…
READ MOREThis morning I received word that I have fulfilled all the requirements for my DMin… YIPPEE! It has been quite a story. It starts way back in 1985 when I was required, as a brand new ‘probationary’ minister with the NZ Baptists, to write an essay in my first year as a pastor. I was…
READ MOREI have been thinking deep thoughts and feeling deep felts. There is Mary (not her real name). Mary and I worked together for seven years in a previous life. I think she would say that we were good friends. She had been a missionary overseas. There were little glimpses of life being difficult for her back then and…
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.