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When it is time to leave these shores, the newspapers in India are something I will miss. I love them. We get two every day: The Hindu and The Times of India. They provide the best newspaper-reading experience I’ve had anywhere, just shading the UK into second place. Why? First, a general response. They respect my…
READ MOREWith Johnson at Lake Loktak. It is remote. It is different. It is beautiful. Northeast India is a collection of eight states on the other side of Bangladesh, with a number of them sharing a border with Myanmar. The purpose of the journey was to visit people, especially the ‘home-place’ of Johnson Raih, my colleague…
READ MOREIt is always good to have a growing edge. When I first ventured into the world of preaching, the passion was to be bible-based. It still is the passion. To work in such a way that the content and purpose of the text becomes the content and purpose of the sermon. That’s it. But as…
READ MOREEvery city in India seems to have an ‘MG Road’ – a Mahatma Gandhi Road. When I first sighted Bengaluru’s edition of an MG Road, I was drawn irresistibly to a monstrosity perched in the air above it: the Metro Station – or, more accurately the Namma (“our”) Metro Station. My pulse raced a little…
READ MOREEvery time I go on Facebook there seems to be yet another Tom, Dick, Harry or Jane contributing their ‘All Time XI’. How come nobody ever asks me?! Well, with it being 553 days since my last cricket-related post (maybe that is called ‘growing in holiness’) and with far, far too much work to do…
READ MOREA ‘new history of the world’ is what the subtitle asserts. The title? The Silk Roads. Peter Frankopan’s point is intentionally plural. There were roads, not a single road. Along these roads, eastwards and westwards, flowed ideas and products. Those that controlled these roads, controlled history. It has always been this way. The Table of Contents is…
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When we planned a week’s holiday on Sri Lanka’s southern coast, my mind was focused on one thing. Not the beaches. Not the surf. Not the tea. Not the parks. Not the yoga. Not the Buddha statues. Not the snorkeling. Not the coral. Just one thing. The tsunami. Upwards of 40,000 Sri Lankans lost their…
READ MOREAugust has become a big month. Four generations are involved. My granddaughter’s birthday is followed my wife’s birthday which is followed by my son’s birthday … and in the middle of all this comes my father’s deathday – tomorrow, actually. It has been six years. I still miss him. Dad in his New Delhi (I…
READ MOREWhile it needs a bit of a haircut, it still retains its charm. This is often the case with botanical gardens established during the colonial era. Aburi, north of Accra (Ghana), is no exception. Among the many exotic highlights, two trees caught my eye. The first is ‘the strangler tree’. A tiny parasite settles into…
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There is a post that I’ve wanted to write for years. C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity is remarkable for many reasons, but the one I’ve wanted to explore is its illustrations. Dozens and dozens of them. Simple. Obvious. Clear. Mostly finding the spiritually significant in the utterly everyday which is the hallmark of effective illustrating. Laying the familiar…
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.