mission
Last week I sat in a cathedral thinking about mission… It was Holy Trinity Cathedral, in Auckland. We were there for the ordination into the priesthood of a close friend. It is a newer building, but still a cavernous space, providing a place where people gather. Down the sides are all these glass doors, enabling…
READ MORECovid has turned my heart towards the poor once again. Poverty is not just a material issue. It is a choice issue. The wealthy have options, by definition. They can choose to be vaccinated, or not to be — while so many among the poor just keep waiting for a vaccine, a second vaccine and…
READ MOREI hear the word often enough, but I haven’t known what it means. To this uncertainty is added confusion because the only time I’ve used the word in the past, it is has been as a theological description — rather than a cultural one. So when Rodney Clapp’s Naming Neoliberalism: Exposing the Spirit of the…
READ MORE
I often dream of travelling back in time. I love history and think it would be so cool to pop in, here and there. However, right now, sitting in Auckland’s strictest lockdown yet, it is memories, not dreams, that fill my imagination. I’ve been reflecting on the great privilege of my working life — spending…
READ MOREThe hijack of the word ‘evangelical’ by a bunch of right-wing political fundamentalists, largely in the USA, is one of the sadnesses of our times. That evangelicals, authentic evangelicals, could be identified with a person with a character and legacy like Donald Trump is scarcely imaginable. And yes, I hear them say, all with one…
READ MOREBack in February, at the end of a post in which I engaged with Alan Kreider’s The Patient Ferment of the Early Church (link) I invited people — anyone, anywhere — into a conversation. With our life in the mission of God as the context, I wanted to consider whether it is enough to target being relevant,…
READ MOREIf you are up for it, I’d like to take you on a journey. A VacancySoon after I started teaching preaching (in 1989), I became fascinated by a space — a vacant space. James Engel created The Engel Scale in 1975. In it he attempted to describe ‘the spiritual decision process’, tracking how people moved…
READ MOREAt any point in time I have this little stack of books I want to read. Usually there is a certain (sequential) order in mind, but when I am in peak form with my reading, books tend to be assigned to different chairs in the house … and I read them all at the same…
READ MOREFifteen years ago, on one summery afternoon in the staff room at Carey Baptist College, Mike Crudge suggested to me that I should start writing a blog. And so it started … with a post entitled, Opening Our Own Document (15 February 2006). And 700 posts later, I guess that is exactly what I’ve continued…
READ MORESomeone, somewhere recommended this book to me. Whoever you are, wherever you are — thank-you! Not only did Alan Kreider’s The Patient Ferment of the Early Church push a few buttons for me, it polished them — four of them, in particular. 1. Patience One of the first impressions for me in returning to New Zealand…
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.