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I’m never too sure whether being in transit at an airport constitutes a visit to a country? What do you think? I guess Tom Hanks of Terminal (2004) fame might have an opinion on the matter… On one occasion I had a transit that settled a key transition in my life. It was on a…
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Many years ago my mother gave me a picture for my birthday. It is a sketch of that quintessential English scene—a towering medieval cathedral overlooking a tree-ringed cricket field. As she gave it to me, she announced, “Your two loves”. I could tell she was very pleased with herself! Church. Cricket. It’s true. They are…
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As you can see, I am blogging again, after a four month break—but now using a new platform, with a fresh address/URL. This platform has new features, including the facility to sign-up to receive posts directly into your in-box, as well as the opportunity to feature three posts on the home page. My first set…
READ MOREIn my recent post about Mekdes Haddis’ book, A Just Mission: Laying Down Power and Embracing Mutuality, I promised to add a further post with her wisdom regarding short-term mission. She offers five questions and seven practices… Five Questions On her website she expands on these questions a little bit more. Seven Practices nice chatting…
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In these pages Mekdes Haddis addresses “a broken mission system … (where) we hurt culture” (x). It is her conviction that “by laying down power we will gain the ability to embrace mutuality. It is not easy, yet it’s the necessary work we must do as Western Christians” (109). It is a confronting book. I…
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This is a biography, but not as we’ve known them. While it is about Keller, it is told through the “story of his spiritual and theological influences” (xii). So it felt like being drawn into the footnotes of his life, not just the main text, or even the headlines. It was refreshing. It became this…
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When it comes to global geo-politics across the last hundred years or so, one thing becomes clear. The majority of the peoples of the world, especially Christians, don’t care about the Palestinians. That doesn’t seem to be right. I expect Palestinians to be among the ‘every nation, tribe, people and language’ (Rev 7.9) on that…
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I am at Sydney airport, having just completed nine consecutive days of annual meetings with Langham Partnership. Yikes! However, for the first time in 15 years, I had only to cross a small ocean—NZers and Aussies call it ‘the ditch’—to be at the meetings. I am grateful. And to be in a hotel right on…
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In my travels with Langham, it is not that unusual never to leave the venue for the event for which I have come. On this occasion, in Lima, not only did I go nowhere, the venue itself was barely ten minutes from the airport! So, four nights in beautiful Peru and never moving further than…
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It is that time of the year when we in NZ are reminded of the scars of war. On Saturday we stopped in Tirau, on our way home from meeting our new grand-daughter, Eden. We were waiting for dumplings and bubble tea from a roadside food truck. Barby had popped into a craft fair in…
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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.