worship
Amateur sociologists and historians (like me) tend to be aware of two contrasting realities, spread two millennia apart. In the Western world of the twenty-first century, study after study demonstrates that it is difficult to distinguish the behaviour of a Christian from the behaviour of one who is not a Christian. It is not easy…
READ MORE“Imagine the biblical writer sitting in the front row as you preach your sermon from their text. Which way is the head nodding? How would you describe the look on the face?” This is such a useful approach to take in the training of preachers. It always has an impact. A few years ago I…
READ MOREFrom my childhood these words of Jesus remain with me. They come from the very first chapter of his ministry. The words of the older translations still roll easily off the tongue. “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” And yet last week, on the lips of my Nigerian colleague (Femi)…
READ MOREIt had been a long trip. Two overnight flights, including one in United’s impossible economy class. I did arrive, finally, at Bogota’s flash airport at 5am, to be greeted by my friend and colleague, Jorge. It was a quick trip to his home – and a bed – only to be greeted by this confronting…
READ MORE
This book shifted me. Maybe I should say that in theory, it is shifting me – but whether anything happens in practice, time will tell. Lets start with a few appetizers: “We are oriented by our longings, directed by our desires” (11). “You are what you love because you live toward what you want” (13). “Our…
READ MOREThe other day I sat behind an older man clutching his ear with his hand during the singing. I picked what was going on. The music was too loud, but he desperately wanted to remain among the worshipping people of God. He wasn’t making a fuss, and clutching his ear seemed to be his best…
READ MOREThis morning it was off to offer a prayer of blessing for the house of some close friends that is taking shape. On the rural fringe of Bangalore. I loved it. As a boy, in both rural and urban settings in North India, I enjoyed being absorbed into scenes just like this one. The memories…
READ MOREIt is early Sunday morning, my preferred time to write a blog. For me this task is in every sense a sabbatical activity, recreative and restorative. This morning I am feeling overwhelmed by nostalgia. Later today I will be back preaching from Ecclesiastes… In many ways Ecclesiastes is where it all started. It is the…
READ MOREIn these troubled times, my mind and heart have travelled, yet again, to a hymn. It comes from my bulging ‘hymns I’ve sung only when I have chosen them’ file. The most recent selection of this hymn was almost 30 years ago – and even then I probably chose it only 2-3 times. ‘This post…
READ MORE
It is not quite ‘In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord’, but still, in the year that Rush Hour was released, I played with chairs. I was with some Baptist youth pastors on the Kapiti Coast in New Zealand. After the training day was over, we headed for the movies. 1998.…
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.