spirituality
Relay races often make for high drama. Have a watch of this one from 2015. Listen carefully to the commentary alongside as well. Did you catch it? That calamitous changeover. It can be precarious. The relay is such a striking picture of leadership. And it has some biblical precedent too. There is an individual-relay which…
READ MOREBeing relevant is over-rated. Settle down. I’m not saying it is unimportant, just that it is over-rated. To pursue it with such fervour and make it so important for so long, as has been the case in my home country of New Zealand, has been a mistake. For all sorts of reasons. As I have written…
READ MOREThe world is a mess. This virus of religious extremism is spreading, with Turkey and Bangladesh being among the newer arrivals to our headlines (& let’s not forget those who never receive that focus!). Poverty. It is difficult to see how the global refugee crisis can be resolved. Inequality. The blind spot in the USA…
READ MORECNN does it. Amanpour and Anderson. Blitzer and Burnett. Cooper and Church. And that is just the ABCs – it keeps going all the way to Zakaria. The BBC does it as well, starting with Alagiah and Amroliwala. And please, please don’t get me started on Fox News… When these channels take a break in…
READ MOREI don’t know my icons – but I am willing to learn from my friends. So when Riad finished his devotion (on living with Habakkuk amidst the Syrian crisis) with an old Coptic/Egyptian icon, I leaned forward in my chair. A painting on wood. From Egypt in the 5th century. Jesus is standing alongside Abbot Menas, the…
READ MOREA gracious little conspiracy has drawn me back to the Psalms… It started with a comment in an email from a friend battling cancer. She testified to the way a line from Peterson’s The Message was strengthening her: ‘I’ve pitched my tent in the land of hope’. Isn’t that beautiful? I tracked it down. It is not in the…
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The first essay I ever wrote at theological college was on Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna (now Izmir). Do you know the story? Born in 69 AD, Polycarp is understood to have been a disciple of the Apostle John himself. It was this same John who ordained him as Bishop of Smyrna. Polycarp is famous for…
READ MORE“It wouldn’t take much to draw me back into being a pastor again”.As a student, I heard Dr DA Carson make this comment. I’ve heard him say it a few more times in the subsequent decades. It impacts me. Still does. Why would an academic of this quality make such a statement? I daren’t speak…
READ MORE‘An emphasis in the teacher easily becomes an extreme in the student.’ This dictum comes to mind with the Reformed movement. While it is enjoying a global resurgence, there are a lot of ‘students’ running around out there, narrowing it all down to election and predestination with their ‘full of truth, empty of grace’ attitude.…
READ MOREI travel a lot in my work. On those occasions when there is time to be a tourist for a day here and there, usually when Barby is with me, an odd pattern has developed. I find that books like Lonely Planet are more meaningful after I have visited a place, rather than before the visit. I don’t…
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.