spirituality
They don’t make them like they used to do. It is not just that gravel and mud have given way to rubber and chips. Nor is it just that Occupational Safety & Health seems intent on ridding the world of every hint of dangerous play. What catches my eye are these playground monstrosities. They…
READ MORENew Zealanders who return from living overseas often comment on how insular we are. The first place where this is noticed is with the media, which tends to set the agenda for conversation and empathy. During these covidian times we’ve tended to be wrapped up so much in ourselves. My hunch is that the peoples…
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Last Monday was World Mother-Language Day. Al Jazeera celebrated the day on their Interactives page by collecting 25 proverbs from 25 different languages, recited by speakers of that language. If you scroll down this page, you’ll discover it. It is very cool. This comes a couple of days after I came across Hinemoa Elder’s AROHA:…
READ MOREIt took me a bit by surprise, but there has been just the whiff of exile about living back in Aotearoa New Zealand. ‘Exile’ is a rich biblical metaphor and I’ve been helped by leaning into it. It seems to capture many of my reflections, attitudes and emotions. How do you live well in…
READ MOREThe early mornings between Christmas and New Year were spent absorbed in a book: Jehu Hanciles’ Migration and the Making of Global Christianity (Eerdmans, 2021). With a Foreward written by Philip Jenkins and an opening quotation from Lamin Sanneh, Hanciles had me wandering among my pantheon before he himself had written a word — and now he…
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I love the way Ephesians opens: “in Ephesus … in Christ Jesus” (1.1). Chapters 1-3 focuses on the ‘in Christ Jesus’, while chapters 4-6 leans across to the ‘in Ephesus’. It is the double identity of the believer—and it makes for some fun sermon series, like “In Invercargill, in Christ” and “In Kyrgyzstan, In Christ”…
READ MORECovid has turned my heart towards the poor once again. Poverty is not just a material issue. It is a choice issue. The wealthy have options, by definition. They can choose to be vaccinated, or not to be — while so many among the poor just keep waiting for a vaccine, a second vaccine and…
READ MOREIf you are attentive to the news, there is a lot of pain to feel in the world today. Income Gaps. Loneliness. Housing Affordability. Health Care Availability. Unemployment. Child Poverty. Gross Domestic Product. Tax Rates. Youth Suicide. Refugees. Homelessness. Fossil Fuels. Vaccination Rates. Broadband Speed. Mathematics Literacy. It goes on and on. The data is…
READ MOREOne of the gracious privileges of my life was to be able to head off, as a 21 year old, to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS, near Chicago) to complete an MDiv degree. It shaped me, sandwiched as it was between the other profound ‘shapers’ — growing up in a culture-not-my-own (in India) and pastoring…
READ MOREAfter creating ‘lyrics for living’ to be the occasional equivalent of an archaeological dig into the world of ancient hymnody, for the second time in two months, I am reaching for a song written in 2021. What is happening to my world? Is lockdown getting to me? This time last week I was expanding 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.