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Hearing Lamin Sanneh speak at a conference in 2006 became a pivotal moment in my life. This Professor of World Christianity – originally from The Gambia in West Africa, but finishing up at Yale University – was used by God to draw me into a fresh awareness and commitment to the global church which contributed to…
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 MOREIt won’t win an Oscar, but nor is it cringe Christian cinema. The Least of These is the story of the martyrdom of Graham Staines and his two boys, Philip and Timothy, and it is well worth watching. The decision to build the plot around a journalist, played convincingly by Sharman Joshi (of Bollywood’s The Three Idiots fame),…
READ MOREIn training preachers across cultures, it is often a struggle to translate the word manner. And yet the manner of the preacher is too important to overlook. One way forward is to see the sermon to be like a song, with both lyrics (what we say) and music (how we say it). Listeners decide whether…
READ MOREIt is often a passing phrase that catches the eye, isn’t it? Like when I read Tim Keller’s book, Preaching, four years ago. A little phrase squeezed its way into my imagination. It refused to move. It remained there, sparking away. Page 73: ‘pull on the thread’. This was the month to do something about it. I…
READ MOREWhile we were at meetings in Phoenix earlier this month, my friend, Tony, shared this story with me. I urged him to take the time to write it down. He did so. One thing has led to another and I asked if I could post it here, my first ever guest post! Enjoy it –…
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“Well, Well, Well. I thought you had disappeared from the blogosphere.” “Yes, I know. It’s been the longest gap between posts in 15 years. With changes in regulations, my own blog had become inaccessible to me. Rather awkward! But then I’ve been on the road (almost) since the last post. But now I’m back home…
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The generation that came after me tends to impress me more than the babyboomer one that went before me. Speaking very generally, and yet observing it repeatedly, their hearts seem to be turned towards the world more radically. For me it started when we hosted a young adults’ home group for almost a decade. Their questions. Their…
READ MOREAs March 2019 opens up, it brings to completion ten years for me in this work. It has been a “grace given me” (Romans 12.3), a gift from God that I neither expected nor deserved. It has taken me among the peoples of the world to encourage the ministries of the Word by which people…
READ MOREWhen the first taste tastes good, you come back for another taste – right?! So it has been for me with the author, Jeffrey Arthurs. His book on preaching from different biblical genre is the best entry point into that fascinating field of which I am aware. So when Preaching as Reminding (IVP, 2017) emerged,…
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.