mission
Patrick Johnstone’s The Future of the Global Church is one for the ages. I’ll leave you to check out the website. Make sure you click here for the full Table of Contents and some sample pages from the book to get a quick sense of what the book covers. Here are my reasons for loving this book:…
READ MOREOf all the Timothy Keller books which I have read, Generous Justice may well be his finest and most important. Keller’s very last sentence captures his purpose with the book: ‘A life poured out in doing justice for the poor is the inevitable sign of any real, true gospel faith.’ (189). There is something ever…
READ MOREI am always on the look-out for changes happening in the world around us… With a F1 Grand Prix in India today (who would have thought it possible?!), my mind started buzzing overtime. How has the list of countries hosting F1 races changed over the years? How might this reflect the shifts in power –…
READ MOREEarlier this month I had the privilege of preaching the sermon at the John Stott Memorial Service in New Zealand. I closed my message from Jeremiah 23 by speaking of the sadness of Stott’s death – but also of a deeper sadness. The deeper sadness is that John Stott visited our country only three times…
READ MOREI cannot escape the clutches of the question. Be it Islamabad or Jakarta or Delhi – or Sydney, Wellington, Bluffton (Ohio!) or Auckland. The same issue has been filling my ears and my lips. As I’ve watched experienced missionaries in action – Robin and Jenny, John and Rosemary, Steve and Ruth – the question has…
READ MORERegular readers of this blog will know that salt and light is of great interest to me – and you could throw in grace and truth as well. These form the start of the periodic table of missional elements. They are the carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen of mission. The vast majority of the missional…
READ MOREI’ve just brought up one week (to the hour) in a new (for me) unnamed country in Asia. Most of that time has been spent in the company of the unnamed J&R, D, and R – mission workers with a combined total of 120 years working in this country. A staggering figure! It reminds me…
READ MOREOver the past decade, books on missional church have hardly been known for their deep engagement with the biblical story. They’ve tended to be testimonial, inspirational, and practical – but this stuff loses its lustre after awhile. Here is a book which corrects that flow by being biblical, first and foremost, and then aspirational on…
READ MOREOn Sunday afternoon I spent a few hours with Robyn of Epuni. On Thursday afternoon I spent a few hours with Paul of Stoke. With Robyn I chatted with some young adults over lunch. With Paul I went visiting the elderly in the later afternoon. Robyn was a student in my final years at Carey.…
READ MOREAny close reader of this blog will notice that I consider one of the most encouraging signs of progress in the mission of God in New Zealand today is the growing momentum within the Tertiary Students Christian Fellowship (TSCF). I delight in being on the Board and this past weekend was the highlight for me…
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.