spirituality
I’ve been exegeting Sachin’s retirement speech. It provides such insight into an Indian worldview, often so different from those ones associated with ‘the West’. A full text of the speech can be found here. [NB: For those who may be unaware (!), ‘Sachin’ refers to Sachin Tendulkar. His name has the fame that ‘Roger’ has with…
READ MORE29 November 1979 I’ve written about this date before. It is a huge date in my life. The morning after the Erebus disaster and I found myself at a shocked Auckland airport ready to fly to the USA. At 20 years of age I was heading to the USA both to attend Urbana ’79 (where I was…
READ MOREIt all started in the seventies. The 90s helped teach me how to worship. Worship is more than singing, but it is not less. In the seventies I learned to love to sing. A call to worship here: O come let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For…
READ MOREWhen I was little we lived at 707 New North Rd (Auckland). When I was 3 we moved to India (Chandigarh, Herbertpur…). When I was 7 we moved to 707 New North Rd (Auckland). When I was 8 we moved to India (Landour, Old Delhi …). When I was 12 we moved to 707 New…
READ MORETaking a road trip through New Zealand, seeing the beauty in both sights and friends, reminds me of the many things I will miss when we leave this country (as we expect to do in a couple of months). However one thing will not be missed. Being casual. It is not difficult to trace its…
READ MOREWhen we had a little book written on my father’s life, we called it Surprised by Obedience. That title seemed to catch the twists and turns of his life and the way God kept calling him away from areas of proven skill and gifting. [NB: I’ve posted some tributes to my Dad here and here and here].…
READ MORE‘Don’t focus on digging the garden of scripture for them. Give them the tools that can keep them digging the garden for themselves for the rest of their lives.’ This would be one of the first pieces of advice I’d give to theological educators today. Partly because it is what I appreciated so much in…
READ MOREIt has been awhile since a movie has grabbed my theological imagination quite like Ruby Sparks. A sleepy midnight viewing on an airplane was quickly followed by a visit to United Video and a more engaged viewing on terra firma. One synopsis of the movie goes like this: “Calvin is a genius novelist who begins…
READ MOREIt is hard not to like Henri Nouwen, particularly as he expresses himself in words. My favourite books are In the Name of Jesus (which is compulsory reading with anyone I mentor) and The Return of the Prodigal Son with his exquisite exegesis of Rembrandt’s painting of the most famous of parables. So imagine my delight when my…
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.