spirituality
Winter. Spring. Summer. Autumn. I do enjoy the beauty in each season. Whether it be these familiar four, or tropical twosomes like Wet and Dry, Hot and Less-Hot — there is always beauty to be discerned in each season. Yes, it is even true with those Hot and the Dry climates. Over the years I’ve…
READ MORELast week I had the privilege of opening the Word of God at a pastors’ conference (link here). A room with an (early morning) view — MICamp, Waitetoko, Lake Taupō With the sad and shameful stories that have grabbed headlines and hurt people, I tried to address the topic of character-driven leadership. Learning to lead…
READ MOREIt is 500 days (exactly) since we left Bangalore, with the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic. What a week that was, back in March 2020. After five months without any international travel for Langham (my longest period out of the skies), I had five complex trips planned in the following three months — and I…
READ MOREThe hijack of the word ‘evangelical’ by a bunch of right-wing political fundamentalists, largely in the USA, is one of the sadnesses of our times. That evangelicals, authentic evangelicals, could be identified with a person with a character and legacy like Donald Trump is scarcely imaginable. And yes, I hear them say, all with one…
READ MOREMy first brush with Ernest Shackleton did not end happily. I was on one of those long, lonely trips — and feeling so inadequate as a leader. With me to read, I had Shackleton’s Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer. But I felt battered by it. It made things worse. I don’t do heroic…
READ MORE‘On June 5, 2001, Eugene scratched the final sentence…’ (242). On this very day, twenty years ago, Peterson’s ten year project, The Message, was completed. So I thought I’d engage with the recent authorized biography of Peterson — Winn Collier’s A Burning in My Bones — on this day. I love The Message. Although I may never…
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This week we received the news that Marva Dawn had died. I felt so sad. Three memories quickly come into focus. the pig route One was driving along the Pig Route, a back road from Queenstown to Dunedin, with Marva and Myron. It was late on a Saturday afternoon and the light was fading. Marva…
READ MOREFifteen years ago, on one summery afternoon in the staff room at Carey Baptist College, Mike Crudge suggested to me that I should start writing a blog. And so it started … with a post entitled, Opening Our Own Document (15 February 2006). And 700 posts later, I guess that is exactly what I’ve continued…
READ MOREIn January each year two lists are published. 1. List One is the Open Doors’ World Watch List (WWL), identifying the countries where it is ‘most dangerous to follow Jesus’. Persecution is ‘any hostility experienced as a result of one’s identification with Christ’. Although people will quibble, the methodology looks pretty sophisticated, with a simple summary here. Every year…
READ MORE2021 is a big year. It is 100 years since Barby’s father was born and 10 years since my father died—but also 100 years since John Stott was born and 10 years since John Stott died. These three have been the most influential men in my life. Here I’d like to focus on John Stott…
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.