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They don’t make them like they used to do. It is not just that gravel and mud have given way to rubber and chips. Nor is it just that Occupational Safety & Health seems intent on ridding the world of every hint of dangerous play. What catches my eye are these playground monstrosities. They…
READ MORENew Zealanders who return from living overseas often comment on how insular we are. The first place where this is noticed is with the media, which tends to set the agenda for conversation and empathy. During these covidian times we’ve tended to be wrapped up so much in ourselves. My hunch is that the peoples…
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Last Monday was World Mother-Language Day. Al Jazeera celebrated the day on their Interactives page by collecting 25 proverbs from 25 different languages, recited by speakers of that language. If you scroll down this page, you’ll discover it. It is very cool. This comes a couple of days after I came across Hinemoa Elder’s AROHA:…
READ MOREIt took me a bit by surprise, but there has been just the whiff of exile about living back in Aotearoa New Zealand. ‘Exile’ is a rich biblical metaphor and I’ve been helped by leaning into it. It seems to capture many of my reflections, attitudes and emotions. How do you live well in…
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The name ‘Barby’ comes up frequently in this blog. In all likelihood, Barby and I first encountered each other in a church creche in the Himalayan foothills of India. We did a lot of schooling together, especially the high school years in boarding school, during which time we became good friends. It started in a…
READ MOREOne of my little sadnesses is that I was not able to meet John Stott after I moved across to work in the ministry which he founded, Langham Partnership. In those early years, however, he was always present on the agenda of our meetings — with a quiet, mysterious little entry: the snowy owl project.…
READ MOREThe early mornings between Christmas and New Year were spent absorbed in a book: Jehu Hanciles’ Migration and the Making of Global Christianity (Eerdmans, 2021). With a Foreward written by Philip Jenkins and an opening quotation from Lamin Sanneh, Hanciles had me wandering among my pantheon before he himself had written a word — and now he…
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I love the way Ephesians opens: “in Ephesus … in Christ Jesus” (1.1). Chapters 1-3 focuses on the ‘in Christ Jesus’, while chapters 4-6 leans across to the ‘in Ephesus’. It is the double identity of the believer—and it makes for some fun sermon series, like “In Invercargill, in Christ” and “In Kyrgyzstan, In Christ”…
READ MOREIt seems to be becoming a trend. If you don’t like an author in one area, you ditch the author in every area. Yikes. That sounds kinda silly to me. None of us would like to be treated in this way. Tim Keller is one who receives this treatment. I’ve heard people say that because…
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.