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Make it yellow. That is my advice. If you have just a day in this historic city with so many sights, then spend it on the Yellow Metro line. Check into the simple, central and adequate YMCA accommodation in Jai Singh Rd. Get a good sleep. Breakfast at 7am – and out the door at…
READ MOREThe world is a mess. This virus of religious extremism is spreading, with Turkey and Bangladesh being among the newer arrivals to our headlines (& let’s not forget those who never receive that focus!). Poverty. It is difficult to see how the global refugee crisis can be resolved. Inequality. The blind spot in the USA…
READ MORECNN does it. Amanpour and Anderson. Blitzer and Burnett. Cooper and Church. And that is just the ABCs – it keeps going all the way to Zakaria. The BBC does it as well, starting with Alagiah and Amroliwala. And please, please don’t get me started on Fox News… When these channels take a break in…
READ MOREIt is not every day that an entire book is read on a drive to the airport. Three realities conspired together to make it possible. The book was 73 pages. The airport was on the other side of Bangkok. I am an introvert and after eight days of lots of people, it was good to…
READ MOREI settled into my seat. Some sleep on the overnight plane meant that some sleep on the midday bus was not going to happen. So I leaned back and zoned-out before the upcoming conference captured me. But gradually three conversations, from further back in the bus, began to come into focus. I listened. In each…
READ MOREI don’t know my icons – but I am willing to learn from my friends. So when Riad finished his devotion (on living with Habakkuk amidst the Syrian crisis) with an old Coptic/Egyptian icon, I leaned forward in my chair. A painting on wood. From Egypt in the 5th century. Jesus is standing alongside Abbot Menas, the…
READ MOREIn trying hard to include everything, a point can be reached where it becomes hard to exclude anything. Put a handful of topics on the table for discussion – mission, evangelism, dialogue, salvation, conversion – and it won’t be long before many of the older liberals (in the 1980s) and the younger postmoderns (in the…
READ MOREThe Langham Logic, as it was articulated by John Stott, was too compelling for me to ignore. I first heard it expressed in 2008, as the rationale for the ministry of Langham Partnership: God wants His church to grow up; God’s church grows up through God’s word; God’s word comes, primarily, through preaching. And so…
READ MOREA gracious little conspiracy has drawn me back to the Psalms… It started with a comment in an email from a friend battling cancer. She testified to the way a line from Peterson’s The Message was strengthening her: ‘I’ve pitched my tent in the land of hope’. Isn’t that beautiful? I tracked it down. It is not in the…
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The first essay I ever wrote at theological college was on Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna (now Izmir). Do you know the story? Born in 69 AD, Polycarp is understood to have been a disciple of the Apostle John himself. It was this same John who ordained him as Bishop of Smyrna. Polycarp is famous for…
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.