politics
It is a consistent theme. In the churches, mission organisations, and employers with whom I have been associated over the past twenty years, (almost) without exception they have tackled the same issue: identifying what good governance looks like and trying to make the changes to embrace it. I am at San Francisco airport on my…
READ MOREI thought Michelle Obama’s speech yesterday was sensational. The words, the imagery, the warmth, the emotion – and the conviction. It was compelling. But I am not dumb. I know what’s going on. The implicit barbs, dozens of them, aimed at Romney and his friends. The explicit, even desperate, attempt to have the American people…
READ MOREOn a series of recent flights, I enjoyed the opportunity to engage with DA Carson’s latest book, The Intolerance of Tolerance. His central premise is that the word ‘tolerance’ has become slippery and changed its meaning over time. There is an old tolerance (which is good) and a new tolerance (which is bad). Carson circles around this distinction,…
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 MOREIt is one of the books of the decade for me (NB: pages 273-275 provide an excellent summary of the argument): James Davison Hunter’s To Change the World (Oxford University Press, 2010). In trying to distill its influence, three affirmations come to mind. 1. Our understanding of culture and change can be so wrong Using words like ‘flawed’…
READ MORELast night was a night to remember. Our son Stephen organised a knowledge-acquiring, fund-raising event focused on the DR of Congo. He has been in and out of the homes of about seven Congolese families in Auckland over recent months and they were well-represented at the event. Then there were church friends, members of the…
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 MOREThe Rugby World Cup Final and now the National Election. Two sporting occasions in one month. I love it. I can’t wait to pull my chair a little closer to the screen on Saturday and watch the contest unravel. Some things have not surprised me. The surge in support for the Greens. The humbling of John Key…
READ MOREI don’t tend to buy books according to topic – but by author. And then each year I try to expand my list of favourite authors. 2011 has been the year of Craig Bartholomew. Earlier this year I reviewed his remarkable commentary on Ecclesiastes. On a recent trip to Cambodia I read Living at the…
READ MOREThis is not an easy book to read. It is complicated because its subject matter is complicated. But as I worked my way through Anatol Lieven’s Pakistan: A Hard Country (Allen Lane: 2011), I found my understanding of Pakistan developing so much. 1. Lieven writes with both empathy and objectivity. He has lived and worked…
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.