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It seems to be the season for a binge on NZ history, particularly Maori history. After the exhilaration of Fairness & Freedom and then Keith Newman’s eye-opening Bible & Treaty – I thought I’d read Newman’s earlier book, Ratana: the prophet. This is the story of a Maori leader who experienced an extraordinary encounter with God which led, initially,…
READ MOREThe history of Aotearoa-New Zealand can be retold in a minor key. Every couple of decades a disaster seems to strike which pours a deep sadness into a generation of Kiwis and adds to our self-understanding as a nation. The Pike River mine disaster prompted me to post on this theme a couple of years ago.…
READ MOREFor twenty years in a college setting, I used the metaphor of the body to describe the movement from text to (expository) sermon. It works OK. Head. Skeleton. Flesh. Ligaments. Wings… Ramesh Richard and Richard Bewes are two people who helped me work on the body. But over time I have become dissatisfied with the body. During…
READ MOREFinding ways to engage meaningfully with the Bible in the midst of traversing time zones is one of life’s challenges. In 2012 I decided to focus on one biblical book for the entire year: Revelation. I blogged about the experience here and here. It was so worthwhile I’ve decided to do it all again in 2013.…
READ MORE[Today is the annual Halbergs Award ceremony when excellence in NZ sport is acknowledged. In an Olympic year, things tend to be more straightforward – but overall, the decisions are made in a very subjective manner. I tried to address this in a post a couple of years ago – the Halberg Knot}. But on…
READ MOREI have been buzzing all summer over the discovery that the man (Sir James Stephen) who shaped the policy for New Zealand leading into the Treaty of Waitangi – on this very day, 173 years ago – was Wilberforce’s (step) nephew and was himself a child of the Clapham Sect. Then I discover (Keith Newman,…
READ MOREAs I travel overseas training preachers, there is a Maori word that so often slips from my lips. Before I know it, out it comes – and then I have to explain what I mean. That is when things get complicated. I stumble away and invariably the conversation shifts to another topic, as I am…
READ MOREI have a soft spot for Sri Lanka. While I am unsure of the exact source of this softness, there are many tributaries which have contributed to its flow. God’s call usually works like the dawning of the day, rather than the lightning strike. It takes time. However for me, the Sri Lankan tsunami was…
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New Zealand and the USA both have their cultural oddities. With organised sport for school children in NZ there is anaward each weekend that is called the ‘player of the day’. Seldom is it the best performance of the day which determines the recipient of the award; rather it is more about whose turn it…
READ MOREThe welcome I received at Yangon Airport earlier this week forced my fingers with this post. There I was in this massive queue (2500 arrivals each day now). I finally arrive at the immigration desk and face the official. He adjusts the camera with a smile. I catch myself just in time. Breaking into Hindi…
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.