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It is easy to become frustrated with the bias against Christianity in our society. The bad stuff is magnified, while the good stuff is muted. In a society that champions fairness, it often seems unfair. In a society that advocates tolerance, it easily becomes intolerance. Into this dilemma steps Glen Scrivener, with The Air We Breathe.…
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What a fun journey this has been… Cairo, a few months ago Last October, with the borders opening up, I returned to Cairo to visit our team there. On this occasion my friend and colleague in Lebanon, Riad, came across for the meetings. His presence opened the way to meet other people and ministries. One…
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We rushed home from India in that tiny window before the COVID-19 lockdown. Two years later our belongings followed us, thanks to a small army of kind people who packed everything up for us. Ever since our home has been piles and boxes—especially my study—because we were planning to move house, one with more space.…
READ MOREWhat delicious timing! I finished another book on the social history of cricket in South Asia on the same day that one of its most luminous cricketers retired from international cricket. MS Dhoni. On 2nd April 2011 (at the exact same time the institution where we were based in Bangalore – SAIACS – was having…
READ MOREWhen I am invited to speak somewhere, I find that if a topic, or approach, fills the imagination quickly, then this is usually God graciously at work in me. He plants an idea in my mind and by doing so confirms to me the rightness of saying ‘yes’. When I say ‘no’, it is often…
READ MOREIrby. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that surname before. Have you?! Maybe I move in the wrong circles… When I discovered that a ‘Miss Irby’ was an early missionary to Bosnia, it took me awhile to get the name clear in my mind. A visit to her graveside in Sarajevo helped me. What a…
READ MOREWith this blog, I don’t focus that often on personal stuff about myself. It is more about gathering ideas and resources that I don’t want to lose and filing them under a set of labels where I can find them easily. But when I do become more personal they tend to be topics that soften…
READ MOREI travel a lot and so I see a lot. Not so much touristy stuff. More the people of God in different settings. This can thrill the soul. Every trip abroad by a Jesus-follower should make a priority of visiting Jesus-followers in cultures so different from their own. But then some of best scenery sticks…
READ MORE‘That’s a bit over the top, isn’t it, Paul?’ Most ignored. Yes, it probably is. But I wanted to keep the ‘most’ going and so saying ‘least read’ didn’t fit. Plus this is more than posts that were not read much. This is the second eleven for ‘most important’. These are posts that were not…
READ MOREEvery post seems important to me at the time. Otherwise I wouldn’t write it. But trawling through all 400 to select a group that seem to be ‘most important’ now is difficult. So I’ve settled on two categories (only using posts unmentioned in earlier first elevens): (a) ‘most important’; but also (b) ‘most ignored’, which…
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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.