mission
While I was overseas I was stunned to hear more than one person tell me that when it comes to missionaries raising their financial support, New Zealand is gaining a reputation for being very slow – the slowest of them all. I wonder if this is true. Are we becoming stingy? Are we growing less…
READ MOREI am on my way home from ten days in this region speaking at the annual conference of a ‘company’ with its ‘workers’ gathered together from throughout the area. Sorry – I have to be a bit vague for security reasons. Here are a few observations… a churchWhile the church is not a building one…
READ MOREThe essence of mission is being salt and light at the same time. Salt is about mixing in and participating in society. Light is about standing apart and being distinctive from the flow of society. Participating without being distinctive is not very missional. But neither is standing apart without mixing in… Here in New Zealand…
READ MOREI am aware of so many people heading off on mission trips this summer. I could name half a dozen such (ad)ventures in the making… I have a question. How do these mission trips becoming something more than mere Christian tourism? For me it is all about stones and sponges… As we throw ourselves into…
READ MOREIn response to a posting on 18 April (‘the doors’), Stephen Garner commented on some research that points to ‘moralistic therapeutic deism’ (MTD) being the religion of younger Christian people today. I’ve been a bit distracted by this research all year! In a nutshell – this is what is meant by MTD: “Good, kind, nice…
READ MOREThe comment which provoked the most response while teaching in Zambia was when we came to the ‘submission’ passages in 1 Peter 2:11-3:7 and I suggested that we needed to avoid two errors: (a) the ‘cut and paste’ errorThis occurs when we ‘cut’ these verses out of the context of this letter and the occasion…
READ MOREA little transit time in Bangkok – why not post a blog? My son (Martin) and I are returning from 18 days in Africa where I participated in the Pastors Book Project – the brainchild of visionary SIM-er Jim Mason. 24 conferences over 4months in 19 locations distributing a quality library of 65 books (and…
READ MOREWhen the energy drains out of a seminar I am leading, I know just where the solution lies. I put three words on the whiteboard and ask people to put them in the right order: “belonging”, “believing”, “behaving”. One of the great discussion-starters… It is a bit unfair, but you could make a case that…
READ MOREI am a missionary-kid (MK). I am forever grateful to my parents for growing me up in India. Lots of reasons – but most important of all it helped me become an internationalist. With my white face and blond hair being such a cultural oddity, I grew up affirming the languages and cultures of peoples…
READ MORE[apologies – for some reason my blog went blank for a week] I’ve been in ChiangMai at a conference on global Christianity organised by the International Council of Evangelical Theological Education (ICETE). We explored the implications of the shift of the center of Christianity from the North/West to the South/East. Here are a random dozen…
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.