worship
Over the past few months Barby and I have had the privilege of spending time in countries that were new to us: Thailand, Denmark, and Morocco. Each time – months in advance of the trip – we would get hold of the Lonely Planet book and pore over its pages as we planned what we…
READ MOREWith the surge and surgical strike of these previous posts there is something else on my mind. I continue to be alarmed at how often I hear people having a ‘faith-crisis’ or moving into a ‘post’ space of some kind where the faith-stuff they once held close no longer holds much significance for them. It…
READ MOREIn my lifetime I have never experienced a period of time when there has been such a convergence of unspeakable pain among the peoples of the world. Here in NZ – just as we were negotiating our way through the Mangatepopo flash flood tragedy, there came word from Austria of a man who reminded us…
READ MOREI used to listen to my grandmother pray these prayers. In fact somehow I’ve managed to score her copy of this prayer book. John Baillie, A Diary of Private Prayer (London: Oxford University Press, 1936). First published in 1936, it had gone through 23 reprintings by 1960! It contains Morning and Evening prayers for each…
READ MOREA 2005 song from Chris Martin (Coldplay) contains these lyrics: My song is love Love to the loveless shown And it goes up You don’t have to be alone … My song is love, unknown But I’m on fire for you, clearly… You’re the target I’m aiming at And I’m nothing on my own Got…
READ MORERecently I visited the Blue Penguin Colony in Oamaru. Having been ushered through the Visitor Centre 50 of us gathered in a little grandstand to wait and to watch – and to listen to an expert tell us about the blue penguin. She knew her stuff! She described what the blue penguin looked like and…
READ MOREI rise from the malaise that has engulfed me after NZ’s dismal final week at the cricket World Cup to offer just one more ‘first eleven’.One of the more complicated roles in the church today is ‘leading worship’. It is tough! I have a lot of empathy for worship-leaders … In fact I have a…
READ MOREHe is arguably the leading historian in the evangelical world today. And he has been in Auckland for a few days. David Bebbington from the UK. Yeah – I know that sounds a bit like Daniel Bedingfield, but I assure you that this guy is very different. Last night he spoke at the annual dinner…
READ MOREI’ve just completed an essay for my DMin in which I explored the spirituality that comes to us ‘off the screen’ – from what we sing in church. I took a pretty representative Baptist church in NZ and worked through its playlist of songs [and threw in the playlist from the Billy Graham Crusades (1959…
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.