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Someone, somewhere recommended this book to me. Whoever you are, wherever you are — thank-you! Not only did Alan Kreider’s The Patient Ferment of the Early Church push a few buttons for me, it polished them — four of them, in particular. 1. Patience One of the first impressions for me in returning to New Zealand…
READ MOREIn January each year two lists are published. 1. List One is the Open Doors’ World Watch List (WWL), identifying the countries where it is ‘most dangerous to follow Jesus’. Persecution is ‘any hostility experienced as a result of one’s identification with Christ’. Although people will quibble, the methodology looks pretty sophisticated, with a simple summary here. Every year…
READ MOREIt all started as I was reading Alan Kreider’s The Patient Ferment of the Early Church. On page 92, he quotes Gerhard Lohfink making what seemed to me, on a first reading, to be a most extraordinary claim: “(Is 2:2-4; Micah 4.1-4) is the prophetic passage the early Christian writers cited more often than any…
READ MORE2021 is a big year. It is 100 years since Barby’s father was born and 10 years since my father died—but also 100 years since John Stott was born and 10 years since John Stott died. These three have been the most influential men in my life. Here I’d like to focus on John Stott…
READ MOREIt is great to be in the garden again. Whether it be horticultural, or human, I love watching growth. It is pretty much my favourite thing to do. I delight in nurturing plants, but also people, to completeness, to maturity, to fruitfulness and to all they are designed to be. The principles and the rhythms…
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“What do you bring back with you from the global church?” This was a question asked of me six months ago. I’ve been thinking about the answers ever since. What follows is a personal and a general response. I am not trying to defend a thesis, nor am I trying to gather all the exceptions. This is simply how…
READ MOREI’ve always loved my Uncle Jack. While, inadvertently, the world knew him as the one who invented the name ‘kiwifruit’ (NB: the fruit is called ‘kiwifruit’, not kiwi, because the ‘kiwi’ is a seriously unappetizing, inedible bird!), I knew him in a far more personal way. When I entered university, Uncle Jack gave me a…
READ MOREI love a good political cartoon. The New Testament scholar (at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, where John Stott studied), C. F. D. Moule, once observed that within its original audience, the parable of Jesus had numerous features in common with today’s political cartoon. That was the little spark that helped ignite my interest in the parables,…
READ MOREWith this hymn, it was love at first sound. I’ve never stopped loving it. I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Come unto me and rest; Lay down, O weary one, lay down Your head upon my breast.” I came to Jesus as I was, So weary, worn, and sad; I found in him a…
READ MOREOur North Island road trip followed on immediately from the South Island one. In total, Barby and I shared about our life in India and work with Langham Preaching in 27 different Open Homes, travelling 6565kms over 35 days and sleeping in 23 different beds. We took a short break (to participate in Langham’s annual…
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.