theological education
Ever noticed how in our younger student years we gravitate towards the issues and debates which surround 1 Corinthians? They really heat us up as we identify in various ways with the grocery-like list of church-problems which these pages contain… Then after life is lived for awhile, the ups and downs of ministry experienced, 2…
READ MOREIt is the first of September. Spring has sprung. The daffs are up. The lambs are out. And the magazine for the alumni of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) arrived in the mail… It is a particularly good issue. As I read it through I find myself saying to my daughter Bethany, “You know my…
READ MOREFirst you need to understand that I am an Indian lad. And as a boy in India, I could never understand why that country which fills the space between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans stood behind Pakistan, while that country which provided the shoulders on which the Arctic Circle sits stood behind India. It seemed…
READ MOREIt remains the most helpful mission concept I have encountered in the past twenty years. “WOW – that’s a big call, Paul.” But it is true … and it is so simple. Devised by the late Harold Turner (the Kiwi Newbigin), the suggestion is that for mission to be effective (under God’s gracious hand, of…
READ MOREOur 25 years with a NZ-focus in our ministry lives is drawing to a close. I am a sentimental-type and find myself doing a lot of reflecting on these years – and have even been given the opportunity to do so in the company of others. (a) The first opportunity came with the Baptist Historical…
READ MORECarey has been a building site since classes started in March. The floor above us has been gutted and refurbished. It all finishes tomorrow. I’ve been disrupted much less than others – partly because I’ve been too busy admiring the skills on display. Start with the project manager. Every day for months there is this…
READ MOREThe statement has come across my desk again today. Gee – it winds me up! “Today’s generation hears with their eyes and thinks with their emotions.” Then the argument usually goes on to speak of the need for far more visual content in our communication (because people hear with their eyes) and far more story…
READ MOREYes – it is a mouthful. [It is a play on a famous article entitled ‘the unbearable lightness of being postmodern’]. I am trying to express an alarm over something which restricts the reach of God’s mission in the world through us. What is it? It is the hold which disjunctive thinking can have over…
READ MORE[apologies – for some reason my blog went blank for a week] I’ve been in ChiangMai at a conference on global Christianity organised by the International Council of Evangelical Theological Education (ICETE). We explored the implications of the shift of the center of Christianity from the North/West to the South/East. Here are a random dozen…
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.