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This is not an easy book to read. It is complicated because its subject matter is complicated. But as I worked my way through Anatol Lieven’s Pakistan: A Hard Country (Allen Lane: 2011), I found my understanding of Pakistan developing so much. 1. Lieven writes with both empathy and objectivity. He has lived and worked…
READ MOREAfter a week of family reunion in Ohio/Indiana and then a week of meetings in Wales with Langham Preaching staff (the first time ever that this group has come together), Barby and I headed back ‘down-under’ with a day together in San Francisco. Two things shocked me about the time in San Francisco… The first…
READ MORERegular readers of this blog will know that salt and light is of great interest to me – and you could throw in grace and truth as well. These form the start of the periodic table of missional elements. They are the carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen of mission. The vast majority of the missional…
READ MOREBarby and I are in the USA for a week celebrating her father’s 90th birthday with family members. It is just the third time in thirty years that we have gathered like this. The family’s Christian roots lie with the Mennonites… A highlight for me has been the visit to the Menno-Hof (kinda like a…
READ MOREDenver and Dayton will never again be the same for me. Yesterday – on the two hour flight from one to the other – I read (with Barby doing the same, over my shoulder!) through Charles & Joanne Hewlett’s Hurting Hope: what parents feel when their children suffer.. Here and there we shed a tear.…
READ MOREI’ve just brought up one week (to the hour) in a new (for me) unnamed country in Asia. Most of that time has been spent in the company of the unnamed J&R, D, and R – mission workers with a combined total of 120 years working in this country. A staggering figure! It reminds me…
READ MOREOver the past decade, books on missional church have hardly been known for their deep engagement with the biblical story. They’ve tended to be testimonial, inspirational, and practical – but this stuff loses its lustre after awhile. Here is a book which corrects that flow by being biblical, first and foremost, and then aspirational on…
READ MOREAs a creative communicator Rob Bell is without peer. What he does with nooma – seeing the spiritually significant in the utterly ordinary – is reminscent of CS Lewis in Mere Christianity. Superb! But I have yet to finish any of his books. Sadly, I get a bit bored as they wander too much for…
READ MOREOn Sunday afternoon I spent a few hours with Robyn of Epuni. On Thursday afternoon I spent a few hours with Paul of Stoke. With Robyn I chatted with some young adults over lunch. With Paul I went visiting the elderly in the later afternoon. Robyn was a student in my final years at Carey.…
READ MOREAny close reader of this blog will notice that I consider one of the most encouraging signs of progress in the mission of God in New Zealand today is the growing momentum within the Tertiary Students Christian Fellowship (TSCF). I delight in being on the Board and this past weekend was the highlight for me…
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.