pluralism
I often receive disbelieving looks from friends in Britain, Australia and the USA when I claim that New Zealand is more secular, more anti-Christian, than any of their countries. So conscious are they of the challenge which they face that they find it difficult to believe that somewhere else could be harder. But maybe this…
READ MOREHere in New Zealand we have been watching in disbelief as a case makes its way through the courts. Having inflicted 216 stab wounds in killing his student/girlfriend, a young university lecturer occupied the witness stand for days as he defended his actions in an effort to gain a ‘manslaughter’ conviction, rather than a ‘murder’…
READ MOREThe other night we attended the parent:teacher evening for our youngest child, Joseph (aged 14 – year 10). With five children we’ve been to a few of these events over the years… A Unit of learning in his Social Studies class is the Crusades. Really?! In two thousands years of history this is the story…
READ MOREHere are ten reasons why you should have a garage sale in order to raise money to buy this book for every Christian young adult you know. Timothy Keller, The Reason for God; Belief in an Age of Skepticism (Dutton, 2008). Keller is pastor of a church in Manhattan. One over-indulgent (!) Keller fan has…
READ MOREI grew up with Robin Hood. My Dad is a big fan of the 1938 movie version starring Errol Flynn. We watched it as kids. The storyline has grafted into my heritage. Then there was the 1991 version with Kevin Costner as Robin Hood. And now … on Monday nights the phone gets ignored and…
READ MOREThere was a moment in Blood Diamond when I almost stood up and screamed “No!” at the screen. It crossed my mind to do so at the time. It really did. I was ticked off… At various times in the movie people shrug their shoulders at the mess they see around them and simply say…
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 MOREChatting to a university student the other day. Enrolled in a history course on Religious Conflict. On the first day the lecturers stated that their essays must come from a ‘neutral’ perspective, by which was meant a pluralist perspective – that perspective which affirms that no single religion has a privileged access to truth. All…
READ MOREI’d love to see every devotee of the 40 Days of Purpose resource move on to a 40 Days of Pluralism resource (which does not yet exist, as far as I know!). This is the P-word where the biggest challenge lies for followers of Jesus today. Pluralism considers that there are multiple roads up the…
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.