Featured Posts
Recent Posts
‘I told you so’. It is such an ugly phrase, isn’t it?! I told you so. Sorry. In the midst of the mess over Ross Taylor being pushed out of the captaincy and then the debacle in South Africa after Brendon McCullum took charge, I posted a piece entitled, black caps at midnight?, in which…
READ MOREIt was like driving into spring. In Toronto the trees were leafless, but as I made my way by train to Windsor (Ontario) – and then by car to Ohio and on to Kentucky – the trees and countryside came alive with a fresh and velvety green. It was beautiful. That was last month. Last…
READ MOREOn my recent flight from San Francisco to Singapore I decided to create a conversation in my mind, by watching a movie and reading a book. The movie was Exodus: Gods and Kings. With Batman (Christian Bale) as Moses, it tells the story of the Hebrew slaves gaining freedom from the Pharoah of Egypt. Even on…
READ MORE[I avoid using this blog to post sermons, messages and the like. Blogs feel like a different genre and I prefer to chat away. But on this occasion I’d like to pay tribute to my special friend, Marty Roy, who died earlier this month after a battle with cancer. The family asked me to share…
READ MORETo be known as a good listener is a great aspiration to have. It is certainly one of mine. But inevitably, in my work (as with many of you, I’m sure), I do a lot of talking. Looking back through my google calendar over recent weeks, I find things like this: teaching a module on…
READ MORE
As this was my first ever visit to China, I thought I’d collect a few photos and reflections. On Easter Sunday morning we attended one of the officially recognised churches. 1000 people, standing room only. Traditional, but not necessarily nominal or liberal. The Germans occupied the province for less than twenty years, but transformed the…
READ MORE‘The Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other’. Attributed to Karl Barth, this is the classic cliche about the need for preachers to remain connected to both the Word and the World, the Text and the Context, as they prepare and deliver sermons. Earlier this month in Amman, I heard Dr Yohanna…
READ MORE
Earlier this month I enjoyed my first trip to the Arab world. After meetings in Amman (Jordan), I travelled to Lebanon to spend a few days with my colleague and friend, Riad, at his home in the Bekaa Valley (that flat bit above the central ridge in the map below). Lebanon is a small country,…
READ MOREIt is a headline that catches the eye, isn’t it? Why women make better CEOs in the 21st century. It is Sunday morning. I am browsing The Sunday Telegraph at Heathrow. It is International Women’s Day and the paper is making a bit of a splash with an eye-catching headline. I’ve always found women preachers to be…
READ MOREBarby and I have enjoyed five weeks with Micah and Amaliya, our little grandchildren, filling our Bangalorean lives with joy. The fact that our Lovely Lys and her hubbie, Tim, came with the package deal only makes the visit that much sweeter. Tonight I say good-bye to all of them as I head to London…
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.