preaching
I 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 MORE[Various people have expressed interest in my DMin project, The Role of Intrigue in the Communication with Sceptics, which jumped its final hurdle earlier this week. So I have decided to post three little pieces: (a) the opening page, or abstract; (b) the final page, a postscript; (c) the story of the project, as it has…
READ MORE[This is the final page of my thesis, The Role of Intrigue in the Communication with Sceptics – a postscript where I try to wrap it all up with a little bow…] “Cicero considered that intriguing oratory could be the means by which the barbarian was transformed. The claims of this thesis are not as bold,…
READ MOREThis morning I received word that I have fulfilled all the requirements for my DMin… YIPPEE! It has been quite a story. It starts way back in 1985 when I was required, as a brand new ‘probationary’ minister with the NZ Baptists, to write an essay in my first year as a pastor. I was…
READ MOREI’m confronting my fears. Like so many preachers I have done my little series on the seven churches in Revelation (ch 2-3), but never have I worked right through the rest of the book. I could use the excuse that my time as a preaching pastor was just five years and I couldn’t cover every…
READ MOREDon’t ever tell me that the power of words has diminished. Don’t ever tell me that the age in which monologue is effective has ceased. Don’t ever tell me that words which sound nice together cannot be compelling. Don’t ever tell me that phrase-crafting and word-smithing and picture-painting is not worth the effort. Have a…
READ MOREThe greatest and hardest achievement in writing a 64,000-word thesis is that I managed to do it without using a single superlative (although, it must be said, the thesis is not an alliteration-free zone). In breaking free from such restraint I thought I might nominate the two best books I encountered in my study. Peter Leithart’s Solomon…
READ MOREAs a creative communicator Rob Bell is without peer. What he does with nooma – seeing the spiritually significant in the utterly ordinary – is reminscent of CS Lewis in Mere Christianity. Superb! But I have yet to finish any of his books. Sadly, I get a bit bored as they wander too much for…
READ MOREThere is a lot to like about this new book from Chris Wright: The Mission of God’s People (Zondervan, 2010). The writing style and the format of the book makes it so accessible to home groups, for example. The ‘sermonic atmosphere’ hovering around the chapters is suggestive to preachers looking for ideas. It is the…
READ MOREIn my work as a trainer with Langham Preaching I am trying to ensure that the medium is as accessible as the message. We want to teach simple skills that are transferable, leaving participants thinking “I want to pass this onto others” because both the content and the methodology builds their aspiration to have a…
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.