worship
Mesmerizing. This clip was sent to me by a friend in Hyderabad. When I found it online, this was the word used in one of the comments. I can only agree. Mesmerizing. I’ve watched it so many times. I went for a little surf to learn a little more. The guy on the right, Shankar…
READ MOREI haven’t been this excited about a birthday since I was a child. Today I turn 60 years of age. “What?! How can that be exciting?!” Good question. I’ve been trying to answer it. Part of it might be something I see in myself, as I relax into a fresh freedom, with less striving. Part…
READ MOREIt is not often that I have a Sunday in Auckland. But when I do, there is one thing I love to do: have a date with my mother. 7pm on Sundays. Songs of Praise, out of the UK. Together we delight in the mingling of story with song, as we both sit there with…
READ MOREI’ve been thinking a lot about flags and have come to some conclusions. In a church worship setting, the display of a solitary flag ‘up the front’ invites and condones idolatry. If God’s heart is for the nations of the world – and it is – and if his mission is to reach all of…
READ MOREI should have anticipated the resonance that would happen. An old church building. In the mountains. In India. A concrete floor. Curved wooden window frames. Little chrysanthemum flowers in pots near the pulpit. Those woven plastic strips on the chairs. An auditorium filled with young people. A balcony. It just goes on and on… It…
READ MOREHe just wandered into my office to ask me how I was. Within minutes the names Chopin and Rachmaninoff filled our conversation and I was rediscovering Dvorak’s New World Symphony at his behest. This octogenarian Swiss New Testament scholar knows his music… A few nights later we were with Dieter and Elizabeth for dinner. They…
READ MOREAmos. First Peter. Two of my favourite biblical books through which to preach. Doing so, however, creates tension inside me. Amos is a sustained attack by God, through his prophet, on the presence of injustice among the nations of the world – and especially within His people, Israel. It is unrelenting. It is blistering. God…
READ MOREShe may live in LA. She may work with Hillsong Australia, but she is most definitely a Kiwi Brethren lass from the Hutt Valley. Her father was an All Black rugby player, for goodness sake. What better pedigree could there be?! I remember speaking at a conference where I was responsible for the adults in…
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This is my final day of some consultancy work in Hyderabad with leaders at Ashirwad (Seva Bharat) – which means, literally, ‘Blessing (Serve India)’. What a place! As I enter the main gates, I am drawn into Genesis One: I walk a little further down to the left and find myself arrested by Genesis Three:…
READ MOREA verandah with a view. A lake in the foreground. A mountain in the background. It was perfect. For six consecutive mornings, I rose early at Lake Toba, opened my Bible and my books – and waited for the dawn to come. The transition from darkness to light is often used as a picture of…
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.