Featured Posts
Recent Posts
As I reflect on my time as a leader, one of the great delights was to watch and listen to young adults take their first steps in service – then to pray and lean on some Spirit-given (I hope!) discernment – before taking the risk of boldly speaking some words into their life about what…
READ MOREAfter a month in Asia Major I return home with a heavy heart. Indonesia, UAE, Pakistan and Malaysia. Places where the Christian minority have it tough. Harassed. Marginalised. Shunned. Slandered. And yes, persecuted. One man with whom we work was kidnapped earlier this year… a big sadness It saddens me, even annoys me. I guess…
READ MOREWith a British Olympics around the corner, I suspect David McClasland’s Pure Gold (Lion, 2012) has been republished with the possibility of a fresh readership in mind. If so, I succumbed – and am so glad I did. It caught my eye at Auckland Airport – and it filled that eye with more than few tears.…
READ MOREFashion really is a bit of a joke. Afterall is there anything which provokes greater shrieks of laughter than poring over old photos? ‘Look at that hair’ … ‘Those glasses are terrible’. Then on it progresses to the likes of shoes and make-up and shorts… Here is my question. If these styles can cause so much mirth a…
READ MOREI wonder if the history of modern mission is like travelling in a car. It started with the pioneers. The missionaries sat in the driving seat with the steering wheel in hand and with foot to the floor. Taylor, Carey, Judson – and the like. They took control, being very directive with their leadership. The…
READ MORE[Various people have expressed interest in my DMin project, The Role of Intrigue in the Communication with Sceptics, which jumped its final hurdle earlier this week. So I have decided to post three little pieces: (a) the opening page, or abstract; (b) the final page, a postscript; (c) the story of the project, as it has…
READ MORE[This is the final page of my thesis, The Role of Intrigue in the Communication with Sceptics – a postscript where I try to wrap it all up with a little bow…] “Cicero considered that intriguing oratory could be the means by which the barbarian was transformed. The claims of this thesis are not as bold,…
READ MOREThis morning I received word that I have fulfilled all the requirements for my DMin… YIPPEE! It has been quite a story. It starts way back in 1985 when I was required, as a brand new ‘probationary’ minister with the NZ Baptists, to write an essay in my first year as a pastor. I was…
READ MOREI have been thinking deep thoughts and feeling deep felts. There is Mary (not her real name). Mary and I worked together for seven years in a previous life. I think she would say that we were good friends. She had been a missionary overseas. There were little glimpses of life being difficult for her back then and…
READ MOREAfter my grumps and glooms, I was watching the Footy Show out of Sydney (for the first time in years) with Barby last night and this segment appeared. May it bring you as many smiles and laughs as it has done for me – although that will be unlikely: http://tinyurl.com/7kmpskc Cut and paste and split…
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.